Hub with lots of views marked as "Idle"

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   Amy Gillieposted 11 years ago

   One of my best performing hubs is marked as idle. It has had 31 views just this week - better than many of my other hubs that are not idle. I believe this is a mistake.
   
   Here is the hub:  <link snipped>

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      denisemaiposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Really? How could that be? I'm going to keep an eye on your post to see if any great answers crop up. My hubs that have gone zzzz are those with no traffic and, honestly, not my best work. Some I update and some go into the virtual trash bin where they belong.

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         Amy Gillieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Denisemai - I have no idea! All of my other idle hubs deserved to be idle, and they came out of idle status when I made changes to them. But I'm hesitant to make changes to this one because it gets so many hits. 31 hits in 7 days is pretty good for me...and I got a new comment on it just yesterday. Weird!

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            WriteAngledposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            No major changes required. Just exchange a word or two for a synonym, or swap a couple of clauses around and you'll reactivate the hub.

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   carol7777posted 11 years ago

   Same thing happened to me.  An active hub got the old zzzz routine.  I made a few changes..like the title etc.  So will let you know after they review what happens.

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   WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

   Someone, who has been looking closely at idling patterns, mentioned in some forum thread, that he thinks the overall topic of the hub also comes into the idling algorithm. Sorry, cannot remember who, when or which thread.
   
   So if you write about topics Hubpages doesn't want to see, but which do not set off any of the actual unpublish triggers, these hubs may well be subject to more stringent criteria than hubs about desirable topics such as recipes and how-to articles.

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      summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Good point. I think there is a topic saturation factored into the idle hub algorithm  I think I read something or another along those lines too. It would be way too hard for me to find it now with the new forum change.

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   denisemaiposted 11 years ago

   Amy--Maybe you could change the title. Are you getting any Google hits on it? I don't think people Google things that say how not to do something. Usually it's the opposite. But if you're happy with your results than just make minor changes and you'll be good to go.

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   Horatio Plotposted 11 years ago

   Amy, does that Hub get much traffic from outside HubPages? I point people towards it via these forums on a fairly regular basis. Perhaps the issue is to do with traffic from beyond these walls. If that is the case then we are learning more and more about that Zzz algo.
   It doesn't seem fair that it is idled as it is one of the most useful Hubs here.

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      Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree - this has information I wish I'd known when I first signed up (I mistakenly thought signing up was routine, and didn't have any content loaded yet).  Also, it's definitely a topic that would be searched on Google.

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      Amy Gillieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You are correct - most, if not all, of this hub's hits come from inside HP. Horatio, thank you for pointing people my way. I wrote this long before I understood SEO - and it was honestly written for hubbers as it has to do with AdSense and HP. So, I don't expect much out side of the site. But if that is the case, I may try to make it a little more search-friendly. Thanks!

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         wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         If it is written for hubbers, what does it matter if it goes idle?
         
         Hubbers will still see it, and the searches inside HP will still show up (I think!).  No one outside HP is interested, and google traffic will remain very low, with those that DO come quickly backing out (and hurting your standing with G) because it is not what they really want.
         
         It seems to me that the reaction of so many to immediately change a word or two, "awakening" a sleeping hub is the wrong reaction.  It isn't getting SE traffic anyway; why show it to Google at all?  It can't help and might hurt to do so.
         
         If you wish to get rid of the ZZZ's, then, it seems best to do a major re-write, not just add a word or to to game the HP algorithm.

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            janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            It begs the question - Why was it made idle when  it had traffic? If you don't know why - how do you know what to fix? HP has admitted that there is a 'quality' component - but won't provide details. Why waste your time stabbing about with a major rewrite when a few quick edits, a title change, adding a big image, will do the trick for now. Its ALL a game with NO RULES so no need to feel guilty. The Kiss from a passing Prince does wonders.

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               wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               You're missing the point, although that point is a little off track from the OP.  That hub had traffic, yes, and I'm surprised it went idle, but the traffic was all internal.  Not SE traffic.
               
               If you don't want SE traffic, why fix it at all; it will get the same internal traffic while asleep as it does awake and do it without annoying google (if that has truth in it; the jury is still out there, I think).
               
               A few quick edits won't fix the SE traffic, so why do them?  You might get a quick surge from google because it's "new" but it will quickly die off again, right back to where it was. 
               
               It's a game alright, trying to satisfy G OR HP.  I just question why we should be gaming HP's algorithm when the real problem is google.  Yeah, you can wake a sleeping hub up, but for what purpose?  You've gamed the HP system, but haven't gotten anything for it except (possibly) a downtick from google.

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   Glenn Stokposted 11 years ago

   For what it's worth -- I have noticed that the only hubs of mine that go idle are those that are not getting search engine traffic. They get traffic alright, but only from within HP. We don't make money from that traffic, so why bother to force it out of idle by making minor changes.
   
   I agree 100% with what Wilderness said in his prior post. Pay attention that what he said. I think you may only hurt yourself by forcing idle hubs back to life for Google to only determine in a short time that no one is responding to the search results. Then Google removes it from their index again. And in the process they may very well lower ranking on your other hubs.
   
   Please understand that I am in no way saying that this implies your idle hubs are bad or poor quality. It simply means that the subject matter is not attracting organic traffic, for whatever reason.
   
   I have, for a long time, deleted hubs that do not generate organic traffic. They mainly are my hubs that I wrote for HP purposes only, such as HubPages support topics. They do not bring any clicks so therefore no money. So I am not concerned about indexing in Google.
   
   I am actually glad that HP began the idle process because now I can just leave these as they are - idle. And they no longer pull down my other hub's ranking with Google.

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