According to SiteProNews - 18 things that affect traffic

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   Cardisaposted 11 years ago

   According to Site Pro News, these are 18 things that may be affecting organic traffic since the first Panda update in February last year. Some of these terms I do not understand so it would be helpful if we discuss these issues.
   
   1. Duplicate content
   2. Keyword stuffing
   3. Doorways
   4. Footer links
   5. Auto anchor text
   6. Spammy comments
   7. Low-quality pages
   8. Poor presentation
   9. Content below fold
   10. Technical problems
   11. Poor writing
   12. No content
   13. Splitting link pop
   14. Merry-go-rounds
   15. Unnatural links
   16. Semi-hidden text
   17. Rich snippet abuse
   18. Trustworthiness

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   1. 0

      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well, if content below the fold line means that I can't write longer articles, I guess I better stuff everything into 600 words or less because, obviously 1100 or 1200 word articles are too long. Ironcailly, I get really frustrated when reading short articles on the web because they are so light in content.

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         wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I didn't get that one, either.  Maybe some particular type of content?  Ads or something?  All the text, with nothing but ads above?

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            tommenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Yep, that´s exactly what it means.Bloggers used to place Adsense ads right above the content in order to get clicks.Google decided that the user experience suffers from it and slaps sites that do that now.(Still, you cant earn anything from Adsense these days anyway so... )

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      2. 67

         ThompsonPenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I agree with you Sophia! I was turned down by Blackle for writing too long of an article. They only wanted 300 words! There's no such thing as a well written and informative article in 300 words of under!

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            

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      3. 74

         Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I write a lot of long hubs, but I've been noticing that eHow has short ones that are ranking better than some of mine. Maybe a huge amount of content isn't good????  I still wonder.

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            DrMark1961posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I think your doily pattern hub is perfect and would not be surprised to find that it is one of your best performers. It is short, gets right to the point, provides good links, and that is all! I think that is exactly the type of content most of us are looking for when we do a search.

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               Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks DrMark1961

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      4. 84

         Denmarkguyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I never got the whole "no content below the fold line" thing-- it doesn't even make any sense, when looked at logically.  A "narrow" tableau like a hub will have one-third the number of words found on a page that adjusts content to the full width of a user's screen. For example, if I posted the content from one of my hubs to one of my blogs... people would be able to read 60% more text "above the fold" on my blog.
         
         Personally, I think this speaks-- more than anything-- to the ongoing issue of "popular" vs. "quality." The two are NOT the same... and I think the-powers-that-be are eternally struggling with how to balance them. I loathe most short articles because I rarely learn anything new from them-- most writers using that kind of formulaic writing tend to all hit the SAME three high points before they run out of their "allotment" of 600 words.

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Couldn't agree with you more. Only 5% of the population reads. I mean READS. The rest skim, tittilate and perculate, but read no. That's why they don't like detail and length. Too much like reading.

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            1. 84

               Denmarkguyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Sad but true-- we live in a "money for nothing" society.
               
               It's also one of my issues with twitter... I'd rather have 5,000 READERS than 100,000 ostensible "followers."

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         2. 85

            aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I think the 'content' below the fold is to penalise the sites that fill the top of the page with ads.  Google refers to pages where you have difficulty finding the content there are so many advertisements.  One would hope that they would really only apply this penalty to sites that are really over the top with ads, rather than something like: if you have 20 lines of text above the fold on a 13" laptop than you are better than a site that has 18 lines of text.  I think that would be stupid.   
            
            I agree with you that popular is not the same as high quality.  To be honest I don't think Google is all that bothered about finding "high quality", it wants to find the pages that will satisfy most people, most of the time".

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      djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Why would anyone use these deceptive practices to begin with? Yet millions were penalized for these very things. I guess this just goes to show how intelligent some people are.

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      1. 93

         Jean Bakulaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Izzy,
         I didn't think of some of the good points you brought out. I've done pretty well with this one old tarot deck that people have been "rediscovering" I hope from me! I agree with the economies the way they are and because people always struggle with money more during the holiday season, it needs to be something inexpensive, but catchy. Thanks and take care.

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            IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Do you have a tarot deck for sale in your most popular tarot hub?
            
            If you don't, I suggest you put an Amazon ad in floated right next to your second text capsule, and in that capsule wax lyrical about why people should buy this particular set.
            
            Then the rest of your hub will read as normal but those looking for a set of tarot cards will likely have clicked away through to Amazon already.
            
            Most people do not read hubs, they only read the first few words, then click away if their attention isn't caught.
            
            Give them something to click away to, by having that capsule either just peeking above the fold or at the top of the first scroll down.
            
            People keen on reading the hub will either ignore it, or come back to it.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               +1
               
               This is a good tip for your blog posts too, Jean.

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                  Jean Bakulaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I do have tarot decks for sale on all my tarot hubs. I don't on my blog posts.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     I think what Izzy is trying to say is that it's not enough just to show the ad.  You need to refer to it in the text, close to the ad capsule, explaining why this is a good deck to buy.

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                     1. 93

                        Jean Bakulaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        I moved some things around on the tarot hubs, so the ads are much closer to the top. It's not a usual deck, and every time I have to play with  it, all the images don't line up with the text.  I will wax poetic about the best deck. Thanks.

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                  2. 86

                     IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     I just looked at http://jeanbakula.hubpages.com/hub/Sagi … ortsperson
                     
                     You have a big list of tarot books and stuff down the right-hand side, but I'm guessing everyone ignores them.
                     
                     What I am suggesting is that you take just one item, and promote it.
                     
                     Put it in the second position on your hub, and write words around it. It could be a book, it could be tarot cards, whatever, just something related to the hub.
                     
                     Write text relating to the product.
                     
                     On this hub where I guess the main keywords are Sagittarius Moon Sign People, put a single product that relates to that.
                     
                     Add the words on the top of the capsule "Buy...at Amazon", use the keywords again in the text you are going to write when describing the product, and again at the foot of any photos you add relating to the product.
                     
                     If you mention the product 2/3 times in the hub (and headers cover that), you could find search engine traffic appearing for just those keywords, even though they are slightly different to your main hub keywords.
                     
                     Try it and see.
                     
                     Double-check too that your Amazon affiliate code is correct. Its not the first time someone has found years later that a mistake was made there. You can't collect commission if your code isn't right.

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      djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Most of these 18 issues will not affect hubbers since they are deliberately deceptive actions that hubpages takes no part in.

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   4. 84

      Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Bump - and I agree with Cardisa - there are terms on the list that I don't yet understand (or that I can make assumptions about and then be real wrong).
      
      If any of our great friends here can add simple explanations on these, it would be so great!

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         Sapperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         1. That one is obvious.
         
         2. Keyword stuffing is adding keywords, usually long-tail keywords, just for the sake of ranking for the phrase. For example, if I'm writing a hub about How to change the oil on a 85 Chevy K10, I would have that exact phrase so many times. It gets to a point to where it's borderline unreadable. If you write about a topic, and not a keyword, you shouldn't have to worry about this. It also refers to making text the same color as the background so the spiders pick up on keywords but readers can't see them. Don't do that either, it'll get your site black-listed
         
         3. This one I'm guessing on, but I think it's a fairly accurate guess. What they are talking about is making a page for the sole purpose of linking to other pages. Might be wrong though
         
         4. The footer is the very bottom of a page. On HP, you have no effect over this, and even if you did, this one is BS. There is nothing wrong with links in the footer, in fact, you are supposed to link your more important information in the footer.
         
         5. I don't have the slightest clue what they are talking about with this one. I can't even take a guess.
         
         6. People who buy backlinks, are paying for people to just comment on blogs and articles with a link. They are fairly easy to spot, on one of my blogs I get about 20 a day.
         
         7. Another fairly obvious one. Content with spelling errors, bad English. Another one you shouldn't have to worry about.
         
         8. Bad formatting. Bolding everything, multiple H1 tags, a H3 tag without an H2, stuff like that.
         
         9. Worded poorly. There is nothing wrong with content below the fold. The problem is too many ads above the fold. Another good indication that the writer probably doesn't know what they are talking about.
         
         10. Broken links, missing files, stuff like that. Having too many things like that will destroy your SERP's, this is a pretty important one.
         
         11. Just repeated number 7.
         
         12. Basically repeated number 3.
         
         13. No clue
         
         14. Google likes 1 way links better than 2 way. If you have 3 blogs, and A links to B, B links to C, and C links to A, that's what this is talking about. Not horrible, but Google also doesn't like that.
         
         15. Linking just for the sake of having a link. If I'm writing a hub about Pit Bulls, and have a link to buy an alternator, that's bad.
         
         16. Same as number 2.
         
         17. Basically this is writing something in your Meta description tag other than what the post is about to trick people into clicking on it. Let's say I write an ebook and have a sales page for it. Then in the description I put "Free Call of Duty cheat codes" to get people to open it, in hopes a few will buy the book anyways. A good way to get your site black-listed.
         
         18. Basically the PR of your site, for the most part. Kind of stupid to put on
         this list. It's like anyone is out there saying "I should just make my blog a PR8 so I get more traffic" However, this also includes linking out to bad sites. Be careful what sites you link out to.
         
         Hope that helps clear some of them up.

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            Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            You are my hero!  And I am so glad I'm not the only one who doesn't understand a few of these (#13 was a real puzzle).  Thank you, thank you!

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               Sapperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               You are welcome. With 13 he might be talking about splitting an article across several pages, kinda like a click here to continue thing, but as far as I know it's not bad, just annoying.
               
               I'm guessing for whoever wrote that, English isn't their first language. A fair number of the things are worded incorrectly for what everyone else in IM and Web Design calls them.

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2. 84

   Tealparadiseposted 11 years ago

   I don't know 3 or 4, but 9 could definitely be a huge problem for Hubpages.  I can't tell exactly what they mean by "content below the fold," but if it means "no content above the fold is a bad thing" then it would explain a lot.  I see many articles where people spend a *large* intro paragraph repeating variations of keywords with fluff phrases, zero content.  Oddly, this must discourage a lot of readers who just want information presented rationally.  If google is looking at differences above/below the fold, I could see this hurting such pages.

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      djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This isnt an issue for hubpages. This site has a minimal amount of ads per page, and will not be effected by these rules. When they refer to "Not enough content above the fold" they mean, not enough content on the viewable area of the screen when a user enters the site. Or, that their are too many ads above the fold, again, the viewable are of the screen as you enter the site. The penalty is for "too much content above the fold" not below the fold. I think she misstated that one, but I understand what she is referring too.

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3. 82

   ElizaDooleposted 11 years ago

   Yeah I agree. "Content below fold" could mean that if the whole article is not cohesive it can get penalised. All comes back to good writing!
   I'd like to know what a "doorway" is ... anyone??

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      A hub designed primarily to get the reader to go to another site.

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         Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Oh...a landing page? or something like that....

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4. 88

   TheKatsMeowposted 11 years ago

   Content below the fold means most of the important information is far below the page, meaning you need to scroll down to find it.
   
   I am not sure what some of the other ones mean..

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, KatsMeow. That explains it.

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5. 73

   brakel2posted 11 years ago

   I looked up footer links, and they are links to promote keywords, and also buying these links.  I put links at bottom of hub that are reference links. I guess I should avoid using titles with keywords or use no titles. In my article on the brain, it's hard to come up with other words for brain, but I did substitute "organ" for some of them to avoid keyword stuffing.

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      TheKatsMeowposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      yep anytime you buy links, it's a big no-no.

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      Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I wouldn't worry about using your main keyword in the title. I do and many of my articles still show up on the first page of Google.

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         miscellaneaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         But you won't be showed up in google if you missed just a word of them, and why is that, why wouldn't google base it not only on the title, but also the content

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6. 88

   TheKatsMeowposted 11 years ago

   I looked up auto anchor text: it seems to mean that you can automatically program certain words to link to other articles or to another page. So if I used auto anchor text and every time I wrote the word "ice cream" (for example) it would create a link that would link back to my website home page. Doing this is frowned upon: the links aren't natural and apparently people who use this will create thousands of links all pointing to the same place....

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      Tealparadiseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It also creates an unprofessional look to the page.  Loading a page and seeing that every sentence has those blue-underlined words means the page is likely a spam site...

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7. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   Hub pages does not have a no-content-above-the-fold design.  I am not really sure why people think ti does?  This rule does not mean no-ads-above-the-fold, just that the content needs to be there too.

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8. 78

   LuisEGonzalezposted 11 years ago

   Doorways:  pages that are simple HTML pages that are customized to a few particular keywords or phrases, and they are programmed to be visible only by specific search engines and their spiders. The purpose of these doorway pages is to trick the search engines into giving these sites higher rankings
   
   Auto Anchor Text: Plugin that automatically converts a text/keyword in a post or page into an anchor text.
   
   Content Below the Fold:
   For a website, ‘above the fold’ or ‘above the scroll’ relates to content that a website visitor can view without needing to use a vertical scroll. Users don’t really ‘read’ all the way down a page. Essentially users focus on content above the fold, they then scan down the page, and often pause on content at the very bottom of the page before making their next step
   
   Footer links: The "footer" is the bottom of the page, so "footer links" are the links at the bottom of the page.
   
   I hope this helps..........................

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      Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Luis, that really cleared up a lot for me. Have a great day

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9. 64

   miscellaneaposted 11 years ago

   I really agree with those who talked about stuffy content. Yes that is really noticeable when I write concise articles, I notice that lots of people are interacting with them, but when I write a painstaking, long one, I start to see it as a ghost town

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10. 94

    melbelposted 11 years ago

    Does a photo count as content when it comes to "above-the-fold"? If you have no text above the fold, but have a big picture, would you be penalized?

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       Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I am still trying to figure out this below or above the fold thing....so have no idea...lol

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       aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I have seen this question when Paul E. suggested ppl start their hubs with a big full width image.  Paul E. thought that an original image is considered to be "content", so it depends on whether you trust his SEO knowledge.
       
       Personally I suspect he is right.  I think Google realise now that text is not the only thing ppl search the net for, that good images, movies etc also add to the quality of a page.
       
       Low content or no content above the fold is taken to usually mean excessive advertising.  Google specifically mentioned pages that have so many ads right at the start that you have to scroll down to find whatever it is you came looking for.  People don't like these kinds of pages, so Google is trying to not return them in the SERPs.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Actually, the reason Paul E started recommending a big image was because they'd had user feedback that they liked the big image.  I don't recall him ever mentioning SEO.   And I do recall reading an article about content "above the fold" (maybe on SearchEngineLand?), which pointed out that Google's robots see an image, no matter how big, as nothing more than a line of code - so having nothing but images above the fold would not be a good thing.

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11. 82

    moonlakeposted 11 years ago

    Check out ktrapp above the fold hub I think that helps explain it.
    All hubs look nice and clean when we look at them but if we sign out and look at our hubs there are all kinds of ads at the very top and it doesn't look good. We can't do anything about it.

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       Jean Bakulaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I write long hubs, and was told that online readers are looking for fast information, and won't bother to read them. I have not found that to be true, I have series of hubs that are thousands of words long, and I don't have any idle hubs. I hope I didn't jinx myself! If the subject is interesting, and it really takes that long to explain it properly, it's done when it's done. I think the sites are looking for work where the writer knows their topic better than others who write about it, or explains it in a way people like reading. But it's hard to know for sure. I have gotten lots of views on hubs I don't think are as good. On another site I got an article "Featured" and I thought I wrote a better version of a similar topic here. So I don't know.

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12. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

    Google recently updated their Above the Fold Page Layout algorithm in October.  A site is penalized for too many ads above the fold. If a viewer has to scroll down before seeing any relevant content,  it's not a good user experience.  It doesn't mean all of your content has to be above the fold, but enough to give the user a reason to keep reading.
    
    “If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.”  Google
    
    http://searchenginewatch.com/article/22 … -Algorithm
    
    Sign out and take a look at your pages.

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       brakel2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I have been checking all my hubs. If I have a large photo at top of hub, you can't see much content. Someone mentioned that it is content if you have text on the photo. I would rather reduce the size anyway.

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          Jean Bakulaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I thought we were told never to put a picture on the top right corner, as it's the most important ad spot. And that you can't put anything, pictures or Amazon, until you have at least, I think 50 words, but that's not much? Is that different now? I'm not going to bother with Amazon anymore, nobody buys any of the stuff and it's time consuming to be playing around with Amazon capsules when I could be writing.

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             IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             If you can't get Amazon sales at this time of the year, then you haven't targeted them.
             
             Do a bit of keyword research, find a query relating to a product, or just the product that not many people have written about.
             
             Write a hub around it, focussing on the product/s (make sure Amazon sells them first).
             
             All you want to attract are searchers who are looking for that product or that information on that product, and there is a fair chance they will click through to Amazon through your link.
             
             Bingo! Once they are in Amazon through your referral link, anything at all they buy in the next 24 hours from Amazon is credited to you.
             
             I wrote a hub a few weeks ago answering a specific query (you can find queries by typing one or two words in Google and reading the autofill suggestions) relating to Black Friday.
             
             Traffic died today, but yesterday it got 600 hits, and it has been in 3 figures daily this month. It'll be idled in the next few weeks, but I reckon it brought me in almost $100 worth of fees from the Amazon sales and about $10 from HPads on top of that (and it got a big click from Adsense, surprisingly).
             
             Not bad for half an hour's work!
             
             I see you have some sales hub for top of the range products.
             
             Aim lower down and write for the masses. Cheap products are probably 10 times more popular than expensive ones and if they have a low earnings potential, so much the better as the market will not be saturated by every wannabe marketer from the world over.
             
             You just need one well-targeted hub, and trust me at this time of year expect daily sales, even if you don't get much traffic on it. Just get some searchers to click through to Amazon and get those sales because at this time of the year people are buying for Christmas.
             
             Keep an eye on billboards, TV adverts, newspaper ads and see what is looking to be incredibly popular this Christmas, find a  searchable angle on it, and get writing!
             
             
             I suppose the current Review competition is designed to increase sales across HP.

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                brakel2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                Hi Izzy  Thanks for sharing that info about Amazon and a product hub. I may write one and see how it works out.

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13. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

    That was suggested years ago, but I don't think it applies any longer.   It's better to move a video or image into that slot.  Ads will show up underneath.  When you're signed out and look at your pages as they are, what is most prominent?  You don't want it to be ads.

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       brakel2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I believe Staff suggested a large photo at beginning of hub. Now I realize that very little content shows. If I put the photo at right, then Google ads are below, and much of my content is visible above the fold. I , for one, really need to be aware of how things keep changing, When you sign out, you can really see what's happening.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I could never understand why staff recommended a big photo right across the top of the Hub.  On most browsers, that photo is all the reader can see when they open the Hub.  How is your first paragraph going to grab the reader's interest, if they can't even see it?  And what does Google think if there's absolutely no text above the fold?  A photo doesn't count for much in terms of content.  It always sounded like a dubious idea to me.

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    LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

    The concept about above or below the fold is something like a newspaper, or scrolling a page. There are those who believe that the good content should be where the eye will see it immediately, and most readers won't scroll a page. The scrolling is below the fold.  This mainly refers to ad placement.
    http://searchengineland.com/too-many-ad … lgo-108613     
    
    The Google Webmaster site answers a lot of these questions

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15. 84

    Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

    I'm not sure if this was mentioned here, but would a 'merry-go-round' be something like the new 'carousel' on our profile pages that rotates several featured hubs?

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       Sapperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       No, that isn't what they are talking about. Let's say I have 3 blogs. BlogA links to BlogB, BlogB links to BlogC, and BlogC links to BlogA. That's what they mean. It's usually called a link wheel. Google has been penalizing that for a while.
       
       I wouldn't put too much trust into that site. nothing on there is new. It could have been written 4 years ago and had all the same information.
       
       As far as the people saying to put a picture/video to push the ads below the fold, that does nothing. Sure, it pushes the ads below the fold, but it also pushes your content below the fold. A picture isn't content, as far as the spiders are concerned, it is nothing more than a couple keywords. Right click on a page and click view page source. That is all the bots see, no actual pictures.

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          Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks, Sapper - that makes perfect sense.  Regarding ads above the fold, I've noticed when someone accesses my hub from another computer (not mine), there have been huge banner ads across the top. I don't see them on my own computer, though.  I've just noticed it recently, and haven't tested it out, but it does concern me.

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             Sapperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             That does cause problems. I'm waiting for an update to the theme I'm using on all my blogs, but once that comes out I'm only going to have one AdSense banner ad at the top. All of my other ads will be on the side below my content. Right now the theme uses the banner, an 300X250 above and I think a banner below, way too many ads for me. But then again, I'm not a huge fan of AdSense ads to begin with.

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    LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

    I just wrote an article about the terms used, but it is not posted on HP.

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17. 89

    JayeWisdomposted 11 years ago

    Well, I griped about the drastic drop in my traffic this past September, and I've continued to complain about its sustained decrease, so it's only fair that I report an increase.  Today, of all days, a Sunday on a holiday weekend, my best hub is climbing well past that dreary 50% drop in traffic, and many of my other hubs are prospering with more views as well.  Hooray!  (Said/written with my fingers crossed....)

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       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Great news, Jaye!  Mine has climbed the past few days, too - I'm holding my breath, crossing fingers, lighting candles, etc., too.   Let's hope the corrective actions in Seotember have finally kicked in here.

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18. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

    Placing images or video above the fold can make a big difference in providing a satisfying user experience by helping to keep them on the page.  Give them something to engage in besides a block of text and ads.  Properly optimizing your images helps search engines know the content of the image.  It's important to use titles and descriptive, relevant captions for images.  An appropriate image can keep the viewer interested enough to read the article or find out more about the product, if you're doing a product review.  Our primary goal should be providing the user with a satisfying search result and obviously that starts with their immediate landing on the page.  What do they see first?

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       djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I agree with rebekah, people are enticed to stay on a site because of things like cool graphics and other multimedia. It gets a users attention.

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          Sapperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          It does, but not really relevant to the thread. Getting traffic and keeping a low bounce rate are 2 related, but different things. Stuff like that will do nothing for your rankings, at least in the sense they are talking about here, which is pushing ads below the fold. It does help, but not in that way.

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             djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Actually, I just watched a video today by Matt Cutts on youtube in which he states that adding images and video is a big plus for any website. He would know, after all he is Google's lead engineer.

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                Sapperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                Yes, but as I said, not for the purpose of pushing down ads.

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       janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       @rebekahELLE  I disagree, when I open an article I want to read text - A huge image at the top is a distraction IMO.

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          djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          For a hub or article on the web to have excessive images? I agree with that. But for a page with smaller posts, images actually attract users, not drive them away. And Google values them too. Better results in Google is good. When you are writing an important article it may be bad because it could draw attention away from the article at hand. True.

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             janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

             I also think that the ad to the right of the text block at the top of the article is by far the most important in terms of earnings. IMO it is best to have an introductory paragraph of about 120 words with the ad to the right of it, followed by the big image => best of both worlds - part of the image is still above the fold which acts a teaser for people to want to see the rest of it.

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                djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                The bad part about hubpages is the huge amount of unused space left on every single page. A gigantic white background with nothing on it. The entire left and right side of every page here is black space.

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    Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

    Here's my understanding:
    
    1. Duplicate content - similar posts repeated within the site (spam sites sometimes do this, filling their site with several versions of the same spun article)
    2. Keyword stuffing - most people know what this is.  Check with a density checker and make sure you're not going over about 4%.  Once you've checked a few, you'll get a sense of what's OK and what's not.
    3. Doorways - also called "landing pages" or "squeeze pages" - sites that exist purely to direct you somewhere else
    4. Footer links - you'll see some sites with their keyword and all its variations, listed as links in the footer.  Not a good idea. 
    5. Auto anchor text - systems like Kontera which automatically turn keywords in your text into links.
    6. Spammy comments - you shouldn't be leaving spam comments on other blogs with a link to your post, and you shouldn't be accepting spammy comments either.
    7. Low-quality pages - Google explained this clearly after the first Panda update.  If you have even a few "low quality" posts on your site, your Panda score will be lowered.  Among other things, low quality means short (less than 250 words).  This is why HubPages introduced sub-domains!
    8. Poor presentation - formatting with excessive use of H tags, poor navigation
    9. Content below fold - I agree with Sapper, the wording of this point makes me wonder about the person who wrote it!   There's never any problem with content below the fold.  The problem is lack of content, or too many ads, above the fold.
    10. Technical problems - broken links, coding errors etc
    11. Poor writing - grammar, spelling mistakes etc
    12. No content - obvious
    13. Splitting link pop - not sure about the "pop", but splitting links refers to having two different versions of the same web page - one with a "www" and one without.  This used to be seen as a problem but lately, I've seen several people say it's not.
    14. Merry-go-rounds - also known as Link Wheels, where you link from site A to site B to site C and back again
    15. Unnatural links - Google looks for signs that you've paid for links, and regards those as "unnatural".  another obvious "unnatural" link is when you're linking to or from other sites that aren't on the same subject.
    16. Semi-hidden text - text that's hidden from real readers but visible to search engines.  It's a way of keyword stuffing without putting your real readers off, and Google hates it.
    17. Rich snippet abuse - identifying your content as one thing using rich snippets, when it's really something else.
    18. Trustworthiness - Google doesn't really explain how it judges this, but it's thought that Google "trusts" sites more if they have a lot of content on one topic (because that suggests a depth of knowledge) rather than writing on various unconnected subjects.

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    HoneyBBposted 11 years ago

    I think my longer hubs do better, for example, my Poverty hub is my longest hub and it also has more than double and nearly triple of views to my other hubs. It also has 5 stars for the amount of time people spend viewing it which is good as it says that 3 stars are average and the more you get the better because those are the ones whose ads will have a longer time to be looked at. Of course, it's important that the paragraphs flow nicely so that a reader won't stop reading. I have another one that is fairly long but not doing quite as well it has half the number of views as my Poverty hub but only 3 stars. I think it's a little choppy in areas and therefore people lose interest. I have to update that one and see if it gets more stars.

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