Same hub title

1. 93

   Glimmer Twin Fanposted 10 years ago

   Are we permitted to have the same hub title as another hub even though the urls are different?

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   1. 80

      kenneth averyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm guessing here, but no. I think that HubPages wants individualism in hubs.

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      1. 93

         Glimmer Twin Fanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for answering Kenneth - That is what I'm guessing too.  I can't find any "rules" on it, and have tried looking in the Learning Center.  Bummer because it's a recipe and when I set it up I forgot to add "recipe" at the end and did not check to see if anyone else used it.

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         1. 68

            WalterPoonposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Glimmer, actually there's no need to guess. If you type a name that has been used before, you will get an "error message" from HubPages, telling you that the name has been used. I experienced it once before.

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         2. 80

            kenneth averyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            GlimmerTwin,
            If you are in doubt, send your question to:
            Teamhubpages.com
            They can help. I know because they know me on a first-name basis.
            I hope I hear from you again.

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   2. 89

      Georgie Loweryposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It is possible, but you can't have the same URL. You will also get a warning that you have a duplicate title. I had one and left it the way it was for a while to see what it would do. In my opinion, it definitely hurts both Hubs in the search rankings.

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2. 88

   mistyhorizon2003posted 10 years ago

   Yes you can. Usually if you choose a title from scratch that happens to be identical to another hub you get a message telling you that your title has already been used, but that you are still free to use it if you wish to. Assuming that you change your title after publication to one that has already been used it is still allowed, however, I do think that it is a good idea to try and adapt your title so it is unique, e.g. add in words like 'The Best' etc so a title which might have been 'Meat Ball Recipe' becomes 'The Best Meat Ball Recipe' etc.

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3. 88

   mistyhorizon2003posted 10 years ago

   Just to clarify, your URL will obviously be different even if the actual title is the same from the start, and this is because each url has your sub domain (hubber name) as a part of it which will obviously be unique to you.

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   1. 96

      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I would have agreed with you a few months ago.  Now...
      
      With google leaving your name out of a great many search results, and using that as a URL getting you to the hub, I'm not so sure.  Effectively, two different hubbers will have the same URL.  Technically no, but in practice, yes.

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      1. 88

         mistyhorizon2003posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         To be honest I really don't believe the URL matters that much, because most people look for the subject, not the URL (this is why it isn't considered a problem to have hyphens between titles that make up actual website urls, e.g. grow-vegetables-at-home). If I was looking for a recipe for say 'cream of vegetable soup', I would search for that, and when I found a series of titles that said things like 'delicious cream of vegetable soup' or 'best cream of vegetable soup' I would simply work my way through them until I found one I liked the sound of (even if more than one shared the same title 'delicious cream of vegetable soup' or 'best cream of vegetable soup'). I certainly wouldn't be checking out the urls to see what the exact wording of them was. Google should be putting the most visited/most popular recipes on the first few pages of their results, so even if two have the same title (but a different url) I would expect them to be listed based on their popularity, backlinks to them etc etc. I would look at both recipes and also work out which one I had the ingredients for and which was the easiest to make. I should add that my main personal website has hyphens in the URL and does very well, even though the exact same website name exists without hyphens in the url.

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4. 93

   Glimmer Twin Fanposted 10 years ago

   Thanks to everyone for your input.
   
   The url is fine and I'm not trying to change it.  It was one that had not been used before so I used it.  However, going in to write the hub I realized I left off the word recipe and when I added it to the title it gave me a message saying that the title had been used.
   
   It did not say that I couldn't use the title, just a message, so I was just curious about HubPages policy on this or if would even let me publish the hub if I added the word "recipe". 
   
   Thanks again.

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5. 80

   peachpurpleposted 10 years ago

   I have tried using the same title but different content, doesn't work. Message came out that the hub title had been taken. Just add one word into it and it's yours. Hope this will help you.

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      kenneth averyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Peach purple . . .thank you. It helps me. I'm sending you a message shortly. Peace.

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   2. 88

      mistyhorizon2003posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Well unless something has changed in the rules, it is normal to get the message that the title has already been used, but this does not stop you from also using it as the URL will include your hubber name/sub domain, which makes it still a unique url. I don't recommend using it anyway though, but it is not against the rules to, and it is not impossible to do, HP just let you know that your title has already been used so that you can make that decision.

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6. 80

   LeanManposted 10 years ago

   You can use the same title as someone else and you will be warned that you have..
   
   However go and do a few searches on keywords on some popular hubpage subjects and see if you get several pages all from Hubpages on the first page of the search results or even in the first ten pages! What you may see is the oldest, or the most popular, most relevant or however Google decides to present you with the info but you will not get several results from the same site..
   Generally you will at the most see two results only from one site in any search querry - go try it!
   
   So before you use the same title it is worth looking at the hub in question to see how old it is, how well written it is, what keywords it is likely getting traffic for. If it is established and well written you probably have little chance of replacing it!
   
   In my mind it would be harder to outrank an established well written page on the same site for a specific keyword or set of keywords  than it would be to beat a page from another site.. So look carefully before you decide to use the same title..

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