Unfeatured for lack of engagement but hits are fine

1. 69

   BritFloridaposted 9 years ago

   Hi there,
   
   On Monday I had 75 hubs unfeatured. I edited them and promoted them so they're fine now.
   
   But the problem is that, although some had low traffic, others had plenty. Marisa in another forum suggested that maybe the redirects aren't counted towards the engagement tally? This makes sense as many of my hits come from Pinterest.
   
   Please see the screenshot - thanks.
   
   
   

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   1. 68

      Dressage Husbandposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I find that interesting as there is certainly engagement, or are they applying a comparative to the Hub against its previous performance? I have many with less traffic that are featured. The other question I have is how come a Hub that was QAP'd and featured suddenly be un-featured on the grounds of Quality? This has happened to a few of mine.
      
      I have edited and got most of them featured again, but a couple are causing me issues. I think even though you are allowed one Amazon module per 50 words, they really do not want that many. So why not change it to every 100 or even 200 words. I could then understand the issue, but why pass it a week ago then suddenly decide it is not up to par.
      
      I actually feel there is an element of discrimination against former Squids and I think maybe some of the Hubbers are reporting Hubs that were lenses even though others have no issues with them. It is the only way that the inconsistency makes any sense. Although I have seen long term Hubbers complain that the system is unpredictable so maybe it is just that element of it? I hope that it all it is.

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   2. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Engagement is part of the QAP.
      http://hubpages.com/faq/#quality-assessment
      
      Hubs are given a period of time to acquire readers and if they do not, then thy can be de-featured due to lack of engagement.
      
      If you would like these Hubs to be given another opportunity to find readers, you can edit your Hub and the time period will start over.

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      1. 90

         Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         So some types of views don't count toward engagement even if you get hundreds on a hub in a single day?

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      2. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         But Matthew, did you look at the screenshot?   I can't quite see it but the OP is claiming this particular Hub was getting significant traffic when it was unFeatured.  Is he wrong?

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   3. 90

      MelRootsNWritesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I have some that have no traffic that are still featured, so it makes no sense that one that is seeing 400+ in traffic a day is considered non-engagement.

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   4. 90

      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Why not file a bug report?
      
      As to why people are responding as if they think you aren't getting views despite your slice of screen capture, the slice is too tiny.  I had to blow it up quite a bit to read the numbers.

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   5. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I suggested you post this in the Technical Problems forum, which is monitored by staff. 
      
      You've posted it in the community forums which staff don't visit regularly.   
      
      I think there's good justification for posting in the (right!) forum rather than simply filing a bug report, because it gives other people a chance to say, "hey I have that problem too!".   However you might like to submit a report to ask staff to move this thread to the right place.

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   6. 81

      peachpurpleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      i have this problem too, 5 unfeatured hubs but the traffic is moving

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   7. 70

      Tim Baderposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      @britflorida I had a similar problem and after a long discussion with the Hub team, I got some clearer answers on this.
      
      One possibility that may or may not be applicable to you, is that one of my hubs that had been receiving traffic, had only got social visits (Facebook, etc), but no search engine hits.
      
      Apparently, they need to have a mixture of traffic sources in order to count as full engagement.
      
      Also, the grace period for engagement/traffic is separate to the grace period for ex-Squids.
      Hope that makes sense.

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   8. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The engagement component of the QAP requires some search traffic, so if a Hub receives only direct traffic or traffic via social media, then it can still be de-featured for lack of engagement.
      
      If this occurs to your Hub, you can edit them and resubmit it to the QAP and the time period to find engagement will start over and you will have another chance to find readers.

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Matt, I think the question is - is the redirect traffic from Squidoo to HubPages being counted as views?   
         
         Obviously, for most former lenses that will be the bulk of their traffic - and it is genuine traffic.  if it's not counted then surely that's not reasonable, as none of those Hubs have had time to attract new traffic here yet?

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         1. 71

            Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, search traffic that is redirected through Squidoo does count.
            
            On a related note, we do currently have a known issue with statistics.
            http://hubpages.com/forum/post/2678937

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   9. 65

      lisavanvorstposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      About 2/3 of my hubs are now unfeatured. I have been having problems with my computer at home and haven't been able to fix them. I usually just go on hubpages at work when on breaks and lunch. I love to write and between computer problems and been so busy at work and home it bothers me that I haven't been able to write which is my passion.

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2. 69

   BritFloridaposted 9 years ago

   Matthew,please see the screenshot I posted. On the day the hub was unfeatured it had received over 400 hits.Is that 'lack of engagement'?
   
   It always gets that number of hits (or more) so where is the lack of engagement?

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3. 79

   LeanManposted 9 years ago

   The purpose of unfeaturing a hub is to remove those pages that Google does not think are worthy of traffic...
   
   Google Panda will rate a site based on its weakest content; so if your site has many pages which are seen as substandard by Google then even the best pages will see traffic reduced because of them. So to avoid Panda penalties you have to hide the weakest pages - so they have to be No-Indexed.
   
   The easiest way to decide if a page is OK in the eyes of Google is to see if Google sends traffic - If Google does not send traffic after a period of time then that page should be Un-featured / De-Indexed to prevent it from dragging down all of your other pages.
   
   Having pages visible to Google if Google does not like them will just drag down your other pages!
   
   The downside of the way this system works is that "Quality" pages that receive no traffic just because there is nobody searching for them also get unfeatured - but then if nobody is searching for them you don't lose any traffic!
   
   
   SO you have a few choices -
   
   make a minor little edit and get the hub refeatured for a few weeks and risk it dragging down the views on ALL of your other hubs if Google really does not like it.
   
   Drive traffic to it through Social routes such as Pinterest if no one is searching for it on Google.
   
   Find out why Google does not send it traffic - Number of searchers for keywords, competition, quality of page, viewer interaction, etc. and fix it properly so that Google sends traffic.
   
   Move your page to another site - this only works if the reason for not getting traffic is because Google is featuring another hub from HP as it will not show multiple hubs from here for the same search.
   
   
   De-Indexing is there to protect the rest of your content.... You are not being penalized you are being protected!

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   1. 90

      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If her hubs were un-featured for quality, they'd have had the "not featured - quality" symbol rather than the symbol for lack of engagement.

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4. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Tim: Most of my traffic does not come from search engines.

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5. 0

   Lorelei Cohenposted 9 years ago

   I think I have perhaps figured out this tangled puzzle. Perhaps they are trying to weed out purchased traffic (which Google would obviously be able to figure out and block from its site)? So any sites that transferred over or that were attempting to participate in this behavior would obviously not receive Google traffic as they would be joined with the disreputable behavior. That would make sense. Problem is that there would also be tons of seasonal articles and other niche topics that get punished in the process. Sad.

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6. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   So it sounds like the original question as to whether redirect traffic for squiddoo hubs is not counted is largely if not completely: yes.  Because even if they got to squidoo via search, the redirect will not be counted as search.

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7. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   Does it count specifically as browser originating traffic for the purposes of being featured?  because it really is baffling how hubs with that kind of traffic could be unfeatured for traffic, which seems to require only one or two hits a month?

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