How to change the web address of a Hub Article

1. 75

   Jake Peraltaposted 9 years ago

   I just published a new article called "Interesting Guns in Gaming". Unfortunately, the web address for this article used the original name of the article "Top Three Guns in Gaming". Do I have to do something before publishing?

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   1. 93

      SmartAndFunposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      From what I understand, it can actually be beneficial to have a different title and URL, as you can target different keywords in the URL and the title to cover more ground and get more search engine traffic. This probably doesn't address Marcy's concern, but it might be helpful to Jake Peralta.
      
      I am no expert; please someone correct me if I am wrong.

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2. 94

   FatFreddysCatposted 9 years ago

   Once you hit "publish" the title is "locked in" to the URL. You can't change it.
   
   I wouldn't worry about it. I have changed the titles on tons of Hubs and the URL's still carry the old title, it hasn't seemed to hurt them any. Supposedly the Google crawlers, etc.scan the actual article anyway, not the URL.

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3. 75

   Jake Peraltaposted 9 years ago

   Thanks for the reply.

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4. 62

   tlcsposted 9 years ago

   Hi Jake, yes FatFreddysCat is quite right, once you hit publish the title does become locked in and it seems to stay there. Not sure about google though, I think the title is the most valued part of your hub, good heading then lot's of traffic.

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5. 83

   Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years ago

   If staff members are reading this - I'd like to know if there's a way to actually change the url in certain cases.  Specifically, the "Exclusives" titles (the urls) from a few years ago have many issues. 
   
   We were finally able to edit the titles, but it might be good to be able to adjust the urls.  We were told these titles were keyword vetted, had a lot of potential and were topics not covered on the site. We did realize, as a bit of time went by, that there were problems in all of those things, but several of us who were invited early on to use those titles still have an inventory of hubs that have these issues.

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   1. 91

      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Marcy, there is no way to change the URL once the Hub is published (other than starting a new Hub and copy/pasting). The reason we don't allow the URL to be changed is that the Hub will lose all its ranking, backlinks, etc, and essentially be starting over with search engines once the URL is changed. Unless the URL is about something completely different from your Hub's contents, it is unlikely to hurt you, even if it is worded differently than your Hub's current title.

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      1. 83

         Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for reading and responding, Christie - I know you weren't on the site when those titles (with urls) were created, so I appreciate your research the question.
         
         If the site has a list of those titles, it might be good to review the ones published and perhaps offer input about whether it would be useful to go ahead and create new hubs.  Some of the urls are really flawed, and I am not sure how much they 'help' in many cases.  You can see the traffic issues pretty easily (which raises the question as to whether it might be better to start over again).  The content in mine is consistent with the original title - but several are the worst-performing of the hubs my account.
         
         Again - I really appreciate the answer here!

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         1. 91

            Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            All of the hubs I wrote with exclusive titles were also duds. Some of them were clearly duds - like games that had been replaced by new versions, etc., but I gave it a shot with the newer versions of the games, and other ones I didn't know were duds.   I've given up on them. It was a lot of effort wasted, but I'd rather cut my losses and not waste any more time on them.

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            1. 83

               Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               This is what I've heard from others as well, MT - that's why I was hoping HP would be interested in seeing what could be done.  I imagine they paid someone to create the titles, and since we all spent considerable time producing them (I think I wrote about 20-25), it would be nice if the investment of time and resources on both sides could be salvaged.
               
               If that can't be done, I am ready to just unpublish several of mine.

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      2. 67

         MJ Martinposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I have found this to be true when I try to share a link that I have changed the title to.  If I try to change the URL it doesn't want to recognize it or publish it.

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6. 83

   Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years ago

   I agree, Smart and Fun - there are many times when it's beneficial to have variations.
   
   You're right - this doesn't address the issue I mentioned - some of the urls are flawed to begin with.
   
   Question (maybe Writer Fox or someone will spot this) - what are the downsides to changing urls? Or the upsides?

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7. 91

   Ramkitten2000posted 9 years ago

   I remember reading something once by a guy who did an experiment, using a totally nonsense URL (not even a real word), but he wrote on a pretty hot topic with a good title. He ended up getting a LOT of search engine traffic.
   
   I think URLs used to be much more important as far as SEO, but not so much (if at all) now.

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   1. 83

      Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think there are multiple problems with these hubs - the titles are unwieldy at times, and the topics are far less useful than we were led to believe.  It's really a sad situation.

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      1. 91

         Ramkitten2000posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Ah, OK. I'm not familiar with the program you're referring to, since I wasn't around here then. I'm one of those Squidoo transplants.

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