Improving Search Results - A 'Critical Mass' of hubs

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   Paul Maplesdenposted 9 years ago

   I've recently read some discussions about getting search traffic for hubs. Something that new authors might not know is that something Google considers is the number of hubs that you have published on your subdomain when ranking you for search, in particular:
   
   - The overall number of hubs on your subdomain (more is better)
   - The subject matter of your hubs (More hubs on a particular subject matter means that you are more likely to rank for searches related to that subject)
   - How hubs on a similar subject are linked together (the more relevant links to similar hubs, the better)
   - How likely visitors are to stay on your subdomain and continue reading your hubs (The lower the 'bounce rate' and the higher the 'time on page' the better)
   
   This means that you should aim for:
   
   - A decent number of hubs on your subdomain (this is a subjective number and very much varies from niche to niche, but a good figure to work towards is at least 50 hubs)
   - A decent number of inter-related hubs on a similar subject; pick a niche that you are interested in and stick to it - This will build up your authority
   - A clear and easy-to-understand linking structure between your hubs; don't rely on HP to do it for you - Setup links in your hubs to other relevant hubs that you have created. This will indicate to Google that there are more resources on your subdomain; I find that the text boxes that you align to the right work well for this, especially if you use a different background color
   - Put your related hubs together into 'Groups': http://hubpages.com/my/hubs/groups
   
   This will all help to increase your rankings. Some other points to note:
   
   - Creating great content is still the most important thing that you can do; quantity is important, but not nearly as important as quality - This means creating decent length, well-written, easily understandable hubs with lots of images, links to other authoritative sources (not necessarily on HP)
   - Try to create content that 'Informs, educates, entertains or inspires'
   - Don't link to other hubs that aren't relevant to your central content
   - Search rankings take time to earn; typically two to three months
   
   You'll also want to setup Google Analytics - http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/sett … -analytics and webmaster tools - http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/How- … ster-Tools - These will both give you lots of insight into how your visotrs are finding and reading your content.
   
   Finally, if you want some general hints and tips on creating content, ranking in search and getting traffic, please take a quick look at my profile as they are subjects that I write about frequently.
   
   Thanks for listening.

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      janderson99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Paul M - Excellent summary. Good points! I agree!

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         paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I am fond of Paul M., but got to believe Paul E.

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            Paul Maplesdenposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Heh, there's no reason not to believe both of us; it's still good to have lots of hubs, so long as they are high quality and engaging.

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               paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               +1

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      Jill Mooreposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you. As a new Hubber, I'm still finding my feet with it all. I found this a really helpful and succinct post.

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      Rangoon Houseposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you so much Paul Maplesden. This is the second forum post of yours that I have read today and I certainly appreciate your advice, experience, wisdom and generosity in sharing.

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         Paul Maplesdenposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         You're very welcome. One of the great things about HP is the community, and I have certainly been helped by the veterans here, so if I can help in some way, that's great.

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2. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 9 years ago

   Yesterday we did a little QnA with our seo advisor and the number one thing is how satisfying/engaging the content is. I'd recommend fewer pieces of content that are the best they can possibly be.

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      Paul Maplesdenposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Paul, do you have any info on how Google measures 'Engagement' outside bounce rate, time on site and social media signals?

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3. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 9 years ago

   I'd only be speculating, but we see lots of subdomains with one hub in the account that gets a ton of traffic. 
   
   They tend to be either really good, or have very engaging comments. My takeaway is google has decided they are satisfying.
   
   I've never been a big fan of bounce rate as an important seo metric, but we see time on page as highly correlated with user satisfaction.

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Wow, one hub but tons of traffic; that's amazing but I kind of suspected that it all depends on the quality of the articles and not the number of articles.
      
      Totally agree about bounce rate and time on page.

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   janderson99posted 9 years ago

   This Google patent is useful for understanding how Google aims to predict user satisfaction:
   http://www.google.com.au/patents/US7937340
   
   Some of the measures described include:
   => document has been completely loaded and initialized
   => scrolling has been undertaken
   => document is printed
   => added to the favorites list
   => window gains focus;  window loses focus; window is closed
   => user selects, cuts, or pastes parts of the displayed page.

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      paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The dates... Whole new ballgame.

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   Dressage Husbandposted 9 years ago

   It is obvious that both Paul's are correct! If one great Hub gets tons of traffic 50 great Hubs will dominate it is simple maths.
   
   What counts is quality authoritative and original content. The way Google decides what this is, may/will! change with time.

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   ologsinquitoposted 9 years ago

   Does anyone know how often we have to publish, so Google doesn't start totally ignoring us? Is it publish or perish, or will updating our articles suffice? Thanks in advance for your help.

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      Paul Maplesdenposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      As Paul Edmondson pointed out before, quality is (more) important than quantity, so the key to publishing is to make sure that you've got something of high quality (engaging, unique, interesting) to publish. If you can add to existing hubs, that's a signal to Google that there may be new information that is worth crawling and sharing.
      
      So publishing new hubs and updating old ones can both help.

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