Traffic Drop Since Hub Editor "Fix"

1. 94

   greenmindposted 8 years ago

   A nice and competent Hubpages editor did some work on my top two hubs a couple of weeks ago. He did a nice job of improving appearance and readability. He also replied promptly to a few questions I had -- overall a good experience.
   Now, however, both hubs are getting about 20% less traffic than before the edits! Anyone else have this experience? Does it come back? Seems like the whole point was to improve traffic, PageRank, etc.

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   1. 66

      Pearldiverposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      What a nice compliment paid based on a factual experience (1st paragraph)
      Totally Undermined...
      By unqualified supposition and guesswork (2nd paragraph)

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   2. 91

      Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      What professional editors like and what web readers like may not be a perfect match. I have a hub that was picked up by a print publisher and now is part of a social studies textbook for children 11 to 13. That hub gets few views (sometimes only in the single digits daily) as a hub, but a Cambridge editor obviously thought it was the bomb. So print writing quality doesn't necessarily translate into what readers online prefer.
      
      Your voice may not have been preserved. People liked and shared your articles as they were, so obviously you were doing something right. That something may have included your writing voice.  Perhaps you should add back in some of the elements that were removed and perhaps remove anything that was added that seems less substantial than the original content or not written in your voice? You can save the new material and put it back if your experiment in reclaiming your voice on your hubs doesn't help.

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2. 73

   relacheposted 8 years ago

   How is this traffic drop separate from the overall site-wide traffic drop that people have been experiencing?

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   1. 34

      Writer Foxposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The traffic decline on HP overall started on May 4th, not two weeks ago. 
      
      It sounds like a HubPro failure to me.

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3. 78

   colorfuloneposted 8 years ago

   Traffic is down on HubPages for the most part. It is summer time weather, so unless those hubs are seasonal their views will drop.

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4. 88

   Colin Quartermainposted 8 years ago

   There is of course no way of knowing whether the traffic would have dropped without the alterations or not.
   
   Best way to think of it though, is that if you think the hub is now better than it was before, be satisfied with that.

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5. 94

   greenmindposted 8 years ago

   Right Writer Fox I had a decline overall a month ago. The decline I'm talking about here was more recent, and only affected the two hubs edited.
   
   Pearldiver, I'm not trying to compliment or undermine anyone. Just seeing if this is a pattern others have noticed.

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6. 67

   Dressage Husbandposted 8 years ago

   I really like Kylyssa's comment and suspect that she is on the right lines. It is very hard for someone else to write in your voice. Even the best editors often struggle in preserving the voice.
   
   Many best sellers are produced without any real alteration from the editors. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt comes to mind as one. His Irish brogue come through and editing it would have spoiled the feeling of genuineness and actual experience of being there.
   
   The editing was restricted to suggesting grammatical and spelling changes, most of which were left untouched to preserve the feeling of the times and strength of the story as it was told.
   
   Kylyssa is suggesting the writing equivalent of a Marketers split test and I think that would be the best approach here.

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7. 91

   Chriswillman90posted 8 years ago

   Agree about the writer's voice though it's strongly dependent on what you are writing about. Articles that are very technical and meant to strictly inform could do really well with professional editing, but a more creative piece might be better left up to the writer.

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