Unfeatured Hubs.

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   Jodahposted 9 years ago

   I have noticed recently that a substantial number of my hubs have become un-featured due to low traffic. I can understand this for those few that have had no views in the last 30 days, however a few of them have had quite regular traffic, one in particular "My Friend the Oak"  is one of my most popular hubs with well in excess of 1200 views and steady views every day with regular red arrows. For this to be flagged as having no traffic there has to be something wrong with the system used to identify low traffic hubs. Has anyone else had this problem?

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      Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      all the time;
      Here is what I do and it has worked every single time with every single hub/article: Change the title!

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         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Kathryn. I have done that for a few of them and had them re featured. May have to change the titles of all of them.

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      Faith Reaperposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi John,
      
      I noticed one of mine today went half circle which is due to non-engagement ...but it is a seasonal hub, so I can understand it going half circle.  So, I just did my usual and tweaked the title and shared on Pinterest on one of my boards, and that will usually take care of it. If not, I may unpublish until it gets closer to Christmas. 
      
      You have a ton more hubs than I do, so I can't imagine those with so many hubs trying to keep up with them all.  I think they do this it seems every couple of months.  Just tweak the titles and share wherever and they should be featured back real fast.
      
      I don't understand the one that is getting views being unfeatured though.  Strange.

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         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Faith, yes I have been tweaking titles, adding content, and sharing. Have managed to get some featured again, but just as I do I find more have become in-featured. It is becoming quite a battle.

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            Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Don't just tweak titles. Create brand new tiltes.

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      mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The only Hubs I've had to be unfeatured are poems or recipes, Jodah.  I'm tempted to just unpublish poems altogether.   Seasonal Hubs are that don't get much traffic lowers my overall score, too.
      Like Kenny Rogers says in his song:  You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold them, etc.etc.

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      1. 87

         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         What surprises me Mary is that my Christmas hubs, for instance, are still featured and those that aren't are a mixture of poetry, short stories, essays. I understand that the more hubs you have, the more that are likely to be not featured...but I've only ever had one or two before. My hubber score seems to have dropped in conjunction with so many hubs being  as well.

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   4. 0

      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Jodah,
      
      As psycheskinner mentioned, only search traffic is taken into account for a Hub to remain Featured, but even if your Hub is no longer Featured, it shouldn't get less social traffic.

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         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for replying Kristy, I never knew that it was only search traffic that counted to keep hubs featured. Most of my traffic is from Hub Pages, followed by Pinterest, and Google third, so I guess I have no hope.

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            Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Jodah,
            
            When a Hub isn't Featured it just means that Hub is no longer visible to search engines, so we defeature those Hubs without at least a heartbeat of search traffic as a protective measure for the site as a whole; lack of traffic is often a good indication that Google takes some issue with a page.
            
            Don't forget that although a Hub may not be Featured, it can still be reached through the links you and others have shared on social media, websites, and elsewhere, and you are still earning revenue from your readers as well.

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      MelRootsNWritesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I find it interesting that hubs are still unfeatured for not getting enough Google Search traffic especially after the email from HubPages yesterday titled "Increasing Your Hubs Traffic Without Google". It gave several tips on getting alternative traffic.
      
      It seems odd to me that Jodah's hub with 1200+ views is valued differently and deemed insufficient because of the source of the traffic.

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         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Mel, at least Christie made it clear that "only search traffic is taken into account for a Hub to remain Featured" and "social traffic" doesn't count..but it makes you wonder in regard to that Hub Page post yesterday.

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   6. 0

      Snakesmumposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Just today, a hub was un-featured for lack of traffic, and recently quite a few have had this problem.
      
      What I usually do is edit the text and sometimes improve the images, but at the rate the traffic has been lately, it's going to become a very regular occurrence.  :-(
      
      As others have said, sometimes changing the title helps too, and changes get them featured again for a time.   It seems to be a vicious circle though, and I guess we'll all have to keep trying to improve our writings. 
      
      Moving articles to your own site isn't always an option, if they don't fit in with the site's niche.

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2. 81

   Dana Tateposted 9 years ago

   Same here, I did the same, I just changed the titles and they were republished. Unfortunately, they are still not getting many views, so I may have to find away to revamp them.

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Dana, let me know the names of the hubs you aren't getting much traffic on and I will comment on them or reshare them. Some of mine that are now no longer featured are your favourites...the Beneath the Floors series.

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         Dana Tateposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Jodah; The ones I would appreciate you sharing are "wonders of creation, and my new one which didn't get as much traffic as I hoped, which is Turn discouragement into encouragement. As for the beneath the floors series I cannot believe it! I felt that was one of your most artistic pieces. Anyway, my hubs do pretty well on Pinterest. I was thinking creating one just for short stories. I would love to include the... Beneath the floor series, and any others you feel my audience will enjoy...let me know.

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         1. 87

            Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Sure Dana, I will share those hubs. It would be great if you start a short story board on Pinterest too. I'd love you to share the Beneath the Floors series. You could check also "the Blue Gum Gang", "where the Lost Things Go" and "Tears Across the Waves" and see if you think they are suitable. Thanks.

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   Charito1962posted 9 years ago

   Hello, John, and all the others in this forum. Let me share with you what I do whenever I see that one of my hubs has been unfeatured. First of all, I never edit my text body. I simply re-layout my photos and video capsules. I also spread out my Amazon products so they are not grouped together in one place. Then, my hub is re-featured.
   Try my style. It may just work for you people.

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Charito, I never have my Amazon and eBay capsules grouped together and rarely have more than two anyway, but I haven't tried rearranging my photo and videos. I will try that.

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   Billrrrrposted 9 years ago

   The reasons for what happens on Hubpages stay with those HP people behind the unfeeling robots who push the buttons that give life to our hubs or take life from them.  Like most people I rarely embrace change and have to be dragged into any new thing.  For me, many of the Hubpages changes are excellent; but too many of them are simply a pain in the posterior.  We bare our souls in what we do.  It wouldn't hurt for the platform to be a little more like a writer - get transparent and tell us what's behind the curtain.

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree Bill, I welcome many of the changes that have been made recently and I understand that they have to constantly moderate hubs for quality and traffic. The problem I have is that this doesn't seem consistent. I have hubs that have had no views in the last 30 days that are still featured while some that have had regular views are not supposedly due to no traffic. Yes, more transparency would be nice.

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5. 79

   LuisEGonzalezposted 9 years ago

   

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Exactly my point Luis.

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Solution is easy:  Move them to your own sites which works better and you earn more.  Glad I did exactly that!

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Linda, my personal site doesn't make a cent unfortunately.

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      LuisEGonzalezposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Linda that's not the point. Yes our own sites may or may not make more, but this practice of unfeaturing hubs seems (at the surface) to be a way for HP to keep people tweaking, editing etc their hubs which in turn creates "actions" which are then re-visited by Google, Bing and so on. The more "actions" that these bots see the more money (possibly) that the site can garner. It all may boil down to activity VS inactivity. Search engines "like" regular activity and any editing is just that and unless a hub is unfeatured authors are more likely to leave them alone (inactivity)

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   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   Only search traffic is counted in "engagement" de-featuring.
   
   Any change at all will reset the clock, even just adding a comma.

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8. 80

   lovebuglenaposted 9 years ago

   It is very frustrating when hubs get unfeatured due to low traffic. I've never heard of this being done anywhere else but here. While making a minor tweak and republishing gets the hubs featured again when there are many hubs to do that for it becomes a hassle.

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes lovebuglena, my sentiments exactly. Thanks for the support.

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9. 84

   Buildrepsposted 9 years ago

   Never happened to me up to now. But it can happen any time, because I have also sleeping Hubs that had no traffic in the last 30 days. It wouldn't frustrate me, because it would remind me that there's one that needs attention. Keep editing your Hubs and promote them on Social Media helps to get them back on their feet again. Good luck!

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I wouldn't mind either Buildreps if it was just one or two at a time but when it is a dozen or more it is rather time consuming and frustrating. I was a member of HP for five years before I had my first un-featured hub, now it is happening every day.

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    JenwithMistyposted 9 years ago

    1,200 views in not low traffic and it makes me laugh how people automatically assume that it's a hub problem because it's someone else having the problem. If it was their own hubs, then it would be a Hubpages problem I think this one is a Hubpages problem.

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       Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you Jenwith Misty. Much appreciated.

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    Siva222posted 9 years ago

    And I thought that it was only me who was facing this issue. It is not possible for us to ask our followers to read all the hubs written by us and once a hub is read it cannot be read again and again. What to do next? Advertise our hubs? By contacting new people and asking them to read and comment on our hubs? I am confused.

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       Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Siva, You can make a change to the titles or some other change to the content and the hubs will be represented to the search engines. If you have new followers since you wrote the hubs you can re-share them on Hub Pages as well as Twitter, Pinterest, Google + etc, however for every one I update and re-share, I find two more are un-featured.

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12. 74

    Siva222posted 9 years ago

    Thanks a lot John. That helps.

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    Siva222posted 9 years ago

    John Keep the faith. For a writer like you traffic should never be a problem. Very soon it will increase.

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       Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks Siva.

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    Jodahposted 9 years ago

    Thanks again Christy. I have now edited all my hubs that had half circles and in most cases I feel they have improved, so it's good to have the prod to review them. I do realise that hubs that aren't featured can still be accessed and read so maybe I shouldn't stress about it. For me it's just a status thing and I don't like seeing the half circle symbol ( better than being not featured due to quality though).

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    1. 0

       Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I understand the sentiment. If it helps, remember that Featured status is a necessary evil that is a reflection of what Google wants rather than a reflection of the absolute quality of your writing.

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          janderson99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Sorry Christy, but I find this comment inappropriate, wrong and way off the mark. How do you know that hubs that get low traffic are not what Google 'wants' or 'likes'? That statement is insulting to people who write excellent articles. A hub that is perfect is every way in terms of Google's quality standards may still get low traffic simply because few people search for the topic or there is overwhelming competition for the topic. There should be no implication that there is something wrong with it in the 'eyes' of Google. I am sure that many obscure Wiki topics get very low traffic. Does that mean that Google does not like them?
          
          Equally the notion that Google gives low traffic to a hub that has inferior quality or that low traffic somehow triggers a reaction from Google is nonsense. How do you know that low traffic hubs somehow hurt the site or are offensive in some way? Unfeaturing for low traffic is simply a sledge hammer approach based on the erroneous notion that low traffic implies that Google considers the hub to have low quality. HP has admitted in the past that there is collateral damage from this harsh, blunt policy.
          
          Meanwhile HP has a grandfathering policy which preserves hubs that get minimum traffic, but that clearly break HP's rules, and clearly damage the site via Panda, until the hubs are edited. Many of these 'bad apple' hubs date from 2011 and earlier. The focus of HP is wrong in my opinion. There are huge numbers of hubs that have not been fully QAPed. Please reconsider making bland statements about what Google 'likes' with implications for the authors.

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    Fiction Tellerposted 9 years ago

    Too, not all grandfathered or QAP unfeatured hubs are disliked by Google. Some of these Google still favors even though they have more than 2-3 products promoted (the new "unofficial" standard, no matter if the hub is 300 words or 3,000) or products promoted that have not been used by the author. Some of these were even originally Panda'd, then recovered, which means Google decided users liked them a lot.
    
    It would be good if it were acknowledged that a better word than "reflection" is "prediction."  HubPages is trying to up the quality, but with standards, as janderson99 says, that leave collateral damage.

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       Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       A few months ago a large portion of my hubs were not featured. I just changed one or two little things and they were featured again. Change the pictures around, add or delete a sentence, change an image, and they should be fine again. It makes no sense, and has nothing to do with our quality of writing. But it bothers me to see a bunch of my hubs not featured for vague reasons too.

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          Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Hi Jean, I have moved pics around, changed a few titles, added a little text here and there...and they are all featured again. So all is good until the next bunch of hubs are affected.

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    Venkatachari Mposted 9 years ago

    I also have some unfeatured hubs. One is unfeatured since two months "A tribute to my spouse". I edited it 2 times and got featured it for some days. But again it got unfeatured for both traffic and quality. I kept it pending since then. The other two are titled "Eating Fruits" and "My Winter Memories" which are unfeatured due to traffic since 3 weeks and I have not touched them also till now. I wanted to see for how long they will keep them unfeatured.

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