Why is it they say it takes about 6 months before hubs see substantial traffic?

1. 90

   yougotmeposted 11 years ago

   Why is it they say it takes about 6 months before hubs see substantial traffic?
   
   I keep on reading from other hubbers that it takes several months before hubs actually realize some traffic inflows. What's the basis or logic behind this?

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2. 95

   chef-de-jourposted 11 years ago

   I'm not sure. It could be that it takes some time before your name gets known and therefore trusted, although this is not always true. Some say that hubs 'mature' but again why should that be if they go straight out onto the world pages. Google is said to prefer content that is refreshed, so if you update hubs every so often they'll gather momentum like a snowball?
   I think the time frame for substantial numbers to your hub depends on:
   
   1. the nature of the hub - has it got useful content, evergreen, likely to attract a general audience or a select few? Or is it a flavour of the month type hub likely to be popular for a few weeks then fade away?
   
   2. how you promote the hub - to social sites to gain backlinks, blogs and other sites and so on.
   
   3. the timing - if you write hubs say for sporting occasions or festivals you could get loads of traffic.
   
   Whatever the truth I hope you get decent traffic sooner rather than later!

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   1. 90

      yougotmeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the response chef-de-jour! I'm curious about your statement "Google is said to prefer content that is refreshed". In your case, did traffic increase upon updating your hubs?

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3. 0

   DigbyAdamsposted 11 years ago

   It's hard to answer this question because you don't define substantial traffic. But I think a lot of it has to do with the experience of the Hubber. New Hubbers, who have never written online content before, have a lot to learn. New Hubbers, who are experienced with online writing, will know more right away and probably get more traffic. However, every platform is different and it takes different skills to monetize them effectively.
   
   Paul Edmondson once said that it took a few years for Hubs to reach their full potential. However he recently amended that statement saying hubs might mature more quickly in this post- Panda and Penguin world.
   
   It also depends on the stability of the HubPages platform. Recently there have been so many changes, it's hard for a new Hubber to see what works well for them.
   
   For me, I had tried several topics and formats and thought I knew what might be working well. But then the patterns changed. I don't know if it was Google, HP or the time of year.
   
   I've only got 27 hubs so that's not very much to make a judgement from.

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4. 91

   Faceless39posted 11 years ago

   I'd imagine that as word spreads, hubs would be bumped into online more often.

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5. 63

   hoov45posted 11 years ago

   My traffic has gone down in the last couple of weeks by over 70%. It is very depressing.

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6. 83

   brianrockposted 11 years ago

   The logic is the longer the hub is online, the more links Google can find that point to it. These links are a ranking factor, so they can help a hub (or any page) float up the search engine results over the first few months.
   
   Google's index is also being constantly updated, and it's spread across many data servers. It takes time for these servers to synchronize, and so it could take a month or two before your hub and its associated links percolate through the entire Google ecosystem. This is part of the reason why search results don't always appear constant - sometimes they're pulled from different servers, and webpages will jump around a few spots depending on what server you're talking to.
   
   Longevity also helps enhance the strength of your HubPages profile as it receives more backlinks (from around the web and from within the HubPages community), and this again helps strengthen all of your hubs.
   
   How much this matters depends on how competitive a certain keyword phrase is. If there's little competition, a hub can jump into the top page within a couple days or weeks. For more competitive keywords, it might climb more slowly before it settles into a specific position.

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