Anyone noticed Hubs changes & limited summary characters permitted?
Looks like Hub pages has made some more changes and now have reduced the amount of letters you can use in the summary of your hubs. is this good or bad?
I personally dislike the shortened summary. From what my understanding is, a summary is a 2-4 sentence paragraph summing up your entire story/article. I find it very difficult to put my entire 1000+ word article into less than the amount of letters it would take to write a text/SMS message on my phone.
For instance, I have a running article that I use "Here are just 10 benefits of how running for fitness or pleasure can promote a longer, healthier life." as the summary. It works, and is short enough to fit because the point can be made since it's a compiled list.
Now, I have a cookie hub where I use "Sugar, sprinkles, and icing are not just for cakes and cupcakes anymore! It is the perfect time of year to preheat the oven and have a go at some of these creative, and oh-so-delicious ways to make Chocolate Chip Cookies even better!" -- this is attention grabbing... but could be summed up to "Here are some creative chocolate chip cookie ideas to try." or something dull like that; it says what the article is about, but it's a poor quality summary at best.
I miss the old summary method and I've only been on Hubpages for a week and a half.
The summary is intended only for the search engine to pick up key words and index the hub (or not). Readers can't see the summary so whether is long or short make no difference
I thought everyone could see it on the profile page of the hubber? Also you have a better shot of filling it up with many keywords if it's longer I would think... does a search engine only pick up a select many? I'm all curious now how this works:)
readers are able to see the summary since it is what hub pages uses when featuring your hub. So i guess limiting hubbers on the summary will affect us all in some way
The summary is also used to describe the hub on topic pages.
I've seen summaries (or partial summaries) as part of the description of the entry when searching for information. I sometimes find this is the deciding factor in deciding whether to read the article.
I'm mixed about the summary changes. I have attempted to change my summaries but it's difficult to retain a succinct description of the hub when you have to cut out so much. However, it is helping me develop the "art" of using keywords from the title to rewrite the summaries and make them more SEO friendly. It's all beginning to gel now and make sense as to what online writing is really about. I've been changing my hub titles as well.
hey, glad you find it helpful, guess it will stop those that almost rewrire their hubs
As it is here on HP, as it is with my own personal website (thanks to my SEO plugin), I am limited, too, but I don't mind. Google does pick up on keywords but only those it wants to pick up and not necessarily those that you "load" into your summary. If you go over the allotted amount, and Google will dismiss the rest, so it is only wise to keep your summary short and simple. Besides, your title and content should speak for itself. It is after all the hallmark of your talent and hard work. Put your energy into making evergreen content and you will do well. Put just enough in your summary to whet the reader's interest. --Deb
Guess it is going to make us all work harder to sum up the hub, i just think some will now just become a list of keywords that make little sense.
Just to clarify a couple of things.
The summary is used in three main places:
1. As a description for your hubs on your profile
2. As a description of your hub on the various topic pages
3. For search engines, where it is (possibly) displayed alongside your page title and URL in results pages
Search engines will generally only display around the first 150-170 characters, hence the restrictions and advice in HP. Also, they wont' *always* display the summary you have written, it will depend on user intent, query searched for and keywords in your page.
Here are some hints for writing a good, succinct summary:
1. If you had to explain your article in ten seconds or fewer, what words would you use?
2. If your article was up against ten others, and you had to convince people to read yours based on two sentences, what would you type?
3. Try to use active, doing words
4. Put yourself in your audience's shoes and write the summary based on what they might be searching for
5. Using questions and answering them in summaries can be a powerful tool.
Hope this all helps,
Paul.
thanks paul, good suggestions, i guess we just need to stop all the flowery talk and get on with being more precise. i'm sure HP will keep throwing changes at us all. appreciate your comments
Yes I've noticed the changes. I hadn't noticed the limit on summary characters til today, though. The limited characters doesn't bother me though because I'm so used to making my summaries brief. The changes, while minor (at least to me) might take a little getting used to, but I'm finding them easy enough to work around.
Short and sweet seems to be the key. More thinking needed when writing. It's justa pain when you have a good summary and then run out of letters before you have just round it up.
by thoughthole 11 years ago
My goodness, I have read oh so many forums trying to figure out why my once flourishing hubs suddenly took a devastating nosedive. I have learned a lot from others comments & shared experience. I have also recognized that there seems to potentially be a number of possible reasons why many hubs...
by danielleantosz 12 years ago
Has anyone noticed an increase in traffic after adding a "summary" ?I tried adding summary to a few of my most visited hubs and a few of my least visited hubs to see if there is any benefit from having summaries. What have you guys experienced?
by Susette Horspool 10 years ago
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by Geri McClymont 5 years ago
The character limit for our article summary is 300 characters, yet only a portion of those characters show up beside our article on our profile page. Does anyone know if it is advantageous --in terms of generating more views--to leave our article summary at 300 characters (and not worry about a...
by Jamie Brock 8 years ago
Is anyone else afraid of adding summaries to their hubs?In general, my hubs that have a summary do not do as well as my hubs that do not have a summary. All of my best hubs do not have summaries. I know it is suggested to add a summary to every hub but this makes me afraid...
by Janis Leslie Evans 11 years ago
Should hub summaries be exclusive from intros (first paragraph) to your hub? I've noticed that some hubbers use their summary as the intro to their hub. It certainly saves time. I usually write a separate summary and expand on it for my intro or opening paragraphs. Does it matter?
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