Anyone noticed Hubs changes & limited summary characters permitted?

1. 92

   lemonkerdzposted 11 years ago

   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?

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2. 83

   Neinahpetsposted 11 years ago

   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.

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   1. 81

      joanwzposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well, 2 to 4 paragraph summaries are great for long materials, like books. But a simple 2 to 4 sentences should be enough for shorter pieces like Hubs, blogs, and articles.

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3. 59

   Petra Vlahposted 11 years ago

   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

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   1. 83

      Neinahpetsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      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:)

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   2. 92

      lemonkerdzposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      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

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   3. 78

      Paul Maplesdenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The summary is also used to describe the hub on topic pages.

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   4. 81

      joanwzposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      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.

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4. 93

   jansharesposted 11 years ago

   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.

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   1. 92

      lemonkerdzposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      hey, glad you find it helpful, guess it will stop those that almost rewrire their hubs

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5. 0

   GoldenThreadPressposted 11 years ago

   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

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   1. 92

      lemonkerdzposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      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.

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6. 78

   Paul Maplesdenposted 11 years ago

   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.

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   1. 92

      lemonkerdzposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      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

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7. 81

   joanwzposted 11 years ago

   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.

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   1. 92

      lemonkerdzposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      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.

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