HubPages.com?

[MikeQ-BACC]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any info/opinions/scoop on HubPages.com? A client is considering using the service and I don't know much about it. Having a hard time figuring out the SEO value it would provide. It doesn't nofollow the links you create, which is nice, but not sure if the pages you create on this site provide any real link juice.

Client isn't interested really in generating revenue, but rather just wants to help increase exposure for his brand. He already has a blog going, so I'm trying to determine if putting in effort to creating articles on this site would be worthwhile, or if we should focus efforts more on other backlink methods, such as guest posting on blogs.

Anyone have thoughts?

[RyanKent]

I have never used HubPages but it appears to be one of many forms of article publishing sites. You write an article, publish it on their site, and the benefit is the site has it's own group of readers who will see your article.

The benefits your client would receive is exposing his brand and a link back to his site from the article. The challenge is the article will need to be very good in order for others to read it. If the article is great, then your client is missing the opportunities of having the article on his own site.

This struggle is the constant issue with deciding whether to publish content on other sites. If you take this approach, I would suggest 1 article per year on these sites is enough to expose your brand and earn a unique domain link. Spread your content amongst other similar sites rather then offer one site multiple articles. Ultimately your goal should be to publish the content on your own site.

[ClaireH-184886]

This is very interesting ryan. If you have a number of articles on one article site, would this not increase your link juice to your site.

With reference to earning money on hub pages i and friends of mine have submitted lots of articles on the site and have never earned a single penny.

[RyanKent]

Hi Diane.

I did notice hubpages offered an ad revenue sharing program but I did not review the details.

With respect to adding additional links, there are many factors involved and Google does not publicize their algorithm so we are left to made educated guesses and report on various test results.

My recommendation when working with external article publishing sites is they offer the two benefits mentioned above. They allow you to expose your site to an established audience which you may otherwise not reach. Also they provide a link to your site. The primary value I seek from the link is to broaden my site's backlink profile. The actual value of the link, and of multiple links from the same site, is highly debatable. We do know the value of most sitewide links is very low, so the theory "the more links the better" is not necessary true.

If you offer a second article on the same site, that second link would likely offer some value to your site. The link's value would likely be increased if it was from a comparable site where you have not previously published an article.

Forget about Google for a moment and think of it from a pure exposure perspective. If site A offered to publish your article and expose it to their 10k readers, that is great. When it is time to publish a second article, you can either share it with site B and their 10k readers or site A. The advantage site B offers is you can raise your brand awareness and gain traffic from a potentially new group of users.

[DavidLenehan]

Not sure if back links from sites like hub pages carry the same weight anymore. IMO Google has gotten wise to article spamming to generate back links. Personally I would concentrate on producing great content and articles on your own site. Give people a reason to link to the site