More traffic to your hubpages, a comprehensive SEO guide

Search engine traffic seems like the holy grail of online marketing. So here's the basics on getting your hub ranking as fast as possible in google.

The art of getting google traffic is called SEO: Search Engine Optimization.

The first thing to do when making a high traffic hub is picking your keywords. You'll want a mix between not too much competition and many people looking for it.The most important SEO signal these days is the title. So spend some thought on it.

Google your potential title: are all the titles in the search results bolded with the keywords you were planning to use? No good. Try again.

Use keyword tools to figure out what people are looking for. I usually use the free google adwords keyword tool. If that doesn't help (it happens) wordtracker is good too.

Search in google for each potential title to figure out the competition. If there is little competition for a title you know is likely to bring in traffic, you're in business.

Your Hubpages URL

From your title, pick the main keywords (2 or three) to make up your URL. For instance, on this hub I only used 'Hubpages-traffic-SEO' for the URL (http://www.hubpages.com/Hubpages-traffic-SEO). Those are the main words I'm targeting.

Things like 'the' and so on aren't as important. You want a short URL that still makes it clear for visitors what the hub is about.

Use the hubpages category system to your advantage.

When making a hub you'll be asked to pick a category. If you're smart, you'll pick one that:

1. fits your topic
2. isn't too crowded

Less competition means more chance of your hub standing out.

Seriously: what use is a hub that gets traffic but doesn't deliver for your visitors? It may make you money, but it won't make you happy. Also, in the long run it's not likely to keep succeeding because other people will find your niche and make a better page. One that people link to because they like it.

And links matter a LOT in SEO.

So, make great content. That way you're likely to get people to link to it that like it and your search engine traffic will continue to increase.

Google farmer / Panda update 2011 

You probably lost a lot of traffic to your hubs in February and March of 2011. Hubpages is stepping up it's quality standards as a result, but I would advise a more stringent approach than the minimum Hubpages sets. 

Update your hubs with as much relevant information as you can manage. Stick to the old SEO rule of having about 300 or 400 words to your page, instead of the 50 word minimum that hubpages goes for. That is: less than 200 words to a page is not a good idea at all. 

Make sure your pages are good enough to show to your mom, or your old school teacher. Make them something to be proud of. That way - hubpages as a whole will do better, and so will your individual hubs. 

I know this advise is not likely to be applied by many. Still, I believe in it, so here goes:

On hubpages I advise the use of two word tags that up to 30 other hubs are also using.

If your hub is already high traffic and has a high hubscore, you can ignore this rule. But since you're reading this, it probably isn't.

ON THE OTHER HAND, if your hub is popular, it will show up on one word tag pages anyhow! Hubpages knows that a hub about Buddhism books, is also about Buddhism, and will list your hub accordingly! This means you don't have to use that tag to get listed on the corresponding tag page. You merely have to use a word IN your tags somewhere.

I suspect that using the same word several times in your tags will help you move up in the one word tag pages.

Hubpages is smart about tags. They will combine tags people use, so on the tag pages for two word tags, you'll find hubs that only use one word tags - they are just using both. But the tag pages link mostly to one word tags. That means that the popular hubs are going to get a huge amount of links from those one word tags you're using. That's not really what you want.

Two word tags will get your hub featured on similar hub just as much as one word tags will.

Two word tags create tag pages your hub has a chance of showing up on. And the other hubs on that page are likely to be in the same niche as yours, which makes that link more powerful.

On this hub I'm mostly using 2,3 or even 4 word tags...

I'm using mostly multi-word tags because there has already been so much written on hubpages about SEO, that two word tags are usually used by way more than 30 hubs.

Links are important in SEO. This can't be repeated enough. The easiest way to get started on that is to interlink your own hubs.

You should be using two native Hubpages techniques for this:

• Give all your hubs a tag that screams you. For instance, all my hubs have a tag 'katinka hesselink', which is my name. This means that there is one page on hubpages where all your hubs can be found: your own tag page. You can't use your profile for this, because the hubpages profile hides unsuccessful hubs especially when you've made many hubs.
• Organize your hubs in hub-groups. This will make sure they're at least interlinked, by topic, a bit.

But all that's not enough. You really need a hubography as well: a hub where you list all your hubs. Or you can make several: one for each niche you have hubs in. Then make sure you link TO your hubography (or hubographies) as well.

This hub is on a topic that I haven't made a specific hubography to yet, so I'm only linking to my general 'Katinka Hesselink on Hubpages' hub below.

Step 6) Backlinks from elsewhere online

Although hubpages rank pretty well without help, it's still a good idea to promote your hubs elsewhere online.

Start a blog on your main niche for instance.

On hubpages it's very easy to just write one block of text. Many people do this. However, if you take the trouble to cut up your content in smaller blocks and give each a title, you'll see better search engine results.

The easiest way to do this is to use a new capsule for each bit of content. That way you can use the capsule title to drop an extra keyword here and there. Make sure it means something to people though: too many keywords and google will avoid your hub.

Another advantage of this strategy is that readers will also enjoy it. They like their content neatly divided so they can scan it quickly for useful information.

Step 8) Be social

On every online network it pays to be social. On hubpages it shows in your personal hubscore, but also in the hubscore of your hubs. Only if both are high enough you'll get followed links on your hubs.

You don't have to work very hard to get a high enough hubscore. Just make quality hubs, rate a few hubs, comment occasionally and contribute to the forums. DO make sure your comments and contributions are useful to people though - otherwise they may just rate your stuff negatively. And that's NOT good for your hubscore.

Step 9) Join Hubpages 'communities'

Find the categories in your niche that you have made hubs about and join them. Chances are you'll be shown as a featured hubber there. That's a nice backlink to your profile.

I don't know whether it's hubscore or an editorial choice who gets shown up there. In either case though: it pays to have quality content on your hubs.