Grow Your Audience: Make Your Hubs Clickable

Writing on HubPages, whether for fun, profit, or both, is always more rewarding when you know people are reading your work. Whether you hope to build a following and earn an income from advertisements in your articles, or simply write for the joy of sharing information, "traffic" is probably your goal.

In a previous hub of ours, FindYourSearch - An Intro to SEO, we discussed a wide range of factors which influence the ability of potential readers to find your work using search engines. The information we shared there is not specific to HubPages articles and can be applied to any site, but we wanted to do something for hubbers specifically. This hub won’t be about SEO, but rather it will teach you to make your hubs “clickable.” Since cats are awesome and remarkably educational, we decided to illustrate this hub with images of our feline friends.

When you browse through HubPages, you probably look at your favorite categories or your favorite authors. No one types in an exact hub URL unless they’ve been there before (and probably not even then). People find hubs based on the category they’re filed under, the tags connected with them, or through traditional searches on engines like Google or Yahoo. In short, people get to hubs by clicking on them.

A clickable hub is a hub people will feel compelled to click on and read. Something about the hub draws them in and makes them want to read more. We’re going to explore what those factors are and how you can tweak them to make your hub one that intrigues people.

1. Craft an Intriguing Title

Think about it. The title is the very first thing you see, long before you even commit to reading an article. Here are a few tips for writing a clickable title.

A Clickable Title...

• Has proper spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Missing any of these looks unprofessional and instantly loses your hub perceived authority.
• Has wording that makes readers think. When you saw this hub’s title, you were presented with two things: Something you wanted to achieve (a bigger audience), and a term you may not have heard applied to hubs before (“clickable”). I effectively told you that not only did I have useful information for you, but perhaps some interesting techniques you hadn’t considered before. I got you thinking right away: “What does she mean by ‘clickable’? Are my hubs clickable?” I got you asking questions, which made you wonder if you needed the information I have to present; and of course by clicking my hub, you could find the answers.
• Clearly states what to expect in the hub. You want to be intriguing, not annoying. If I have to click on a hub just to find out what it’s about, I probably won’t do so.
• Promises to solve a problem readers may have. You clicked this hub because you want more traffic. You may click a hub about Justin Beiber titled “Why Is Justin Beiber the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?” because you want to understand why everyone is so crazy about him. Either hub promises to answer a need of the reader.
• Is honest. This should go without saying, but don’t promise one thing in the title and then talk about something else in the hub.
• Uses keywords strategically. While placing keywords in a title is good for SEO, it can also be very bad for clickability if you don’t use them attractively. If your hub is titled “Affordable Amish Chairs from Wisconsin Bring Amish Quality Home Affordably,” you may think it looks good to search engines (whether it does or not is an entirely different story), but it does you no good if everyone sees your hub but no one clicks through to read it.
• Is not self promoting. Saying “Read This Hub, It’s Awesome!” in the title just looks unprofessional and won’t convince anyone. In fact, it will have the opposite effect.

In short, spend some time on your titles. Titles are the doorway to your hub, so make sure people want to go through it.

2. Write an Engaging Summary

Don’t let HubPages calculate your summary for you! When you create or edit a hub, you have the option of writing your own summary within the options along the top. This is what people will see below your hub’s title in search engines or in many places within HubPages. Because it has no effect on SEO, some people discount the importance of the summary, but that completely misses the point. Summaries are the yard around your front door; use them to sell the reader on clicking through.

3. Use an Eye Catching First Image

This one is my favorite little tip, because no one thinks about it. The first image in your hub shows up next to your hub’s title in many places on HubPages. The first image should be attractive for people reading your hub, but it’s also one more selling point for hub browsers, before they ever click through to read your article. Whether or not you have images in your hub, HubPages will also show your user avatar; if you have no images in your hub to show as well this subconsciously enforces the idea that all your hubs are the same. Worse yet, if you have no user avatar (something you should remedy), your hub will have a generic gray question-mark silhouette; how uninspiring! Now you’ve lost all authority for your hub; at best you’ve missed a chance to sell readers on the value of your hub, and at worst you look like a post-and-run spammer. Think about that first image (and your avatar, while you’re at it!).

4. Make Your Hub Findable

To click it, people must be able to find it. Be sure to file your hub in the appropriate category, give it as many (appropriate) tags as possible, and optimize it for the search engines using SEO. There are many hubs on the topic, including one of my own, so I won’t go into that here.

5. Encourage Comments

A hub with many comments has “social proof” attached to it; when people see others engaging with your content, they will want to know what the fuss is about. HubPages shows the comment count when browsing Feeds of favorite topics, so that can be another selling point for your hub. Encourage comments on your hubs. It’s possible to remove the comment capsule from your hubs when in edit mode, so be careful!

Don't forget to let us know what you think down below in the comments area! Thanks for reading and best of luck!