How an Online Publishing Platform Grew Traffic by 876% YoY
https://discover.hubpages.com/
Stats
187.1K to 1.8M Monthly Visits
Industry
Digital Publishing
Niche
Online Media
Reporting Date
August 2024
HubPages is an online platform where writers can publish articles on various niche topics. Users can also post on the site's forum to engage with like-minded individuals, making it a hub for knowledge-sharing and connection.
Despite being around since 2006, HubPages' traffic has experienced significant growth in 2024.
Monthly organic visits increased from 187.1K to 1.8M in just 1 year, marking an impressive new chapter in HubPage's online visibility.
In this SEO case study, we'll explore how HubPages grew its monthly traffic to almost 2M visits and share tips for growing your own website's traffic.
In This Article
The Catalyst: How HubPages Reached 1.8M Monthly Visits
1. Doubling Down on Content: A Strategic Approach to SEO Growth
HubPages is a user-generated content (UGC) platform, meaning its users create and publish content on the website.
Users have been particularly active in the past year, contributing more articles and forum posts than over the past several years.
Pages doubled between August 2023 and August 2024, growing the website's content from 64K to 128K URLs.
Forum posts were among the most significant increases, increasing from 3K to 29K URLs.
This content creation sparked growth in keyword rankings.
HubPages went from 1.1M to 5M ranking keywords in 1 year.
Why this matters:
While it's no secret that more content equals more rankings, creating a steady flow of fresh content can be challenging.
HubPages is uniquely positioned as a UGC platform, but if you're a small business owner, content creation likely falls onto your already-full to-do list.
So, how does one find endless content ideas for their site in a short amount of time?
Keyword research.
Keyword research helps you uncover the topics your audience cares about and the language they use to look for them in search engines.
You can use these insights to guide your content creation and optimization efforts for maximum visibility on the SERP.
How to do keyword research:
This in-depth tutorial shows you how to perform keyword research.
Here’s a brief overview of the process:
- Pick a keyword research tool.
- Search your keyword.
- Check the keyword difficulty and pick easy keywords.
- Determine search intent.
- Write high-quality content.
Tools for keyword research:
Keyword research tools are indispensable for creating a strong content strategy.
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is well aware of this, so this feature is built directly into the plugin.
After connecting your Semrush account to your AIOSEO account, the plugin will generate keyword ideas from Semrush directly in the WordPress editor.
Here’s an example of keyphrase suggestions for an article about polo:
You can use these keywords to inform your content strategy or optimize your existing post or page.
TruSEO, another AIOSEO tool, will then check your optimizations for your new, chosen keyword. It provides real-time feedback and actionable insights to improve your content for users and search engines.
Now, let’s see how HubPages’ users are optimizing images for increased visibility in search results.
2. Leveraging Visuals: Implementing Image SEO Best Practices
Content creators understand that visuals are an important element of a positive user experience.
After all, would you want to read a page full of text without a single image?
Probably not.
Images help break up walls of text, illustrate points made in the copy, and create an overall engaging reading experience.
Take this image from a HubPages article about regency hairstyles as an example:
It demonstrates a specific style from the time, which would be interesting for readers to view as they navigate through the article.
Similarly, HubPages uses featured images to engage users as soon as they reach an article.
Featured images appear at the top of a web page, typically just below the title.
They’re a good way to pique interest and reassure users that they’re at the right place for their interest or search.
Here we see an example of one from HubPages for that same regency hairstyle article as earlier:
In addition to engaging users, certain optimizations also support search engines’ understanding of your images.
This is referred to as image SEO.
Since search engines can’t see images like you and me, we have to use text elements to communicate their content. Image SEO allows you to give search engines important details about your visual assets.
Image SEO can also encourage search engines to show your images on the SERP, as seen in the example below.
This type of search result, also known as a rich snippet, is an effective way of getting more clicks and traffic for your site.
Here’s what HubPages does to get them:
- Use ImageObject schema markup.
- Write descriptive alt text.
- Include its keyword in the image filename.
- Optimize the article’s on-page SEO.
These optimizations proved fruitful, winning HubPages over 201.5K image rich snippets in August.
Why this matters:
SEO statistics suggest that rich results get 58% of all clicks.
This is significantly higher than standard search listings, which have an overall CTR of 41%.
In addition to optimizing for search engines, images also play an important role in user experience.
Images can help users stay on your site longer, improving important metrics like time on page and bounce rate.
How to do image SEO:
You can do several things to optimize your images for users and search engines.
This article gives you 18 tips for image SEO, but here are some of the most important:
- Implement schema markup on your web page.
- Write alt text that accurately describes your image.
- Optimize image filenames to include your SEO keyword.
- Include image titles for when users hover or click on images.
Tools for image SEO:
Image optimizations can be repetitive, but they’re extremely important for your SEO.
Luckily, there are tools to streamline the process.
For example, AIOSEO’s Image SEO tool allows you to automate certain tasks like writing alt text or title tags.
In the screenshot below, you can use smart tags to customize how the plugin generates these elements.
Now, let’s explore HubPage’s forum and how it’s become a driving force for the website’s online visibility.
3. Dominating the Discussion: Utilizing Forums for Online Success
HubPages has two main forums on its website:
- HubPages Forums: Discuss topics and updates related to HubPages.
- Topical Forums: A more general discussion board for any and all topics (shown below).
Users can post and respond to threads on either forum.
Each thread creates a new URL on the website, which is indexable by search engines.
What’s interesting about these pages is that they’ve allowed Hubpages to appear in the Discussions and Forums SERP feature.
This area of the SERP showcases relevant content from online discussion boards and forums.
Users can click the see more button for an expanded view replicating the traditional search listing experience.
This action reveals additional search results, including HubPages in this example.
As for how HubPages gets this type of search result, Discussion and Forums rankings are a little less straightforward than other SERP features.
However, there are a few basic things you can do to encourage search engines to use your content in this SERP feature:
- Maintain an organized forum.
- Foster a community with active participation.
- Implement schema markup.
- Optimize thread titles for relevant keywords.
Overall, these optimizations helped HubPages go from 0 to 26.5K rankings in Discussions and Forums in just 1 year.
Why this matters:
Appearing in Discussions and Forums is a great way to build trust with your audience. Here are some other benefits of ranking in this SERP feature:
- Increased Visibility: Discussions and Forums results often appear high on the SERP.
- Enhanced Credibility: User-generated content is often perceived as more credible and trustworthy than traditional marketing materials.
- Improved User Experience: By offering relevant discussions and forums, HubPages provides a valuable resource for users seeking information and engaging with like-minded individuals.
How to implement schema markup:
Whether you’re after Discussions and Forums or SERP features in general, schema markup is the most effective way to rank in these coveted spots.
Schema markup gives search engines important details about your web page in a way that’s easy for them to understand.
It lives within the HTML code of your website and requires basic coding knowledge to implement.
You can follow this tutorial to add schema manually to your website.
(And if you’re hoping for Discussions and Forms rankings like HubPages, you can learn more about that schema here.)
Tools for schema markup:
Working with HTML code can be intimidating for many website owners. The good news is that you don’t have to.
AIOSEO’s Schema Generator allows you to pick your desired schema from a catalog. Then, the plugin implements the structured data automatically for you. No coding required.
Now, let’s look at a final strategy that won HubPages People Also Ask rankings.
4. Answering User Questions: Targeting Google's People Also Ask
Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) section of the SERP provides users with questions related to their search.
Users can expand questions to reveal the answer and source, as shown below.
And here’s where Google pulled that information from HubPages:
There are a few things to note about appearing in the PAA section:
- FAQs perform very well in PAA.
- You should use question subheadings.
- Write clear, concise answers directly below the question.
- You can use FAQ schema markup to increase the likelihood of PAA rankings.
Many of HubPages’ PAA rankings came from forums, but they also have several from their blog posts.
Overall, they went from only 30 PAA rankings in August 2023 to 16K just 1 year later.
Why this matters:
Like some of HubPages’ other SERP features, PAA rankings are a great way to improve the visibility and traffic of your website.
They appear prominently in search results, boosting brand awareness and building trust with users.
FAQs also lend themselves naturally to PAA rankings, which are very easy to include in your content.
How to get PAA rankings:
Follow these steps from the how to rank in Google’s PAA section blog for this type of SERP feature:
- Use an SEO tool.
- Perform keyword research.
- Write high-quality content.
- Implement FAQ schema.
- Check out the competition.
Tools for PAA rankings:
AIOSEO’s FAQ blocks are super easy to use and implement FAQ schema automatically for you.
All you have to do is locate the FAQ block in the WordPress editor.
Then, write in your question and answer.
AIOSEO will take care of the rest, implementing your FAQ schema for search engines.
Standout SEO Wins
Before wrapping up, there’s an additional SEO technique worth highlighting at HubPages.
Author Bio Pages Connect Users & Support Internal Linking
Each HubPages contributor has an author bio page where users can learn more about them and explore their articles.
Author bio pages have become prevalent with the rise of Google E-E-A-T.
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google uses it to assess the credibility of content.
When you include author bios or bio pages, it helps search engines understand who's behind your content. This can be particularly helpful when writing on Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics where trust is paramount.
Even in a more casual setting (aka non-YMYL topics), author bios are still a great way to connect with your audience. They put real people behind your website and support transparency and trust.
They can also support your internal linking efforts, like we see with HubPages, when you link to an author's content.
Tool: The Author SEO tool in AIOSEO can help you write and display strong author bios. You’ll get full control of which information to include such as an author’s credentials, education, interests, and more.
Takeaways
In our analysis of HubPages, we’ve discovered the strategies that have helped them enter a new era of visibility in 2024.
Now, let’s recap which strategies to replicate on your website and others to reconsider.
Top 3 Strategies to Emulate
- Create content that resonates with your audience. Understanding your audience's needs, interests, and pain points is the first step to creating high-quality content. Keyword research is a jumping point for gathering these insights, revealing the topics and words they use to find information. You can then perform competitor and SERP analysis to determine how to approach the topic in a way that resonates with them. This strategy keeps your content relevant, accurate, and engaging for an improved user experience.
- Optimize images for users and search engines. Images play an important role in user experience and search engines' understanding of your page. Implement image SEO best practices such as writing descriptive alt text and optimized filenames to increase their visibility in search results. Image SEO can also help your images appear directly on the SERP, leading to higher clickthrough rates and organic traffic.
- Target SERP features with schema markup. Schema markup gives search engines helpful information about your page. It can also increase your chances of getting SERP features like rich snippets and PAA results. When selecting schema, choose the most accurate one for your page. For example, a food blog will likely use recipe schema frequently, and an eCommerce will use product schema.
Bottom 3 Strategies to Reconsider
- Don’t forget to check if your page is indexable. Some of HubPages’ articles are returning a not indexable status. When search engines can’t index your web page, they can’t serve it in search results. This means your page won’t rank. While there’s a time and place for disallowing indexing, it’s important to use it only when necessary. (Think account login pages, checkouts, etc.). More often than not, you’ll want your pages to be indexable. You can manage your indexing rules using the Robots.txt Editor tool in AIOSEO.
- Don’t neglect image title tags in the user experience. Image titles appear when users hover or click on an image. They provide users with additional information or context. For HubPages, it’s hit or miss when they use image titles. It’d be better to make it a best practice to include them for each image optimization because they can help users and search engines more easily understand your graphics. You can use an image SEO plugin to write them for you.
- Don’t exceed metadata character limits. SERP real estate is limited. Your content will be truncated if you exceed character limits and end with an ellipsis. That’s why it’s important to be concise and descriptive when writing meta titles and descriptions. You can run your metadata through a SERP snippet tool to make sure it fits before publishing.
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Improve Your Online Visibility & Traffic With AIOSEO
Want to replicate HubPages’ growth on your website?
With AIOSEO, you can take on the SERP with beginner-friendly tools that get results.
AIOSEO is the best SEO plugin on the market and has over 3 million active users and thousands of 5-star reviews. That’s because we believe in making SEO easy. You’ll get a comprehensive suite of tools with action-oriented insights for improving your website’s SEO.
Here are just a few of our favorites:
- Semrush Keyphrase Suggestions: Perform keyword research directly in the WordPress editor. AIOSEO connects with your Semrush account to generate and serve keyword ideas for your content.
- Image SEO: Turn on automatic image alt text and title attributes with a single click. You’ll save time from manual entries while helping users and search engines understand your images.
- Rich Snippets Schema: Win more rich results with AIOSEO’s user-friendly schema generator. Just pick the schema type you want, and we’ll format the structured data properly for Google.
- FAQ Blocks: Add FAQs to your content to increase the likelihood of appearing in Google’s People Also Ask box. These results help boost brand awareness and increase clickthrough rates.
- Author SEO: Create powerful author bios that showcase your experience and expertise. This add-on aligns your content with Google E-E-A-T guidelines and helps readers trust what you share.
- Robots.txt Editor: Control how bots crawl your site with the Robots.txt Editor, which allows you to override default WordPress settings. This tool makes it simple to view your robots.txt file and manage rules.
