Laying emphasis on affiliate links and content quality

In the wake of latest Google wobble, and after the initial shock of the Google Panda update, both in the February and in the April, Hub Pages is likely to make some changes with the aim of getting back in Google’s graces by bringing its content back up to a better level of search visibility and doing other required and relevant changes on site.

“Enhancing readers’ experience on the site will improve our visibility with searchers, and reward those Hubbers who spend the time and energy to publish truly remarkable Hubs,” writes HubPages’ Jason Menayan. “We are about to implement a few more changes to improve the overall experience of our site, aimed at removing content that offers dubious value to the HubPages community of writers and readers.”

However, it is not the first time that HubPages has addressed quality of its content for its users. In fact, shortly before recent roll-out of Panda(the global/English language one),a Google member wrote a guest post on the blog of HubPages, providing users tips on how to improve their content for Adsense.

Now, HubPages is removing its “News Capsule” feature. Menayan says the links this feature generated often were not closely related to the topic.

They are also laying emphasis on affiliate links. They will no longer be allowed in HubPages articles if they point to sites that sell eBooks, promote dubious offers, contain a lead capture form, contain pop-ups, or redirect users to unwanted sites.

“Redirects themselves are innocuous, but we will be able to track the full path of redirected links, and if any of the redirects pass through or to a prohibited link, then that redirected link will also be prohibited,” says Menayan. “So, if a bit.ly link passes through a clickbank link (a prohibited affiliate link), for example, then that specific bit.ly link on that Hub will be not allowed.”

Additionally, all affiliate links are being disallowed in certain topic areas that are becoming “saturated with low-quality Hubs published by affiliate marketers”.

This is in reference to topics like acai berries, forex, and six-pack abs, though articles about these topics will still be allowed – just not with affiliate links.

Finally, like Ezine and other articles websites, HubPages will send out automatic alerts to authors or hubbers if their hubs don’t follow the new guidelines.

So now authors or hubbers who want to demonstrate their writing talents, and educate the public about various interesting topics, they need to comply with new guidelines of HubPages.