Product:Word Ratio and General Word Count Query

Hi there,

Does anyone know if the word count to product ratio has risen lately? Or has it always been 100 words per product advertized?

Also, as a result of the above I was doing some trial and error on an article of mine and realized that the introduction does not seem to count towards the word count.

If this is the case, is there a reason the introduction is not considered part of the article?

Thanks,

Mike

Good questions. I think the ratio used to be 90 words per ad. Let's see who else chimes in on this.

The intro DOES count toward the 400-words minimum. But really - what kind of truly useful article can you write in, let's say 300 words (if you used 60-100 words for the intro), anyway?

So, we ask for a minimum of 400 words, and with that you can place 8 ads on your page. After that, we ask for 50 more words of unique content per each additional ad.

Simply placing 8 ads on a page and then writing 8x50 words of more or less unique product descriptions is not really an article. We've allowed this type of thing in the past, but for the future we will have to be a bit more insistent on proper article creation. More on that soon.

Thanks Chef. I'm positive the article yesterday was asking for a hundred words per ad.

EDIT: Sorry, 100 words per ad not 'article'

You mean "100 words per ad"? If you see this again, could you file a bug report with exact info on: which article, where, when, etc.?

OK, sure will. On the plus side I couldn't think of which ads to remove so ended up delving far deeper into the subject to increase the word count. Needless to say, I never intended to write 1500 words on a blu-ray review...

Ooops...Simon just told me that they've already implemented the new minimum word count per ad. It is indeed now 100 words per ad.

Mike, you were correct, and I was uninformed. We had talked about it in our team conference but I must have misunderstood the time line. Sorry 'bout that.

chefkeem: 09/23/2012 - 05:36 PM

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Ooops...Simon just told me that they've already implemented the new minimum word count per ad. It is indeed now 100 words per ad.

Is that 100 words per ad after the 400 words / 8 ad requirement?  For example, 10 ads = 600 words.

Or 100 words per ad across the board.  For example, 10 ads = 1,000 words.

Based on what I am seeing, I think it is the latter.  1,000 words for 10 ads seems a bit high in my opinion. 

Yes, Janet - it's the latter. We're trying to get a better 'ads vs. useful content' ratio to improve our authority with Google.

chefkeem: 09/23/2012 - 06:56 PM

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Yes, Janet - it's the latter. We're trying to get a better 'ads vs. useful content' ratio to improve our authority with Google.

Ok, that is what I thought.  That is going to be really tough with the pages I write, but I will see what I can do.   Just might not be able to do as much here unfortunately.  

Do you really think that a stricter product/content ratio will increase google authority?  I was just wondering since Squidoo does not have any product ratio requirement and my pages there are google magnets.  Is it because Squidoo has been around longer?

Guys, let me clarify this with Simon tomorrow. As I said before, there was a misunderstanding and therefore no proper announcement of any new rules. I promise we'll get to the bottom of this, even if I have to fly to Germany before breakfast!

I really hope they don't pull a hubpages with backwards compatibility on already thriving/published articles... going forward I'm fine with.... and I think that's what they're doing as chef said "...but for the future we'll have to be more insistent on proper article creation...

Although, lately I've been towing the line in ads (because my products kinda require it (choices, styles, etc...) but I'm always far within the word count... I like the direction the site is going with this though...

Jerrico

Well I'm with Janet21, I might not be writing here much any more depending on the new rules and requirements. The word change with no warning has really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. One day it was 50, the next day 80, then 100. Oh well.

Or it will do well on Squidoo. They'd be thrilled with 100 words/ product. This is double what HubPages is requiring. Moving is easier than doing major rewrites. I'm going to wait until the Wizzley team lets us in on their new requirements for their Wizzles. Then I'll decide what to do, but I won't be writing any Wizzles until they clarify this.

Here's what happened: Simon and Hans applied the new rule to the German site and installed it automatically on Wizzley, too. That was not supposed to happen.

Please don't speculate before this is all cleared up. We've taken care of you very well so far, and we will do so in the future as well. 

LOL Ryan, I was, myself too, looking for the tray of cookies... came to find out it was just a text file (or tray of text files) on my computer- it seems chef has gone digital :) but... he did deliver the cookies (every time a page loads even!) haha...

We know things will be fine Chef, people are just airing their fears, likely invented by HP :)

While some may gripe at new rules and regulations and threaten (likely all it is) to leave, I'm  here for the duration- I don't ever want to unplant my content again... I love this place... it has incredible potential... but changes like this have to be made to evolve... although 100 words per ad I do feel is a bit overzelous, 50 was just right, I could do 70 without complaining :)

Thanks for your vote of confidence, guys. Appreciate it.

Have enough on my shoulders with my wife being in the hospital and stuff.  

"While some may gripe at new rules and regulations and threaten (likely all it is) to leave,"

If that was aimed at me - I don't appreciate it.

No, the first time cost me 90% of my revenues, and it was the text/product ratio. So this cuts very close to home. It was not the need to repeatedly change things. I wish you and J_U would speak for yourselves and not every Hubber.

My Wizzles are no where as productive as my Hubs were (and are) so I don't have a lot invested here. But I did spend the last month creating a lot of content - that is time I could have spent elsewhere - and I did that in good faith.

ryank: 09/23/2012 - 10:16 PM

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One of the biggest alienating factors on hp was the need to not once but twice completely edit entire portfolios of content in ridiculously short time-frames.

That's why people are a bit jumpy.

Won't happen here.