HubPages Terminology: A Guide

Backlink – a link from an external site (blog, social networking site, website etc.) to your content or profile. The purpose is to generate traffic to your site, both directly and by virtue of backlinks helping improve search engine rankings.

Banned account – an account that has been closed due to serious, typically repeated, violations of the HubPages Terms of Service. The term may also – somewhat confusingly – refer to a forum ban or a temporary suspension of the privilege to publish new hubs.

Forum ban – revocation of a user’s privilege to post to the HubPages forums, due to TOS violations such as harassment, spamming, intimidation, or using multiple accounts to post to the same forum thread. A ban may last 3 days, 1 month, several months, or forever.

Hub score – the computer-generated, dynamic score for individual hubs, based upon a complex and somewhat opaque set of criteria. (Often confused with Hubscore).

HubPages Elite – a group of volunteers who are in charge of running various programs. Elite members are not part of HubPages staff, and have no official authority.

Hubscore (also called “Author score”) – the computer-generated, dynamic number on a Hubber’s profile image, from 1-100, indicating that member’s status based upon a complex and somewhat opaque set of criteria.

Newbie – an inexperienced Internet or technology user. Describing oneself as a “newbie” is a sign of humility, sometimes used by more experienced people as well, and something likely to generate sympathy and helpfulness.

Organic traffic – visits to a Hub, blog or website based upon links that have been created naturally as a result of some readers finding the contents interesting, then linking to it. Organic links are believed to particularly valuable because visitors will presumably be interested in the contents, find what they are looking for, and thus more inclined to purchase something or click on ads.

RSS feed – a dynamic listing of content, based upon Really Simple Syndication, which when viewed in a web browser will display a list of content, for example the 5-10 most recent or best articles. Compared with regular bookmarks, the advantage of RSS feeds is that the user can see a list of the contents, automatically updated, before deciding what to read. RSS feeds can also be used to generate backlinks.

Split personality – HubPages allows its users to create multiple accounts within certain limits. The term “split personality” is often used to critically describe those who use multiple accounts to express conflicting viewpoints or values in such a manner that they hope that others will see each account as being separate; a form of hypocrisy.

URL tracker (also called “referral trackers”) – Unique ID created to generate “referral traffic” or “referral signups.” Once your tracker has been added to a website address (URL), the link can be posted onto your hubs or sent to others via email. If someone clicks on the link, a browser “cookie” is set, valid for a given period of time. HubPages will then know that the traffic came from you, and you will receive a percentage of page impressions resulting from visits or signups within a pre-set period of time.

Widgets and RSS feeds - An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is a dynamic type of hyperlink (URL), which contains information that may be changing while the URL remains constant. For example, the RSS may contain information about your latest 5 hubs; if someone subscribes to the RSS feed, they will always have access to a list of your latest 5 hubs without having to visit your site – they simply can use a feed reader or an RSS-enabled web browser to preview these dynamically generated bookmarks. A widget essentially does the same thing, but is generated by inserting a string of HTML code into a website or blog. Each hubbers’ profile page conveniently provides links to the URLs needed to generate RSS feeds and the code needed to generate widgets; the RSS feeds can then be posted on blogs and websites or posted to RSS submission sites, and the widgets can easily be inserted into any external websites or blogs. Rather than sharing one hub at a time or posting a bunch of links to individual hubs, these features make it easy to share the latest, best or hottest hubs without worrying about updates, as these are automated. Further customization options are available for those who want to generate an RSS feed comprising of specific hubs or a group of hubs sharing the same tag, for example. 

This hub will be expanded upon and updated regularly. If well received, it will be used to write one or more tutorials with more in-depth advice and illustrations on specific topics.

If you would like some term to be added, or if you have any questions, please leave a comment. I appreciate your constructive feedback on this topic.