Update Jun 2008: Hubpages is crap. Indexing is not working like it did. I do not build them anymore.

A comment was made about the extra effort it takes when building a hubpage. I agree. Hubpages do take a bit more work. But I think that’s why Google pays attention to them. For me it takes a little more time to set one up, because I try to write between 1,000 to 1,500 words per hubpage.

The comparison between Squidoo and Hubpages always comes up. Everybody defaults back to Squidoo because it is easier to set one of these sites up. Add your four modules and publish. They don’t care if it’s crap or not. But they don’t tolerate spam either. Hubpages seems to care editorially about the content. Anyway, I can appreciate both. If you can write original content then there is no reason not to use both. If you are simply dumping PLR then you might should stick with Squidoo.

When I build a main site, whether it’s a “flagship” blog, BANS or SS store, or XSitePro HTML site, I will almost always use Squidoo, Hubpages, Wordpress.com, Blogger and sometimes Geocities, GooglePages and Yahoo 360 to add links and authority back to my site. I don’t take an either/or approach. They are all in play.

I use these social sites to filter my links down to my main site. Sure I use some gray hat techniques, but they are never used on my main sites. That’s what lens, hubpages, GooglePages and Geocities are for. These are throwaway sites. I send BS links to them in the hopes of driving traffic and getting higher PR/authority from Google to those social sites. Then I point links from the lens, hubpages to the main site. These sites are just my way of building my own network around my so-called, “money site” (Hate that effing saying). Throw in some BMD, commenting and directory submissions and I feel like I’m giving myself half a chance to be found in the SERPs.

It’s pretty neat to find a half decent topic to build on and find your main site, lens, hubpage and maybe another all populating the first two-three pages of search in Google.