5 ms·
I think Metafilter needs to spend more time exploring SEO and perhaps a site redesign. It may be a great site (people say it is), but if it has a poor backlink
by unreal37 12y ago
I think Metafilter needs to spend more time exploring SEO and perhaps a site redesign. It may be a great site (people say it is), but if it has a poor backlink profile, stale content, and a high bounce rate, it's not going to rank as well even for better content.
Craigslist is a great site too, and you don't see it highly ranked in Google for many queries.
- carbocation 12y agoCraigslist auto-expires content. MeFi's content seems a bit more evergreen.
- hnriot 12y agoabsolutely, the website looks very 90s, none of the links look like links and its too myspace in appearance (old myspace) - I would bounce if results landed me on that site without even reading the content.
- rhizome 12y agoAre you saying that Google ranks sites based on appearance?
- ENGNR 12y agoThey take immediate bounces into account, so if people bounce based on appearance then yes.
- rhizome 12y agoThat's a big 'if.'
- iopq 12y agoI try to avoid it because it looks like garbage. Even though the content is good, I feel the site is not authoritative because it looks like some guy's geocities page.
- julian_t 12y agoI agree that the design is a bit old-fashioned, but to me sites are about the content, so as long as I can get the information I want without getting a migraine, I'll ignore it. Authoritative comes from content, not looks. In fact, to me MeFi and HN are about the same, design-wise...
- iopq 12y agoHacker news has a sane color scheme. Ask Metafilter has barf yellow on swamp green.
- rhizome 12y agoSorry to be so blunt, but that's pretty snobby and I would be seriously concerned if Google actually used that criteria.
- iopq 12y agoPeople click on the search result... and hit the back button right as they see the color scheme. This ruins the Google ranking of the site.
- marssaxman 12y agoThe fact that Metafilter hasn't jumped on a bunch of javascript-heavy design fads over the years is one of the things I really like about it. Much like Hacker News, the site just works and doesn't get in your face with a lot of designer ego.
- deminature 12y agoNo reason to jump on "javascript-heavy" design fads, a simple refresh of the design to be more modern and usable would suffice. Even reddit is more appealing and visually straightforward for new users, and that site usually ranks pretty low for readability for new users unaccustomed to the design.