On MetaFilter Being Penalized By Google

Paul Fernhout (109597) writes "MetaFilter recently announced layoffs due to a decline in ad revenue that started with a mysterious 40% drop in traffic from Google on November 17, 2012, and which never recovered. Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand explores in detail how MetaFilter 'serves as a poster child of problems with Google's penalty process, despite all the advances Google has made over the years.' Caitlin Dewey at the Washington Post puts it more bluntly: 'That may be the most striking, prescient takeaway from the whole MetaFilter episode: the extent to which the modern Web does not incentivize quality.'"

Comments

You're Doing It Wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

If you depend that heavily on ad revenue from Google then you really need to re-think your business model

Re:You're Doing It Wrong

[TWX]

It's worse actually. They're dependent on Google not only for ad revenue, but for simple exposure.

Honestly I never knew what metafilter was for. I've been on the Internet since 1994 (god, 20 years!) and metafilter never really caught my eye as knowing what they were for. If their goal was to be a front-door for the Internet, an aggregator of cool stuff, I have plenty of other sites to do that through that each seem to do a good job. If their job was to be a question-and-answer forum, I've got several forums for specific topics that I can visit and get better answers, and where if I give answers, they're both appreciated and discussed at length (sometimes ad-nauseum) so that they stay relevant.

If metafilter broke their somewhat parasitic arrangement with an entity that isn't forced to send them traffic, then I don't really know what to say to them.

Re:You're Doing It Wrong

[wvmarle]

Agreed.

I'm also one of those oldies, and never heard of that particular site. However I'm on Slashdot from not too long after the beginning (many years of just reading - not commenting) - my friends told me about this site over a beer in the students' club. Good old days.

To come back to Slashdot and Google: I'm using Google quite extensively to search for all kinds of topics, including tech related ones. I don't recall having ever seen a link to a Slashdot article appear in Google, not even a link to a comment (which is of course where the real interesting bits can be found), probably as Slashdot doesn't produce any new content, they just aggregate what they find elsewhere. If Metafilter is indeed also just an aggregator, good that Google skips their links and instead provides the links to the actual content instead.

Re:You're Doing It Wrong

[PopeRatzo]

It introduced me to some new things, porn included.

Kids these days. Why, when I was young, we were introduced to porn by the Sears and Roebuck catalog or our parish priest.

The root problem is...

[QuietLagoon]

... that google appears to be the main generator of traffic for some websites. The way to solve the root problem is not to change how google does or does not work, but to bring other traffic generators on board.

.
A company that relies upon one customer for a great majority of its sales will always be beholden to that customer. That is why companies diversify their customer base.

Websites should diversify their traffic generators instead of just relying on good ole google to generate traffic for them.

Re:The root problem is...

[DogDude]

That's irrelevant. ANY business that relies solely on another unaffiliated business is doomed to fail, eventually. That's Business 101 and has been true across every industry, since the birth of capitalism.

Re:I had my own problems with Google

[wiredlogic]

That's pretty hypocritical considering how much hardcore porn is indexed by Google image search.

Re:I had my own problems with Google

[MTO_B.]

I cant live without money, I live with what I earn from AdSense. Yes, I'm too dependent on Google, but it's how it is.