A Simple(ish) Q&A Improvement
-
Hey Roger,
In the posting etiquette it states that users should 'find out if someone has already posted your question before adding it' but we all know that is never really going to happen.
So, we tend to see the same questions asked again and again when there are already top class answers in the Q&A.
So, could you not implement some kind of suggested answer system? So, user posts a question, you analyse it, list potential answers that may provide the answer based on the content of the question itself. If nothing matches, the user can then go on to post the question but in many cases, they would get a top notch answer instantly.
I have seen this on other sites and it would certainly cut down on the amount of duplicated questions and the suggested answers could all be hand picked to some extent (good answers, lots of thumbs up etc).
So, the Q&A would have less duplication and users would get directed to the best possible answers for a given question in a shorter time frame. Good for those that do the answering, good for the people who have questions - everyone is happy.
Just a thought, my tuppence, 5 cents, etc.
Marcus
-
My pleasure.
I think it will really benefit the whole Q&A experience. The good guys like EGOL, Ryan and Alan that are answering all the time can focus on creating really strong answers for unique questions and the users looking for answers get visibility of the existing strong answers straight away.
EGOL's point above was valid as well. The search for the Q&A itself is a bit weak and it could do with looking at other factors along with some weighting for good answers. The metrics to apply this weighting like the staff endorsements, good answer and thumbs are all there to make this possible, just needs a bit of back end wizadry.
Cheers
Marcus -
I hear ya! I'll make sure our product manager takes a look at this as well. Thanks for the input!
-
Hi Marcus! This is a really great idea. We've actually passed this thread onto our Q&A product manager so we can get it in the queue. It will take a bit of work but it would be really beneficial to the community. Thanks for the idea!
-
I really like this idea.
I know of a few questions that I have answered with very detailed information and references - and even received staff endorsement. Then when the same question is asked again and again and I am not motivated to keep rewriting the entire epistle... and have difficulty finding it with the search.
I think that search could be improved by placing a badge beside answers that have SEOmoz staff endorsements or a green check beside answers that have been rated "good answer" by the author.
Really... just being honest... I think that the search used for Q&A is not very good. If we want to locate to a great answer by Alan Bleiweiss or RyanKent the search ignores the author... so searching for a great answer about "panda recovery bleiweiss" will not return all of the great answers that Alan has given.
Try it... if you search using author name and topic it will return nothing. Try "egol content" or "egol pdf"... you will find nothing and I have written about them many times. So, I go up to the google tool bar and query "site:seomoz.org egol pdf" to locate content on SEOmoz.
This forum is populated with searchers. We need a better search to unleash the deep value of the content that is being written.
Suggestion... Just use Google search. We all know that it works superbly.
-
I agree, I think this would be a great feature.
-
Its a great idea. It would also essentially build up a knowledge base within the Q&A for people to get instant answers from too.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
403s: Are There Instances Where 403's Are Common & Acceptable?
Hey All, Both MOZ & Webmaster tools have identified 403 errors on an editorial site I work with (using Drupal CMS). I looked into the errors and the pages triggering the 403 are all articles in draft status that are not being indexed. If I am not logged into our drupal and I try to access an article in draft status I get the 403 forbidden error. Are these 403's typical for an editorial site where editors may be trying to access an article in draft status while they are not logged in? Webmaster tools is showing roughly 350 pages with the 'Access Denied' 403 status. Are these harmful to rank? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | JJLWeber1 -
Duplicate Content & Rel Canonical Tag not working
I'm really questioning the legitimacy of the duplicate content flags with moz. I'm building a website that sells home decor products and a lot of the pages are similar in structure (As would be expected with a store that sells thousands of individual products). It seems a little overkill to me to flag the following pages as duplicate content. They have different urls, titles, h1, h2, and h3 tages, different meta tags, etc. Right now, it's saying that the following have duplicate page content: http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com
Moz Pro | | cp_web
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/pillows/christmas-vacation-embroidered-pillow
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/throws/camo-bear-throw
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/teapots/wonderland-teapot
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/cambridge-rug-36x60
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king%2C-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/redmon-rag-rug-36x60
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/valances/hearthside-valance-72x14
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/valances/hearthside-valance-72x14
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king,-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/teapots/wonderland-teapot
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/throws/camo-bear-throw
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/accessories/home-place-tumbler
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king,-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/cambridge-rug-36x60
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/pillows/christmas-vacation-embroidered-pillow
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king%2C-woodland?pi=18
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king%2C-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/accessories/home-place-tumbler
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/redmon-rag-rug-36x6 Any ideas? Also, it seems like it's not honoring the rel-canonical tag. It keeps saying that pages with a rel canonical tag are duplicates when some of the urls that it's flagging shouldn't even be indexed because of the canonical tag. The "pi" in the query string should not be indexed! http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=3
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=6
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=7
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=6
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=10
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=8
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=8
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=7
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=7
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=1
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=8
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=5
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=10
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=3
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=5
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=4
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=9
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-%26-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=1
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=6
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=1
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=5
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=2
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=9
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=4
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=3
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-%26-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-%26-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=9
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=10
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=2
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=2
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=40 -
Rankings reporting showing inaccurate improve/decline/unchanged numbers
Our rankings report is showing inaccurate numbers for the improved, declined, and unchanged summary, both in the email and on the site. According to the added up numbers, we have 315 keywords in the campaign, but that's not possible as we only have 172 set up for it. The total for this section is correct, it just doesn't add up.
Moz Pro | | tncomseo0 -
Is it me or is SEOMOZ Q&A slow
I try and answer many questions here on SEOMoz Q&A, but the page load speed seems so slow I think my browser is going to time out. I don't remember it being this slow. Anybody else noticing slow loading (especially when asking, answering, or replying to questions)?
Moz Pro | | Francisco_Meza1 -
Need assistance with tool development using SEOMoz & Google APIs
I don't know where the right place to ask this is, but I work for an SEO agency, and we are looking for someone to help us with development of some tools utilizing the SEOMoz API and probably the Google API as well. Does anyone know where I could find a person with some previous experience with development using these APIs? We've had poor luck just trying to use a developer without specific experience in this area or at least some SEO knowledge. If you're a developer and would like to talk with us, you can contact me directly if you prefer, rather than post your contact info publicly, but I welcome any helpful thoughts or ideas regarding development of SEO tools. Thanks,
Moz Pro | | BandLeader
John
jmaher [at] mcdia.com0 -
What Q&A Forum Platform Does SEOmoz Use?
Completely custom built, or a 3rd party offering that can be customized? One of the most usable forums I've seen!
Moz Pro | | SEOPA0 -
Recommended Q&A Software
So I just read an SEOMoz post about the great SEO benefits of Question and Answer sites (or sections of sites) - much like the Q&A section I'm in right now. 🙂 I did some googling and haven't really found a good software for implementing (installing, skinning, integrating, etc.) a Q&A section on my website. There are a few out there, but they are pretty basic, nothing like this site or Yahoo Answers. Anyone know of good software (i'm on a PHP server) to implement Q&A on my site? Something that has the look and feel of this site or answers.yahoo.com, etc.? Thanks for the help!
Moz Pro | | mynewco0 -
SEO Industry Contracts, Resumes, & Jobs
We're in the process of looking to hire link builders & content managers in the Chicago area. While I know it's not a "core function" of SEOmoz, the SEO Industry Jobs section has been very helpful to us. Unfortunately, it's not easily searchable/filterable by geography. I think the Moz resume & job-board could be a lot more helpful with some updates, including filter by geography. Anyone else have any suggestions?
Moz Pro | | Gyi0