The overwhelming majority of views to the website come via search engine queries. People ask Google or whatever and wind up here.
The links go not only to the columns but also the board; I would bet the message board gets MORE hits because there’s only 3300 columns but there’s 20 million message board postings.
The site redesign/redeployment had the ill fortune to coincide with the changing of Google’s algorithms in the last couple months of 2017. It’s normal and natural for traffic to be down after such a relaunch but there’s usually recovery within a few months. The Straight Dope did not get that recovery. Since it happened exactly when Google was making changes, the assumption is that Google has something to do with it.
I’m no SEO expert so I have no idea why this happened. I’d love to hear from people that do know what they’re talking about in this department.
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Why the change, and why now? With the planned sale of the Chicago Reader, the folks at Sun-Times Media, which will continue to own the Straight Dope, are re-thinking the once-a-week deep dive (sorta) on a single topic (usually) in question-and-answer format. It’s possible a successor to the Straight Dope will emerge, possibly with daily online content. But no decision has been made, and my role, if any, has not been determined. In the meantime, I’m thinking about publishing another Straight Dope book – it’s been nigh on 20 years since the last one.
However that works out, the Straight Dope legacy will remain intact.
So new columns are at least on hiatus.
In the meantime we hope you enjoy the column archives and the always new, often interesting, sometimes hilarious, occasionally disturbing content here on the board.
Maybe Reddit style “Ask A” forum can be introduced? We have some fairly knowledgable posters on a diverse array of topics and this would basically be the StaffReport…
Isn’t that what “General Questions” has always been about? And “IMHO” for opinions on most all the topics you could think so.
We encourage everyone to step up and dispell some ignorance, especially since nowadays people can’t ask Cecil. So they’re dependent on you for assistance.
There’s a lot of smart people here on all kinds of subjects, some so smart I have no idea what you’re talking about. Please keep on keeping on!