Thread:LarsMars/@comment-9346948-20190809191532/@comment-9346948-20190812201540

Hi Sophie,I got some responses related to the SEO test.


 * What wikis are involved?
 * We selected 50 communities for Movies/TV/Anime and 50 communities for Videogames from different sizes and different Monthly Active Users
 * How long is this test for? When does it start/end?
 * The test begins as soon as possible. We would want at least 2-4 weeks to watch search visibility and measure success/failure.
 * What about anons who want to actually go to the file page, not the page it’s used on?
 * The anonymous user can login and get to the file pages. Those pages are not useful for an actual anonymous user and all of the data on those pages are maintained through the lightbox experience. (Check harrypotter or pokemon for examples of where it is live today.)
 * What if we want to end the test early?
 * We don’t want to remove a redirect so we will not end the test early; a 301 redirect is a permanent redirect in server response language. If you remove it, it’s not permanent so the trust of your site drops. If success of this overall test is met, this will go live site wide (with an announcement via Will Kavanagh). This isn’t an A/B test as it involves actual URLs.
 * What are the reasons for this test/why do staff think this was a good idea to test this?
 * Our network of sites has a lot of low quality, thin content (hundreds of thousands), this project is one easier cast to eliminate those risks of future ranking drops (as stated above), but will also increase ranking of the article pages due to the transfer of any file page link equity that has been built to them since we are redirecting them to the article pages where the content is much better.
 * Will we be told/able to see the results of this test?
 * I’m fine with sharing visibility from a trends standpoint via screencaps from the Search Metrics tool.
 * In case this test ends well, and this change actually happens, then is there gonna be a way for wikis/anons to go to the file page rather than the first use of the image?
 * Anyone logged in will always be able to see the file page; the behavior does not change.
 * Are you/staff aware that we have anon editing disabled on this wiki because we’re a children’s wiki? and if so how do you/staff expect this to affect the data/testing?
 * We, as staff, are aware that there are some communities with editing disabled. This test has nothing to do with anonymous editing.
 * Won’t this be confusing for users who sign up and now have to figure out what file pages are? or users who are expecting file pages to redirect to the first use, but suddenly they don’t? plus this raises the barrier for new users, as they now have understand what file pages are as fandom[sic] isn’t redirecting them because they’re no logged in?
 * No, because the vast majority of users who would be new to signing up are new to editing in general. There would be no confusion as the file page URL doesn’t exist to the logged out user. Readers don’t know what “file pages” are considering that 99.5% of our users are readers.