Google Starts Its Own SEO Firm?

[Charles Harper]

Interesting, yes?

NewsWire - Google to Enter SEO Business Facebook to Follow

CT

[Thinker1]

Originally Posted by Charles Harper

Interesting, yes?

NewsWire - Google to Enter SEO Business Facebook to Follow

CT

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.

[Lou Diamond]

Hello,
on the surface it sounds like a conflict of interest.

[ramone_johnny]

Gee, I dont know what to think of this. This could have a very negative impact on a LOT of businesses offering SEO services.

[sdentrepreneur]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing link....

[Marhelper]

How is that not a conflict of interest? I suppose they will own every major top spot ... maybe that would be too obvious.

[Mega B]

That has to be seen as bad news for alot of people who work in this sector but they also say competition is good in this case i think it will be all one sided and Google i fear will not be the losers.

[gabibeowulf]

I'm keeping my eyes open for Google to launch a WSO here ...

Gabriel

[Mike Anthony]

Anybody else running that story? Haven't seen it anywhere else. If this is true its just a sneaky way of getting sites listed at the top of the results without having to disclose that its a sponsored listing. No SEO company can compete with Google. No one but them have full access to their algorithm.

[Sarah Russell]

Wow... That would really change the playing field, although I'd like to see it confirmed by more than one news source.

[rapidscc]

I hate to say this but if that news is true it
could mean the end of SEO as we know it.

Sad....

[Raydal]

Well, if this is true then it means that there will no longer be
any organic search results anymore. Everything will now be
paid results. BOTH the Adwords and the "organic" results will
go to the highest bidder.

Interesting ...

-Ray Edwards

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by ramone_johnny

Gee, I dont know what to think of this. This could have a very negative impact on a LOT of businesses offering SEO services.

Would have a negative impact on all of internet marketing. Even if you do not personally use SEO for traffic you will find yourself competing against people and companies that only need to have deep pockets to get a lion share of whatever niche you are in.

[Matt Maiden]

Why wouldn't they? Wouldn't you if it were your search engine?

Always funny when marketers get bent out of shape when somebody else does something to make more money.

[Underground SEO]

hmmmm interesting, however, I'm not too worried, if the service is going to cost around $25,000 a month then affiliate marketers etc should still be fine if they are targeting niches. As nobody is going to spend that amount of money to dominate a niche, they would barely earn enough in return!

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by ccmusicman

This is a huge conflict of interest.

I may be thinking of the words "conflict of interest" with a different meaning from others here, but in what sense is this a conflict of interest? What are the interests that conflict? It sounds more like diversification of income, to me.

Originally Posted by ccmusicman

To me, it basically says "Whoever can dish out the most cash will own the top spots"

I'm not sure that's not true now anyway, to some extent? People who can identify and can afford to use consistently the best professional SEO services get the highest organic rankings anyway, don't they?

Is the problem just that Google will supposedly be better at doing it than anyone else?

I've been surprised they haven't done this before.

Originally Posted by ccmusicman

It would be like me owning a fishing pond, holding a fishing tournament, and then turning around and offering the highest bidder, on the day of the tournament, showing them all the best fishing spots with the biggest fish!

Again, what would be the interests that conflict, if you did that? It sounds like a profit maximisation plan, to me. Google are surely running their business for the benefit of their stockholders, just as you would run your fishing pond for your own benefit?

[agc]

This storm cloud could have a silver lining.

If Google is doing SEO then it surely would serve as a guide to what practices are ACCEPTABLE, and could serve as the basis for any number of legal challenges to their supposed right to delist sites for supposed infractions.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by Sarah Russell

Wow... That would really change the playing field, although I'd like to see it confirmed by more than one news source.

I'm starting to disbelieve this. Apparently anyone can become a reporter on this site. This was released over ten hours ago and there is no whisper in the news or blogs about it. It also states no sources and its not a real news piece as the latter part of it reads like an opinion piece

[Matt Maiden]

Originally Posted by agc

...legal challenges to their supposed right to delist sites for supposed infractions.

Why wouldn't they be allowed to delist anyone they wanted to?

They own it. It's their property. Getting listed in the first place is a privilege not a right.

[mojojuju]

I don't believe it, not without a credible source.

I'll consider it when the Wall Street Journal picks up the story. But as long as NewsWire is the only place reporting it, it's just another rumor as far as I'm concerned.

[scrofford]

Bunch of crap if you ask me! I think that Google needs to stop with this! It is a conflict of interest at the very least! What good would come out of it even for Google? Charging $25,000 per month won't get them many customers, so why would they do this at all?

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

I'm starting to disbelieve this. Apparently anyone can become a reporter on this site. This was released over ten hours ago and there is no whisper in the news or blogs about it. It also states no sources and its not a real news piece as the latter part of it reads like an opinion piece

You beat me to it. I was just going to say that this "news" site essentially looks like an article directory.

[Fernando Veloso]

Quote from The article: NewsWire - Google to Enter SEO Business Facebook to Follow

However, the fact remains that Google SEO will be the only SEO agency in the world that can guarantee first page rankings because they are the only company that will have access to the algorithm that dictates it.

Need to say more?

[mojojuju]

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

You beat me to it. I was just going to say that this "news" site essentially looks like an article directory.

Newswire.com is like the Ezinearticles.com of news.

Just remember folks: if you read it on the internet, then it must be true.

After all, there are protocols in place to prevent any false information from being published on the internet. It's not like any person off the street can just publish a story on NewsWire.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I may be thinking of the words "conflict of interest" with a different meaning from others here, but in what sense is this a conflict of interest? What are the interests that conflict? It sounds more like diversification of income, to me.?

The interest that would be in conflict is the stated interest of google to present the most relevant and useful content - Not the content most bolstered by cash. Thats why they have always identified sponsored listings form the natural resutls.

In essence the lack of a sponsored listing disclosure on the natural results would be deceptive, a conflict of that interest and result in an uncompetitive market in whatever niche they worked "SEO" on.

[Mike Anthony]

Its beginning to be debunked. Looks like a false alarm. Knew it sounded suspect.

Google Gets Into The SEO Consulting Business | Search Engine Journal

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by ccmusicman

whoever can dish out the cash wins.

I hear you, but I'm just suggesting that to some extent that's not significantly different from the current position anyway, you know?

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

Its beginning to be debunked.

Oh well, false alarm then, perhaps. It wouldn't amaze me, though.

[ramone_johnny]

Tell you one thing....

As soon as I find out what sites (if theres any truth to this whole story at all) are using Googles SEO services to rank 1st position - Ill be studying them BIG TIME, to find out exactly what theyre doing!

(insert evil laugh here)

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by ramone_johnny

insert evil laugh here

[Daniel Molano]

If they do this they will be shooting themselves on the foot. But we don't know for sure, this article is not a realiable source.

I remember speaking with John Farrel, the CEO of Google Mexico about 3 months ago, and I asked him: "Why doesn't Google enter or sponsor someone in the SEO business?" He answered something along the lines of: "Because it's the antithesis of our entire philosophy, we provide the users with the best and most relevant results, not commercial results with the fattest wallet".

They got to where they are because of that philosophy.

I have a meeting with him next Tuesday, I'll let you guys know what's up.

Google will go down if they do this. Everyone, including myself, will move to Yahoo or Bing.

[chini]

If this was true, google will eventually go out of business. Why?
The people who pay for top position would most likely NOT be the most relevant results.
I doubt its true though

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by Daniel Molano

Google will go down if they do this.

They won't. They Have their cash machine (adwords). It works, people are used to it and it doesn't give a window of great PR for Bing and Yahoo to get more market share.

Once you get to think about it it makes no sense. IF they wanted the extra cash without the bad PR they just have to put one or two more listings at the top of the natural results and charge premium for it. End of story.

[MarkAse]

Google has said that PR is either going away, or that they wish it would.

Why would they then be talking about SEO services to improve PR, they would certainly know that SERPS matter and that PR doesn't.

I don't see any quotes or anything from Google, to me this looks like a classic link bait post!

[Shaun Lee]

I'm pretty sure the results that come up are still highly relevant.

Besides, the real customers of Google are the users. If they manipulate the top listings, users will naturally go to another search engine, which means Google's demise.

-Shaun

[RCormacko]

This should be illegal. It is like insider trading.

[rehema]

This iverg good of google because we can see that they are keeping up with the competion that is out there. But the question and the worry remainsw

Are they going to corp with the competitions ? yes they might be because of the giant search engine that they own But will this be by being very biase to the sites that are using their services ?

No very sure but I can see something like this.

[ramone_johnny]

I pig just fly by my window here.

[Matt Maiden]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

People who can identify and can afford to use consistently the best professional SEO services get the highest organic rankings anyway, don't they?

Right. It's already determined by more factors than "most relevant" and most of it is paid for one way or another.

Buying backlinks, hiring SEO consultants, companies, learning "tricks" in here...it never has been about the highest quality or best information.

If the Pope wrote an article and submitted it to EzineArticles and wanted "Most Views" he could just make an appeal to all of the Catholics in the World.

The actual content and quality of that content wouldn't matter as much as exterior factors.

Same with Google's search results. Look at all of the sites that get to the first page because of backlinks and knowing the right keyword density.

Again, it's more important to know how to get listed than the quality of the content.

I've used this analogy before but I'll say it again, if a Nobel Award winning author wrote an article on what makes great literature, it still does not guarantee a top spot for the keyword phrase "what makes great literature".

Any monkey with enough money to hire an SEO firm could beat out the World's greatest writer.

That has been the case all along as far as "relevancy" in search results.

Now that Google has done the best branding job ever, (is a word in the dictionary and a verb) they are going to cash in on it.

I would. Wouldn't you?

[FredJones]

Pah - Google will leave the search domain and enter the browse domain if they do this. Well, not in theory, but for all practical purposes.

And it will be a rich-getting-richer game.

I have my serious doubts - if I was Google I would never do it unless I was at my final step of being thrown out of the search business andd had to make whatever moolah I could make at the last moment.

Folks, at this moment my intuition says we are safe.

[butters]

This will destroy SEO in BIG or fairly big markets... Niches markets will be untouched by this and will make no difference to them markets. So it will destroy some of the people on the net but wont destroy little niches.

[xbokcom]

Wow I do not think this is ture source ... But may the best wins

[DogScout]

Google is not the only search engine, nor the only source of traffic. Being one page one does not solve a business' traffic woes if they have a 98% bounce rate.

IF the story is true, I would be willing to guess less and less people would use them. Once upon a time, they were the geeks choice. They are fast becoming 'the man'. Could be true as once said in this forum no one would be able to kill them, but they can kill themselves.

[Daniel Molano]

Originally Posted by Daniel Molano

If they do this they will be shooting themselves on the foot. But we don't know for sure, this article is not a realiable source.

I remember speaking with John Farrel, the CEO of Google Mexico about 3 months ago, and I asked him: "Why doesn't Google enter or sponsor someone in the SEO business?" He answered something along the lines of: "Because it's the antithesis of our entire philosophy, we provide the users with the best and most relevant results, not commercial results with the fattest wallet".

They got to where they are because of that philosophy.

I have a meeting with him next Tuesday, I'll let you guys know what's up.

Google will go down if they do this. Everyone, including myself, will move to Yahoo or Bing.

The meeting got moved for tomorrow. I'll definitely let you guys know if this is true.

[André Silverspoon]

If one door is closed be optimistic another one will be opened.

[tonyaphx]

Newswire is just a press release. If this were true you would find this news in more places other than Newswire.

[Jagged]

I'm thinking it's a false alarm.....probably started by Bing or Yahoo to draw some new customers...lol

[Brad Gosse]

My sources at Google tell me this is just a rumor.

[Nick Brighton]

Originally Posted by Matt M

Why wouldn't they? Wouldn't you if it were your search engine?

Always funny when marketers get bent out of shape when somebody else does something to make more money.

Come back and say that when in six month's time, you're looking for a simple answer or interesting piece of content from the web, but Google only shows you corporate, capitalist listings designed to extract money from your wallet.

Look beyond IM. Look at the future of using the web. It would be the digital equivalent of going to the library and having to pay to enter.

[Thomas Belknap]

I don't believe the story.

If it were true I would have to agree with Alexa. I don't understand the conflict of interest.

Especially when you consider most top rankings were not achieved "naturally".

[JasonP]

Won't affect guys like me simply because my customer base isn't prepared to shell out $25,000 a month. But seriously in my opinion this looks FAKE.