Aren't we too Dependent on Google? What if Google Shuts Down?

No.

I don't care if Google disappears tomorrow.

Sounds like YOU should be worried though.

Seriously - why would anyone make a business that could be switched out like a light by someone else? it doesn't make sense.

Sure you can leverage Google to improve your results but they're just one company and it's crazy to rely on them for your revenue.

There's more to the internet than just Google, Google isn't the internet

Theres much more out there plus having a business that just relies on Google can be a risky thing anyway

There are other search engines too, besides Google. Market is constantly changing...Facebook might even roll out a search engine!

It's the difference between a real business and just a job making money online. If you aspire to have a real online business, you don't want any third party to have control over your income. Diversify at the very least, but also keep working toward a business model for the long term that reduces your reliance on a third party for anything crucial, like traffic.

That's the long way of saying you need a list.

As big and almighty as Google wants to be, it also represents one way to market your business. Do I want my rankings in Google to be as high as possible? Absolutely. But Google is not the only source of traffic and business that I have. It's never good to have all of your eggs in one basket, no matter how big and powerful you think the basket is.

Yeah making list could be an option so as not to depend on Google. As I was thinking that only Traffic from search engine can bring money which of-course is dominated by Google..

Personally It would only effect 1 of my sites, it doesn't generate much revenue anyway!

There are actually alot of other ways which you can get traffic to your site, but they are just alot less simple and require more effort.

If Google shut down tomorrow, I would make so much more money. All my competition for every niche would be gone.

Search engine traffic has become a nice traffic bonus instead of my main source.

I don't use Google to make any money at all. However it is my search engine of choice for surfing and research, etc.

If it went away a minute from now I'd go back to Altavista, Yahoo or any number of other search engines that work just as well as Google.

The most things I'd miss if Google went away would be Google Voice and gmail.

Oh yeah, my Droid.

George Wright

what do you actually think could cause Google to shutdown? like server crash or just the Google building somebody you think may destroy it and then Google lost all our data.

if Google shut down for some reason, people will now move to other search engines which will be probably yahoo or bing.

and any site that has a good rank in Google definitely has even a better rank in other search engines more especially yahoo and bing.

so don't worry even if google disappear your online business will still shine

My question is what if all search engines shutdown? then what will be the future of online business?

Google is the internet. Google is the boss. Boss will never die

Mike Tyler.

If Google shut down, it would naturally be replaced. Fortunately, I don't put Google on the priority pedestal it seems many other members do, thus I believe my online business would recover from any negative effects a lot easier.

Google should never be the full investment that all of your buisness should going towards. If dependency is strictly based upon the success of Google. then it isn't meant for you.

Well, Today one of my site was affected by Google Panda. That was just a test site so i dont need to worry much..The worry is that I was thinking of coming up with more niche site and now the Panda has screwed my confidence and shattered it completely

Now I am thinking to leave working on SEO to earn bucks from website. Its risky and the rank IS NOT proportional to our hardwork

So I was thinking on PPC. I dont know anything much about it. But I will learn is ASAP!

Still Google shoudn't play with lives of millions of bloggers...They should atleast lay a clear TOS for Google Panda so that we can stay away from the hit...Even Whitehat websites got hit !

WTF

Actually, I agree with you until you mentioned these lines:

For you to be safe next time, try to end up saying, these are just my opinions.

I don't really focus too much on Google. They are just ONE source of traffic. Truth be told most of my traffic doesn't even come from them. And according to an article I read the other day, fewer and fewer people are using Google these days as their main search engine. So they might be losing a little luster.

What if Google shut down? More likely you'll be hit by a car crossing the street, or worse, the chinese will buy our Country.

But to humor you, if google shuts down the other Search Engines will take over. Try bing.

No matter what, SEO and SERPS plays a large role not only in the Internet marketing niche, but in marketing overall. At the moment Google dominates with just over 70% of market share for searches. That's why SEO almost exclusively concentrates on Google.

If they shut down tomorrow, it'd hurt people using Adwords to drive traffic, and IMers using Adsense for income. As for traffic, that'd be picked up by the other search engines. BTW - Not gonna happen.

As for other forms of traffic, they are great to have too, but aside from a list many come back to search engine traffic. So I'm not worried if Google went pop, there'd be something else that would quickly fill the void.

I'll go a different direction as most of the posts here.

If you don't care if Google disappears overnight, you're probably not getting much traffic from Google in the first place.

Because if you were, why would you not care if the traffic was gone overnight?

I get a ton of traffic from Google. I also get a ton of traffic from my list, affiliates, wholesale customers, repeat customers, referrals, Facebook, and PPC. My business would go on if I lost Google, but it's not like I wouldn't be bummed. It's like having your 5 best salespeople walk out the door. Or losing your CEO. Sure, you'll get by...but it'll suck.

Google is a "live by the sword" type of proposition. High rankings brings in SO MUCH traffic that it can knock you off your game. I know people that had high rankings for, basically, crappy adsense and affiliate sites. Their business model totally sucked, but it was masked by the fact that they had tons of traffic. When the traffic was gone (after Panda), so was their "business".

The other problem with high rankings is that it can definitely make it difficult to diversify. Yahoo, bing, facebook, affiliates, partner sites, offline, etc just might not bring anywhere near the level of traffic. So what to do?

My strategy was to just keep adding ways, outside of Google, to get new traffic. I now have a handful of great affiliates, great advertising partners, places I advertise offline, a huge list, wholesale accounts, and TONS of repeat customers and referrals. Oh yeah, and a brand in the niche.

So my lesson would be....it's ok to rely on Google traffic at the beginning. But make sure you're converting some of that income into equity...if not, it's only a matter of time.

If I lost all my Google traffic, it would suck. But I'd still be really happy with my income if Google brought me no sales. I'm just super happy with my income WITH google.

There once was life on the internet before Google and I would bet that life would still exist without them. Something would fill the void for sure.

Google is vast. They keep trying new things. Maps, Google Earth, etc. etc. etc. that drive more and more traffic for them. The culture at Google makes new ideas thrive. They try them, fail, and a few take off to be the next big thing. That's what makes them great. Not bad for two college kids that only wanted to sell their idea for $1 million.

For one thing- if Google went under, there'd be a huge mess-

Besides all of the online businesses that rely on it, Gmail is huge, Google Docs... and I guess YouTube is part of that, too

But like a lot of other warriors are saying, that's why it's important to diversity

To be honest, I'm getting tired of Google. I've done a lot of SEO, but 90% of the money I've made came from other places- I don't think the time spent on traditional SEO is worth what it used to be- at least for me it isn't

The only way I can see Google shutting down is if something significantly better replaces them. When that happens, you'll probably be more dependent on the new guy anyway and Google will become insignificant.

I think the future will be way more social searching than search engines. I was reading an article about Facebook ad conversions compared to Google ad conversions and Facebook seem to be doing a lot better at it than Google

If google goes away tomorrow, another search engine will take it place. Remember Alta vista, lycos, etc..

Google has to watch out for Facebook. That's the biggest treat.

Google's not fading in the forseeable future, they're expanding in all directions at great pace - search, ads, webapps, gmail, android, chrome, library and book catalogue of all books, google maps, google+, mobile phones, youtube, ....i could go on.

I don't think any other company (including Microsoft and Apple) comes close to their diversity. It will all come together - what will they do with all this data and capability? Extrapolate 20 years into the future and it sure seems that Google will be the all-knowing master of us all. Hey, but what can you do? ;-)

I am not and have never been reliant on any search engine for anything.

In general, I conduct my business as though there is no such thing as a search engine, and the only way anyone finds out about my site is if someone tells them.

Which means I have to tell people where my site is, and put things on that site which make them want to tell more people where it is.

And if I do a good job, I don't care about the search engines.

If Google shuts down someone else will take over as the new player. Everyone will switch over to Bing, yahoo, msn, etc

People go online for two things pretty much, facebook, and to search for random things/solutions/products.

If we didn't have a main search engine I don't know what the internet would become!

cheers!

yes recognize Google and use it to your advantage but like every good thing - diversify! Like the old saying about not putting all your eggs in one basket. (Frankly due to Google Panda I try to invest my time in things that will not be affected by Google's updates - a better return on my investment longterm)

It's always a good idea to have several backups. Your business Is like a chair supporting you, your family and even employees.

The more weight the chair has to support the more legs you want. Solely relying on Google is like having 1 leg keeping your business afloat.

If this leg breaks then your falling, hard.

We all start with google and at times get too comfortable, if we take our business serious then there is no reason to solely rely on it.

tried to disversity to other search engine such as Yahoo and Bing, but the traffic and conversion from there just is not much. sucks google have such as monopoly.

Well then Yahoo and Bing will be the most powerful search engines =] so don't worry about this .

Basically another site will just take over... Yahoo, Ask, Bing...

I too will shot down my money making golden goose. Search engines are unlikely to dissapear in my lifetime

If Google shuts down there is always Yahoo or even better Facebook

It should not be a problem for those that keep it real by building business relationships online and offline.

Google will disappear only if the 2012 conspiracy comes true. And if it does happen, then I would be more bothered to find a secret ship in China than check my email.

Although google is the dominating search engine.. It isn't the only one (Bing, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Ask etc.) Even if the traffic here isn't as much as google. Even if google was shut down, I would hope that your business isn't entirely dependant on it.. Why would you want a third party to be able to shut you down? Even though most of the world has internet these days it's not the only way you can advertise and run your business. What happened to newspapers, bilboards and offices?! It's always best to have a handful of backups... Just incase!!

That is why you shouldn't put everything in one basket if you are running a business.

People seem to have fallen hook, line, and sinker for all the sales hype that gets them to buy SEO products. Unfortunately - to sell SEO products, advertisers had to install the idea that search rankings were the only thing that was important. People bought their crap and the next generation of copycats allowed the idea that SEO was the only thing to concentrate on - it's ALL a numbers game, right?

They were so good at their BS that people started building their whole businesses around search engines - doing things to attract like putting up articles that were nothing but complete nonsense to attract search engines even though the articles were repulsive to prospective customers. Then the cash cow kicks them and they scream bloody murder.

It IS a numbers game - but it's not automated roulette - it's a HUMAN numbers game. You can sit on Google one forever and if people aren't buying what you're selling, it really doesn't mean much. Customers can become very loyal and will give word of mouth advertising that an automated system will never be able to touch. Search engines, on the other hand, have no loyalty. If your site is trash and a lot of other trash is sitting there on page one with you people will start getting riled over search results and that search engines will do things like the panda slap.

Why don't people "get" this? To stay in business online you have to have the same demeanor as you do to stay in business online.
You can put that fine restaurant on full page ads in the best of magazines - and people might come for a bit to try you out - but if your food tastes like it came from someone's garbage can, people are going to spread the word and it's going to go a long ways further than that pricy advertisement.

Your advertising will kill you instead of make you rich if you are not producing quality - because it IS a numbers game. People have just been herded into believing in chasing the wrong numbers.

I'd jump up and down with glee! All my competitors just got wiped out.

-Chris

Create multiple streams of income. This way if one of them disappears, you are not completely dependent upon it and you will still be okay. There are plenty of ways to make money online, and you do not have to depend on Google to do so.

please god make google go away

If google shuts down there will be an opportunity for other small players to enter in the arena..... and every small player will be having small share in this.. Right now it is completly dominated by google....

You should have control toward your business. Exploit Offline sources for traffic then you will gradually move away of Google and other giants.

well, I like the phrase, it would be a disaster,
we are depend on google as the main search engine, youtube and gmail re clicked to it,
But even when the boss dies, the backup is always good and effective,
Why should you worry?

as what most of you have said... Google will never shut down

If Google just went away, no problem, people would just use a different search engine to find what they wanted. A worse problem for those overly reliant on Google (I throw myself into that pile, in some cases), is when they do a major update, as they did yesterday, that drops previously high trafficked sites out of the top rankings.

Now, Google is still there, and searchers are still using it to find things....just not your site.

There will always be increasing traffic on the internet with or without Google. If Google were to shut down, and I don't see any reason why it would, the traffic on Google would likely move to Yahoo, as it is the second most popular search engine on the web. Of course, the smart ones will be able to adjust to Yahoo for their SEO.

Is it wise to be that dependent on one search engine? I mean, traffic could come from anywhere, right? So why not, have as many sites on board or link to your own for more traffic.

If google was to shut down I would be just fine I don't really rely on google that much :-)