Has Google Destroyed Your Business?

One of my sites that was ranking on page 1 for numerous keywords, but only promoted affiliate offers without too much useful content (was one of my first sites I created about 3 years ago) was slammed over the past week.

Rankings dropped by the hundreds, some keywords disappeared completely. Not cool. Luckily it's not one of my main sites and only pulled about $200 on average from Google traffic alone, it's a loss, but not the end of the world since all my other site's continue to do well in the search engines.

Guess Google.com can NOW kill themselves...

Anyways, 99.9% of websites have the goal to make money, one way or the other.

Maybe Google can trash them all?

What a bunch of #$##.

One of my sites is an autoblog but with unique content on the home page and maybe two other articles.

It's a couple of years old, promoted through article marketing, web 2.0 sites. Was pretty high up earlier in the year around #3 for its main keyword then it plummeted to nowhere a few months back.

Just came back to #1 a couple of days ago.

Lee

My monthly traffic is up across the board on all of my money sites.

On my main site, my traffic is up 55% in November of 2011 over January of 2011. It looks like December will match November in its traffic numbers.

Google's main source of revenue is adwords.

We all know that the billions they make every month are purely "not for profit"..the money goes ALL to charity, right

So...Google give us some slack..we are not worse than you. The fact that "we" are smaller doesn't change intentions or makes us "bad" and you the good guys.

Without us/our sites..you (Google) are nothing...and without you WE are nothing either. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, remember?

Interesting post, I think perhaps the more meaningful subject might be what have you done to change your website so that it fits in better in this brave new world.

Have you abandoned, the auto blogging promises that fail to deliver?

Have you added unique content that is not rehashed, trash?

Do you have 80 percent content and 20 percent advertising?

Or do you have 80 percent advertising, and only 20 percent content?

Those are the questions that matter, because unless you have big money to spend on
Adwords, or PPC, or other methods of advertising, you have to bring something real to the table, otherwise yes, your website will be trashed out as a blog farm, as a spam website,

It is the law of the Jungle and the jungle is owned by Google,

The only way you can develop a hope or even a glimmer of success online is to create something that you cannot get everywhere online.

You have to produce unique and valuable content,

You have to diminish the "in your face" advertising that used to be normal everywhere but is now just a shadow...

If you dont make those adjustments, your done, finished, gone,

That is just the way it is.

The problem with most marketers is that they do not realize that google is a business, it is a cold hard, fact crunching machine, that for the most part, is a series of computerized, AI commands, that exist in a server some where in the vast computing warehouse that is the Internet.

People make the mistake of thinking that Google is run by humans, it is not.

Google is a business, first and foremost, a Business, if you want to be valued by Google you have to bring something to the table, and if your not spending more than $2000.00 per month on advertising, your just another brick in the 10 Billion dollar wall that is Google, they will not even know you exist.

So for most of us, in order to really gain some Google realestate, we have to bring something to the table that is worth more than the thousands of others out there that want to do the same thing.

If your not bringing value with you to the Google Table, your going to leave empty handed, simple, cold hard truth here,

The faster you learn that truth, the faster you make those changes, the better you are at adapting, to the changing conditions, that has become this brave new Internet world, the more successful you will become.

I've got a few sites that just have about 20 posts and havent been updated for ages and they are fine and stand on aged domains.

Where as another that has a very similar set up and the domain is less than a year old has suffered.

^^^ Smart guy right there. Although I would be sure to get Google tested before staying in the same bed. There have been rumors...

I personally do not use autoblogs as I believe their time is almost at an end. Google can spot them from a mile away and having one can jeopardize your entire collection of websites if Google even so much as suspects that you operate them all.

Not to mention you will not be able to monetize an autoblog with Adsense, as any manual review from the Adsense team will most likely result in your account getting banned. If Adsense is not your thing, you could still make work with CPA offers, but then again, it is only a matter of time before CPA networks slam autoblogs too.

Google can't destroy a real business with one algo change.

Work WITH G, not against them

For me, I felt them in respect of my articles submitted to article directories. Brutal decline in clickthru rate.

Moral is do not put all your eggs in one basket.

If you are into article marketing, use article syndication for instance

If an autoblog site exists because of Google, but Google decides as a category such sites are generally garbage and not what hundreds of millions of 'regular folk' want, is it Google who destroyed your business?

.

Having a business model build on getting free traffic from SE was never a good idea. I always feared Google, and this made me a better marketer because I never relied on SE for bringing traffic to my sites. So, the answer is a resounding NO!, Google didn't destroy my business, it made it better.

I think this is a fantastic read and sums up the point very well -

"Google's real business is all about profiting from online information. Google is not a search company as most people assume. Google is in effect an information company, with search simply being a means to an end. The end being information by which the company sells keywords and advertising for profit.Google is not the best search engine on the planet but in reality, the only search engine on the planet. With an 80% plus reach, Google is now arguably a monopoly. It is no longer a case of, if you don't like Google go elsewhere. We are stuck in one solitary SEO playground which is steering us closer towards paid Google advertising and services with every algorithm update.
Google doesn't just offer search, but advertising, keyword search and demographic services centered around this very information and businesses pay for access to the information.
Google leeches off the work of others and produces nothing. That's right, nothing! The company's core business is about search and advertising, which relies on the content provided by other people and businesses online. Google just doesn't own the information from which it makes nearly all its enormous revenue. Google is the middleman of the information, which it takes for free at will.
However, we are in turn subjected to very stringent rules as to how we can or cannot manipulate that very information, all to the sole benefit of Google's bottom line and to the slowly deteriorating benefit of online marketers. With some of the latest Google announcements seeming to suggest the slow and deliberate killing off of the SEO industry.
Google's information stealing ways come without any asking permission. In one sense, people want their web sites to be found and for that information to be available to all for obvious reasons. But they are not ever compensated for something from which Google makes a insane amount of money. Well, not unless they pay for expertise SEO services or are forced to resort to blackhat techniques to get the upper hand.
Google may pan out to be a dangerous monopoly in the long run. Being a monopoly isn't illegal in the United States, although in Europe it seemingly is so, and here Google is facing enormous problems, because of greater importance given to competitor complaints.
We actually do think highly and admire Google for giving us such a magnificent platform for which we all work in. However, that does not mean we must abide by stringent rules designed to monopolize and increase revenues to our online detriment.
Manipulating search results is only "unethical", "immoral" or "against guidelines" because Google says it is. Google is not the police and nothing more then a for-profit business, using our information to make mountains of money."

Google cannot destroy your business alone because there are other powerful search engines such and Bing and Yahoo that gets tons of traffic. Social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter are other great options to choose from so you should not be all focused on Google.

Obviously there are some business models which lend themselves to being successful without the need for search traffic. But then there are many which depend on search traffic to reach their prospects, simply because that's where the bulk of them are....there's no other viable choice.

I market, amongst other things, a very niche vitamin supplement. I can't convert general 'health' traffic even with a heavily informational website, I need to connect directly with people who are looking for my specific product. And the vast majority are using Google to find my specific product.
Google is a bridge between customers and suppliers. It's a f@$king huge bridge and if I don't want to use it I need to paddle 300 miles down the river and find a little crossing to ferry people across the water one at a time.

Google is the king in a game of chess. There are other search engines and other methods but they're just pawns in a game where Google is king.

The problem with this particular king is that he keeps changing the rules of the game. And the new rules seem contrary to common logic, because we've always assumed that Google's objective is to provide quality search results to its users. We look at our website which offers unique and informative content and we look at some of the sites that rank higher than we do, who appear to offer very little, and we wonder why we're being unfairly treated? The problem is that our logic is plain wrong - the assumption that Google exists to provide quality search results is simply bad logic. Google exists as a business and functions to maximize its own profits.
Its algorithm doesn't seem fair or consistent because we're looking at it from the wrong side of the fence.
So yes, there are many small businesses being crippled at the hands of Google daily, and many larger businesses getting an ever growing slice of the pie. To call the small business owners naive or criticize them for not having diversified their traffic is just plain arrogant in my opinion. It's like someone fortunate to get one of the few lifeboats on the Titanic looking back at the drowning passengers and saying "well, you should've brought your own lifeboat".
Flame away.

Let me just clarify my first post so it's less confusing -

Not all businesses have the same opportunity for diversification of traffic. For some, it's tough to get targeted traffic aside from Google, and it isn't always down to some 'weakness in marketing strategy'.

Google can and does make its own rules to suit its own business and there's nothing we can do about it. There's no point whining about it being unfair, since we're not the ones deciding what is fair and what isn't, they are.

I don't much care for it when people talk down to people who are struggling to make sense of the Internet, with all its quirks, I find it a tad arrogant.

Thanks

This isn't the norm....

Usually when Harlan starts a thread there are arguments but not typically between fellow posters, usually it's with the posters and the OP

Nobody ever said business was easy. If it was, everyone would have one and we'd all be rich.

Show me a "business" owner who believes that they absolutely cannot diversify outside of Google, and I will show you a very close minded person indeed.

I doubt that there is a niche under the sun that can only bring in traffic from Google; but should you find one I would love to see it.

And yet the article that you posted to join this discussion was nothing more than someone whining about Google, so forgive me if I view you as whining about it as well. You were the one that posted it after all.


I'll keep that in mind :rolleyes:

While I do think there is some hypocrisy in letting an e-commerce site pass, which exists solely to make money, and penalizing an affiliate site, you can easily pass these guidelines if you create good sites. Personally I like G because it allows me to make a ton of money doing something that is likely the most stress free job in the world. In return, all I have to do is create a high quality site that actually provides something of value to the visitors, and isn't just pimping a product.

The only thing I take issue with is when they start to make their Ads and shopping results take up more and more of the front page. But if the user doesn't like what they are showing them, then they won't click there. Eventually people will just filter out those Ads from their mind just like they do with sidebar Ads and TV ads.

I don't have auto-blogs at all. The vast majority of the content that I have produced over the last 12 years is unique and original content, either created by me or hired by me. However, this year, my traffic (on 30+ sites) is down by more than 65%. A couple of sites are up, but most sites are down.

I feel like the baby that got thrown out with the bathwater or the wheat that got tossed with the chaff.

Guess I need to be growing better wheat... somehow. But my big decision of 2011 has been to create and promote my own products. I've enjoyed and done well promoting everyone else's stuff for the last 12 years, but it's time to focus on building products and branding.

Google has always wanted sites that adds value to the net, but with everybody in it to make money, some people get caught in the cross fire

well one of my very first websites which was an auto blog is still in the first position for it's keyword.

It's been there for about 2 years now. It has out ranked some very high authority medical related sites and it's out ranked Wiki as well.

It only dropped it's position once or twice when we actually had to move it to a new server. The income from the site is only through adsense and that's it.

A lot of the linking to it has been from web2.0 and directories. The number of competing pages (not that it really means much) is 12.1 million just to give you an idea.

I have not done much with Autoblogs lately but the ones I do have are still ranking and they have not been touched for a long time.

Make of it what you will, who can fathom the mind of the big G?

Google sucks, but if I intend to make money from Google I better play along with their rules.

I see Google as Sharon Stone's character in Basic Instinct: one day it can bring a big smile on your face (you know what i mean ), the next - it can stab you in the back.

That's why i've quit SEO, and started focusing on other stuff.

Guys, Google is not a governmental service. It's a publicly traded company and both their website and their algorithm are their property, and they are entitled to modify it as they deem appropriate. If you use their services, you're bound to their policies.

you do realise despite googles dominance among search engines, that search engine traffic only amounts to 3% of the total traffic sources online?

i hear G is rolling out c.p.l. and c.p.a. soon? True?

I say "Good Riddance" to auto blogs.

Some of my autoblogs went down in rankings, but not all... So I guess Panda is working... for Google.

Apparently they are going to keep this trend for better "user experience".

I Have an autoblog, 5000 pages of duplicate content that ranked number 1 in google. It was an android site. The panda hit it and fell 7 places but bounced back up to 5th position.

The funny thing with this site is it has a bounce rate of 10%, can you believe it? and the average time on the site is over 2.50 minutes.

Great Tips and reports. John.

Has no one here considered that an autoblog could actually provide value to the visitor?

I suppose when most people picture an autoblog, they have visions of a crappy design loaded with ads that posts awful scraped and spun articles that are gibberish.

But what if you wanted to make a blog on dog's (or whatever) that offered the latest information, articles, videos and products?

What if you targeted it towards local users in your area? Or maybe towards a particular dog breed?

What if you presented it in a magazine style format that looked professional?

What if it included feeds from eventful that had the latest local dog events?

What if it also included a section with funny dog videos (everyone loves those, right)?

What if it also included good articles (not spun) from guest bloggers… err… I mean from article directories (which also included the resource box of course)

What if it also included the latest dog news from news feeds?

What if that was all presented beautifully formatted in a magazine style format so it looked nice?

Would that blog have value even though all the information could found elsewhere?

Wouldn't there be value in compiling all this information in one easy to access spot so that the visitor doesn't have to go to several different sites to get this information?

Don't we always talk about how valuable our info products (which simply compile a bunch of information that can be found elsewhere into an easy to digest format) are?

Why wouldn't that be valuable for a website too?

Lee

Google killed off nearly all of my sites over the last 5 or so years, one I lost with Panda earlier this year was making over 10k a month average 7k for 5 years. people can say ph but you should not rely on google well there is no other proper competition to google so that is not possible for my traffic. Also I don't agree that google take from me and give to another, it is more like google take from me and give more to themselves or to one of their filthy bed partners like Groupon or retailmenot. Have a look at many searches are now spammed by Groupon at the top with paid ads disguised at real listings. Google is a money machine that is only getting bigger and bigger. I predict in 10 years time there will be very few competitors in many markets as Google will own many many markets. They have abused their position as the main search engine to take all off these other markets over yet they spit the dummy with little Joe blog affiliates want to pay their rent. They are a disgusting disease as far as I'm concerned, Google is EVIL, EVIL EVIL EVIL......