"Google plans major overhaul to search engine"

by 154 replies
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"Over the next few months, Google's search engine will begin spitting out more than a list of blue web links. It will also present more facts and direct answers to queries at the top of the search-results page. The changes to search are among the biggest in the company's history and could affect millions of websites that rely on Google's current page-ranking results. At the same time, they could give more ways to serve up advertisements..."

What are your thoughts on this?
#main internet marketing discussion forum
  • Yawn. That's my thought.

    This only really matters to those silly enough to rely on one search engine to deliver free traffic.
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    • That's a pretty bold statement. I assume that millions of successful individuals and businesses are silly?

      It's smart to diversify, but SE traffic is a big chunk of a LOT of peoples traffic.
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    • Makes sense in theory unfortunately despite the fact that Bing/Yahoo are easier to rank in with link spam most people little get little to no traffic in comparison to the amount of traffic they could get from Google. Unless you're talking about paid traffic in which case that's a whole different ball game all together.
  • Would you please cite a source for your claims? Otherwise your post is kind of worthless.
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    • I agree. Pretty vague actually. The truth is, Google never wants you to know what it's doing. WHy would they?
  • Doesn't Google already do this for some searches? Like when you type in: "5cm to inches" it gives you a direct answer.
  • This may help as far as a source: h ttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304459804577281842851136290.html
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    • Surely this would only work for queries which can be solved with a quick precise answer? If somebody was searching for lets say a workout routine, they would need more than just a quick answer.
  • I believe that it is always silly to rely on one source for traffic/customers/prospects.

    Ask the people who thought they were sitting pretty on page 1 of Google for their keywords and got their traffic turned off like a tap after Panda/Farmer.

    I enjoy free search engine traffic but I don't base my whole business strategy on that one source. I like to see it as a nice bonus.

    Never put your eggs in one basket.
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  • Is there any target date that they will be launching this?
  • Here is an article that gives you more details.

    Google plans major overhaul to search engine | Fox News
  • It was only a matter of time, when you look at the new Google TOS, and most people have not even bothered to read it, You have to acknowledge that something big is about to happen and in many ways its not a good thing at all.

    Its all about what you dont know...

    Things about about to radically change in 2012 and if your not prepared for those changes the way you do business online may change so quickly that you could get left behind in the dust of other more savvy marketers.

    One thing is clear, Google is Afraid, and they should be, for the most part they have been steadily alienating the very consumers that their advertisers hope to reach out to.

    When you disrespect your publishers, your advertisers and the consumers, you have not only a serious public relations problem but you have a CEO that needs to be fired.

    There was a lot of doubt expressed when the move was made to make that corporate change only a few years ago now, but the results of that change is obvious now.

    Bing, became more popular, the public back lash over Google and its draconian treatment of publishers, all this adds up to a nightmare for Google stock holders who are torn between the desire to maximize profits and the fear that someone up in that ivory tower, might make the ultimate mistake before they can Dump that Google Stock.

    In the Corporate world there are rumors of a shakeup in the works, as the old saying goes, "heads will Roll"

    But this is nothing unusual in corporate politics, it happens every day, however will Google wake up in time for the curtain to come down or will they continue in this unrealistic untenable, fantasy world where they are the Gods that cannot fall to earth.

    No matter where you come down in this very real battle, between consumers and corporate entities, make no mistake if your not ready for that change when it hits, you might be looking at a lot of wasted time and effort.

    (as many have suggested do not put all your eggs in one basket)

    Look at what the competition is doing, because what they are doing is making Google very nervous, sometimes when you get nervous you make dumb mistakes, and make no mistake about this, there is no irreplaceable man.
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  • My thoughts are you should have posted this in the SEO section.

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    • Not really .. this is a make money section and a lot of people depend on G to make their money.
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  • This has been predicted for some time. Google is changing from a search index to drive traffic to other sites, to a destination where it does not want you to visit other sites.

    .
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    • ...and this will bring things full circle.

      Remember when Google started? Yahoo had become more of a destination than a search engine. Advertising was more important to them than quality search results.

      Along comes a fresh new search engine.

      All they had (at the time) was simple logo, a search box, and a search button (can't remember if they had the "I feel lucky" button at the start), coupled with great search results. People flocked to them. They quickly took over the search engine world.

      "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana
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    • Yep...I made this prediction in my Big Page of SEO in 2006 that Google will start to develope its own content. It just makes sense. I'm only surprised it took them this long.
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  • Page Layout Algo Change early this year and now this, Google is killing all MFA websites.
    This will affect many informative websites...
  • "Under the shift, people who search for "Lake Tahoe" will see key "attributes" that the search engine knows about the lake, such as its location, altitude, average temperature or salt content."

    So what about actual webmasters who might operate personal sites about Lake Tahoe? :rolleyes:

    Just stick to giving us search results and drop the crap already.
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  • Google's going to become more like Wolfram|Alpha
  • In my opinion, this is big time HUGE as it affects us as IM'ers that rely on ranking high in the SERP's to get traffic and thus, ultimately make $.
    When the semantic search feature is implemented, Google will rely on it's huge database to post factual information about the keyword that is searched instead of a list of sites that are SEO optimized for that keyword.
    Think of buying keywords such as "LCD TV Reviews" or "Best LCD TV" for example. When someone types in that keyword, Google will refer to it's database and provide a list at the top of the search results as to what it thinks are the Best LCD TV's or links to view LCD TV Reviews. Maybe its sees that Amazon reviews are the most relevant or it will post images with links to popular websites so the user can check out the Best LCD TVs.

    Therefore is will not provide a list of optimized websites that relate to those keywords at the top of the results.

    I think this is big, big time huge and would ultimately destroy the online businesses of a majority of website owners who rely on their website to be at the top to generate traffic. Much more so than any Panda update.

    Very soon, what we have all learned over the years as it pertains to SERP rankings in Google will be no more. The game is soon going to change it appears and IM'ers will have to think outside of the box to take advantage of that. If that will even be possible.

    So you will have semantic searches surrounded by Google PPC Ads at the top and sides of a search page. This does not bode well for those relying on SERP rankings to make $ online.

    Just my 2 cents guys!
  • Banned
    Yeah ... ho hum. Before they're done, Google properties will occupy the first two pages of Google.
  • This is really gonna HURT me. Google will take our content store on their hard drives and serve it up. Sadly, we will not see even one penny.

    If you wanna know what year we graduated Google can tell you. Yeah, instead of pointing to my resume. Already big G takes my videos and images. Well, now my copy is gone.
  • Am I reading things incorrectly or does it appear that Google has (and will) collect data from our websites and then serve up that data (not our websites) to searchers?

    It sounds like they simply want to collect our data from our sites, store that data in their databases, then serve that (stolen) data up to searchers directly, leaving the webmasters out of the mix completely.

    Am I reading this right?
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    • Banned
      That's exactly what it says. It looks like they intend to serve up our content without sending them to our site and serve their ads on our content. But this is no surprise. When Google isn't benefiting me in any way, and they only are marginally as it is, I will remove all my Adsense and block Google from indexing my site. Why would people give them their content to serve their ads on with nothing in return?
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  • Here is another article from Search Engine Land

    WSJ Says Big Google Search Changes Coming? Reality Check Time!
  • i spent my last 6 months learning seo
  • Although it is growing harder to find areas G hasn't stepped into ... I remember.

    Just over a year ago I was semi-crucified for stating on here that those using G tracking / gmail and such were setting themselves up for a privacy invasion unlike any seen in recent times.

    Hums Toby Keith song :-)
  • Correction... The highest bidder willing to present their content in the exact way that Google wants lol.
  • Every website or place on the web does the best possible to make internet marketers lives a real hell. But we will find another method to reach the first places.
    And remember that more time you pass working on your website, and more high is the possibility to be in first position. Stop.

    See you soon,
    Alessandro
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    • So what is the nickname of this update. Farmer and panda have already been taken.
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  • If you actually read what's behind this you'd know that this will not affect informational sites that are broad and an authority on their subject.

    It will no doubt harm narrow (thin?) sites. A good example is whatismyaddress.com. They are definitely feeling some pain and have now resorted to buying adwords even though they are listed #1 in organic search.

    So calm down and stop assuming Google is out to get IMers. They're not. A change like their can only help and benefit THEIR users. If you don't want to play with Google, then block their robot and look elsewhere.
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    • Correct. Google is not out to get you. Google just wants to eat 75% of the pie you bake.
  • Oh Google...*sigh*
  • Or you run a business and pay for traffic. Just like all the "old fashioned" businesses have been doing since pretty much forever.

    And I'm NOT talking about PPC.

    There are so many places to buy quality traffic that you (or anyone) needs Google.

    * Solo Ads
    * Banners
    * PPC (from other Search Engines)
    * Facebook
    * StumbleUpon
    * CPV/PPV
    * Print/Offline
    * Radio/TV


    And finally, if Google goes off the deep end and does some wacked out sh*t that screws over the internet, the internet will revolt and a new, better search engine will take it's place.

    Nothing really to worry about, unless you built your business on Google. If so, do what all good businesses do - adapt and grow.

    Rob
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    • Banned
      Great points and resources. Thing is, traffic from some of those platforms will depend on browser bookmarks, while a significant number of 'other' search engines that aggregate data from Google itself may find themselves left with an empty database. With this change, the vast world of global access will have become limited to what we remember to 'favorite,' or seek from a search engine that no one has really used or contributed to up to this point.

      Offline resources (print and radio), as you mentioned, are certainly viable alternatives. However, they aren't as immediately accessible as Google is. You have to remember Google is an instantaneous and interactive search platform. "Ask and ye shall receive." You just can't get that immediacy offline, and I can't remember the last time I watched TV, read a printed magazine or newspaper, or listened to radio to find the best PHP editor.

      I do believe, though, that existing or new search engines will eventually replace Google should the company go forward with this decision on a massive scale. Might even be the answer to Yahoo's ongoing problems.
    • By people getting on the internet and browsing; traffic isn't "held" at Google and then released like a dam.

      Traffic is like currency - constantly moving.

      The media buy (banner/media) market has much more traffic than Google. You can get just about unlimited traffic from those networks.

      And I have sites I visit regularly that does not require me going to Google.

      I see targeted ads on those sites all the time.

      Web forums, such as this one, requires no going to Google. People gather all over the place.

      Blogs I enjoy reading are bookmarked and I don't need google to find related blogs because most have related blog links.

      Of course there is also Facebook and all those ads.

      Besides, if Google dies tomorrow, a new search engine will take it's place. And that's not counting Bing.

      My point being - adapt. The world isn't ending if Google goes down in flames or decides to stop being a search engine.

      I swear, the amount of people that think Google is some sort of "god" is both staggering and sad.

      Rob
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  • So, how long do you think it will take before anyone tries to start a class action lawsuit for google 'stealing' content?
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    • Forever.

      Google only "steals" / curates content from websites that have not explicitly told them not to crawl the site.
    • Who can claim ownership of the type of content that google is/will be displaying? how big is x lake? how tall is that building? what's the population of?

      Plus the display will be based on multiple sources.
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  • Their doing this to compete with Facebook.
  • and other SN networks
  • Let's be realistic, though. For all the moaning (come on, that's what it is ) going on here (and I understand - I'm a webmaster/publisher and get a lot of traffic from Google myself), we all know that they, being a for-profit company, are in it for themselves. Let common sense prevail. Their relationships with publishers are held dear only for as long as they're maximally lucrative. The minute they're capable of weaning themselves off their reliance on other people's intellectual property and relinquishing themselves of all related reciprocative "obligations", they will. And they have. And they'll continue to.

    Heavy long-term reliance on "us" has never been a part of Google's business plan. Likewise, neither should reliance on Google be, or have ever been, a part of ours.

    Every time a new exposure-diminishing Google entity appears in the SERPs, there's an uproar - talk of Google's treachery; their backstabbing, leaching tendencies; how they're driving themselves to the grave. Blah, blah. So far as I can see, their profits are only going in one direction. Who's laughing?

    We all know what the answer is, and the longer we keep telling ourselves "it won't happen, please don't let it happen", the bigger the blow will be when it arrives.

    Masses of "free", organic search-engine traffic is not an inalienable right. It wasn't even a reality until the inception of the search-engine, and still businesses thrived. It's getting to the point where we sound like a bunch of career benefit scroungers who justify our outrage at having our handouts stopped because of the perceived injustice at corporations "monopolising resources" (which in their raw form would be of no practical use anyway) and so depriving the populace of its birthright to survive comfortably sans effort and without using its smarts.

    Not a perfect analogy, but close enough.
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    • Highlighted the key takeaway from your post.

      A lot of people think business will end if Google says so. Luckily, REAL businesses won't end - if they rely too much on Google, they'll adapt or die.

      And for those who don't rely on Google...like the millions and millions of businesses who don't, not much will change.

      Rob
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  • I think that no one should heavily rely on SEO for traffic. If you do this, you are spending time and effort on a method that could become useless overnight. You should try to get traffic another way. SEO is nice, but should not be your main source of traffic.
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    • The main thing I take away from this entire thread is that a new Search Engine will rise. An event I have wished for, for many years now. There are far too many flaws in the "for profit" corporation Google.

      With that being said. Just like many SEO myths I will believe it when I see it. Thankfully I have started to adopt a more varied network in order to bring traffic to sites, but I do still rely heavily on SEO having studied years of it.

      Finally I feel like any smart marketer (whether they realize it or not) is not relying only on Google. I mean let's be real if you don't have facebook pages (Google and Google + A MUST) YouTube, Twitter, Web 2.0's etc. You have seriously missed a mark.
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  • I know the "politically correct" answer is to not rely on Google, but the fact is, for many websites Google delivers via SEO a monstrous amount of traffic.

    Without having to buy it.

    Can some sites or online businesses get along without Google? Sure.

    But any major overhaul in Google has huge consequences for many online businesses.

    To suggest there are alternatives, such as radio, stumbleupon, banner ads, grocery store flyers, whatever, is just silly.

    For many inquiries, searches for information, searches for answers, etc., people use Google.

    They sure as heck don't start with another site to see what "targeted" advertising banner ads may exist.

    .
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    • I agree completely! Yes, it is important to diversify and not rely on one strategy for your business, but lets not pretend that what Google is going to do can't have a big impact on peoples' sites. Google is the biggest and most used search engine.

    • What is silly is thinking that Google is the best game in town.

      I get tons of free traffic from Google every month -- likely more than most people receive in a year from all sources, but they only account for 35% of my total traffic.

      Relying on one source is silly as is not seeking other sources for your traffic.
  • You should be including semantic keywords in your articles for your site. Hopefully, this will give more weight to websites with great unique contents.
  • Right, so not only is Google trying to compete on the social level by integrating G+ into their search results, but it appears they're also trying to populate those results with information that would be more suited to Wikipedia?

    Surely, this additional "stuff" at the top of the search results, in addition to PPC, will only push the organic listings further down the page. How does that affect those listed high in the search results? Whats the point of being listed first within organic search if your site is well below the fold?????

    At times I often wonder if the team at Google realises the amount of impact these changes have on REAL businesses. And for those that say "Seek alternative traffic methods, such as media buys, banner advertising and solo ads.."

    That might be all well and good for those with an understanding of those methods, but what about local business owners like hairdressers, optometrists, mechanics and florists? These people really have no idea of sourcing alternative traffic via other methods. Infact, many of them have no understanding of anything BUT search engine traffic.

    Im not siding with anyone here, Im just trying to make a point.

    Change is inevitable, we all know that, and we either adapt or find alternative methods. But one thing is for certain, and that is, over the past few years, the changes (in my view) that Google have implemented across a range of their services, seem nothing more than desparate, non directional and at times, verging on "copying" other sites and services.

    I dont know, its frustrating to say the least. Its almost like a high school popularity competition.

    Google should just stick to keeping it simple and provide us with what we all want. A clean, simple, and easy to use search engine, without all the unecessary BS.
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  • Heres an interesting screenshot of the new update.



    As you can see, Ive searched for "high how is the empire state building".

    Firstly, the semantic search feature which gives me Google's "best guess". Does this mean that its right? ...or not?

    Secondly, you'll note the three visible sites listed, being wikipedia.org, about.com, and answers.com. If I expand the list, I get yahoo in addition to those listed.

    But what took my attention is the site listed in 2nd spot.

    infoplease.com

    This site isnt referenced at all?

    Why? And how do they come to this conclusion?

    Also, as a final thought, would queries of this nature see more and more users NOT clicking on ANYTHING, because they accept the output within semantic search???
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    • First of all I think that just looks stupid. How do I as a searcher know that the best web page to visit is one of those? In the new system would it just be Google stealing that info and even wiki and infoplease would get screwed?

      Personally none of those options interest me!
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    • There could be lots of reasons. One being that the information on infoplease.com may not be formatted in such a way that is preferred by the algorithm or parser used by this Google feature.

      Also, notice that Google says that the height of the Empire State Building is "Mentioned on at least 4 websites". That doesn't mean that it couldn't have used 100 different websites to arrive at the conclusion of the height of the Empire State Building.

      Also, Google may (is probably) using much different techniques to phrase match text with web sites than it is using to determine facts. It shouldn't be assumed that Google would use the #2 result for the phrase search "how high is the empire state building" to derive the actual number of feet.

      There's just a lot of **** going on here.

    • If that is the case then I will make a guess that they will not use semantic search for all sorts of keywords. Good chunk of their revenue comes from clicks. Not getting clicks on buyer/high paying keywords will cut down their revenue. I don't think they would want to do that.

      Is semantic search even possible for buyer keywords? How will that look like?

      Tanvir
  • I know everyone loves google but have you logged out of facebook lately, didnt you notice theres a bing search integrated. Do you not think bing is taking a little market share away from google. Facebook does have 700+million users its law of averages.

    I stopped really caring about google search results after first panda update.
    Really google is dying they know it thats why they went mobile with android and social with plus. They even buying into streaming tv market with tests in two cities right now. They moving away from search. "google it" used to be "do you yahoo".

    I get way more traffic using social media sites and make more money now then ever off of google first page.
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    • I agree with you. I think that you can get a better amount of traffic through Bing PPC then through Google Adwords. They also have live chat which is great. I think that Bing may become more popular soon if Google decides to be something other than a search engine!
  • ok im already moved to bing, anyone knows in the bing keyword suggestion tool, what they mean by impressions? is it same like local monthly searchers in Google keyword tool?
  • I think this is dangerous. Their thing is to not be evil. The good thing about Google is that they are the middle man for everything we look for. I don't like this direction at all. I think the good thing about the Internet is that you can do your research and look at multiple sources for any questions you have. Yes, time is important and for something like, "how tall is the empire state building?" I don't really see a problem, but I can only imagine how far it could go.

    Noone knows everything, and I don't think the way it works now is broken. They have done a good job of being fair giving everyone a shot at showing up for anything. If they want to become the sole destination for information, and gather their information only from select sources...in my opinion that is just dangerous and I think it's the opposite direction to what they set out to do.

    For those of you that think this should only be in the SEO section, you need to think a bit more about how big of a role Google plays in this business. More traffic than any of us can even imagine. So anything they do let alone a big change like this I think is worth looking at for all of us.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • There will always be a way to manipulate search engines. doesn't matter if it's SEO or PPC. as long as they have large amount of traffic and infinite longtails we will be able to find a way to manipulate our way to the top of their results. Just a matter of time and effort.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Awesome information Mike, thanks! Have you got a link for the ebook? That would be great.

      ^^ Ditto on this.
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  • Google begins and end with profit. I was amongst many thousands of affiliates whose Google Adwords program was banned and it was at that moment that I realized that Big Daddy Google didn't care about the little guy or gal.

    Diversify your interests on line and don't be afraid to learn as many skills each day as you can. Then you won't have to rely on organic traffic alone.

    Hope that helps!

    Kristie
  • Whether it's true or not, we should always be prepared. After all, the world wide web is just so dynamic. So we must not rely too much on one thing because that could be detrimental as it makes us less adaptive to change. Oh well, come hell or high water!
  • Google wants our content, but doesn't want to send visitors to our sites.
  • I read the article about this. I honestly don't really find this to be that revolutionary. They've already been doing this for certain searches for a while now so i guess their going to be directly answering a higher percentage of queries directly in the SERPS nowadays. That might hurt you if you're ranking for "How to get to Blue Ridge Mountain" type searches but if not then I can't really see the big deal.
  • Fact is... Opportunities change.

    (It sucks but it's reality)

    That's why it's good to have a solid foundation in sales and marketing skills.

    Not to mention you need to have your eyes open to spot new opportunities as they arise.

    And you need to have your eyes open to be able to tell when a current opportunity is closing.
  • If you're not happy with what Google is doing with search stop using it. I stopped.

    Google doesn't care if you complain. They will care if market share drops.

    .
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  • [DELETED]
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    • haha, thanks for your useful addition to the thread. Or, as some of the comment spam on my sites would suggest, "I reary reary like your post. I will be making sure to bookmark your site, and revisit again and again. I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post."
  • They are going to get in so much ****ing trouble if they scrape people's facts without proper accreditation. You know they will too.
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    • Banned
      Some are speculating that they will just use your "data" to serve their ads on when giving these answers. I disagree. They will use your content to serve their ads on.

      They attempted this once already with sidewiki where they literally hijacked your website content with sidewiki, whether a site owner wanted sidewiki to appear by their site or not. Their intention was to begin to serve ads in sidewiki. Sidewiki was a dismal failure for them, one of many so they didn't get to hijack your traffic and content to serve their ads beside your site.

      They won't hesitate to use your indexed content to show answers and info without attribution. It appears for quite awhile now that their goal is to keep users on Google properties to serve their ads to users rather than actually being a relevant search engine.
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    • I sincerely doubt that one.... you already know Google is thinking 10 steps ahead of the game so they'll make sure that they do it in such a manner that no one can really try to take them down... and if they try, Google has it's big time high paid lawyers to pretty much guarantee that things will be iced and not taken to a higher playing field of legal dispute.

      I still feel that Google will eventually see its demise as well... don't know when, but it'll happen... maybe within the next few years. But time will tell... just have to try to focus around it and do the best possible to change things around to work for you. I was looking forward to doing more on the SEO front of things but I may have to wait to see how things really pan out with this, and just try to focus on continuing to update my merchant sites and delivering content rather than trying to simply focus on optimizing, though with my keywords being few and highly competitive anyway, I guess Google's changes won't affect me much regardless.

      Sad in some ways though because SEO and optimizing and search engines will always play a part even if it's a smaller step to a bigger plan. From what I've learned over the years, things like article marketing, or making Squidoo lenses or HubPages would focus on how well you do on site optimization to help you be found by Google and the other search engines (really only 3 total counting Google... who really uses sites like BestoftheWeb or Ask.com much anymore?). Providing excellent but optimized content on your own site would be something you'd want search engines picking up so that people can find your site. Doing blog posts on your blog or other places to build more backlinks and traffic again, falls under optimizing.

      Even if you plan to mainly go by building a list, you'd either have one of three options: Doing some kind of SEO work on articles or posts or blogs and onsite optimizing to build those organic visits, or paying for traffic whether by PPC or media buys, etc., or going completely social network and really spending lots of time networking on Twitter and Facebook and forums (which isn't as effective depending on the niches and the sites that allow or do not allow signature links and/or posts with links) and so forth to eventually build trust, relationships, and clients, which takes a lot of time on its own, at least for me i know it does. I can't take time to focus on building sites and content and product creation and such, and still try to spend 4 hours a day hitting Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. to try to build a few email subscribers or purchases.

      It basically boils down to having to work with as many angles as you can possibly do, just in case a switch is shut off somewhere. Have to hope for the best and keep it moving. I just wonder what this change will do to many IM'ers who are writing and selling ebooks on how to do SEO per the methods now... may not be making so many of those sales anymore now with these changes going through soon. But, maybe it won't be as bad as anticipated... we won't know until we get there. Best of success to all.
  • I'm wondering how these changes will affect those that try doing major optimizations to eZine articles, HubPages, Squidoo lenses, and so forth in hopes of doing some article optimizing to build traffic from those pages to their sites. Would all of these not be impacted in such a way that renders it all ineffective as well? Would marketing now mainly have to be focused on going the social route of FB, Twitter, and such?

    Guessing I should've tried to make a content rich Adsense site some months ago... as it seems now would really leave my Adsense sitting in the dirt. Lol
  • Meh - I agree with another poster that it's all speculation until it comes out. I also think that it's going to be more of an issue for IMers who have put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak.
  • Yawn yup I'm snoring .
  • Well, I think it shouldn't cause too much of a problem. I mean as long as media buyers continue to rank highly like they usually do and first page webmasters continue to build links like they already have been then there shouldn't be too much of an issue.
  • Well I definitely learned my lesson about Google. My 1 niche site went from top 1-5 for about 5 keywords to positions 30-40 today.

    Literally 200+ visitors a day to 0.

    I outsourced my SEO to a warrior and I'm not exactly sure where his links were coming from or what he was doing.

    Oh well, it was my first site and now I know to:

    -Not only focus on GOOGLE.
    -Learn SEO for myself, build high quality links in a natural way and create high quality content
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    • I see on your blog that "I have taken off Google Analytics/Webmasters tools off my blog and I will NOT be using them on future sites. I do not believe it is a good idea to give Google any info on my sites whatsoever. Google can only get limited data without GWT/GA installed."

      Would be good to hear other opinions on this...
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  • I have an example,
    My better half is in real estate, been there less than 6 months, catering mostly to out of state customers who relay 100% on SE to find a realtor.

    Her website is doing great, ranking for multiple keywords which in turn does bring good SE traffic and leads and prospects but only few sold so far. This is partly because of the market, partly because lack of experience. And this is all she can do for now, learn and grow.

    On the other hand, our friend, long time local realtor , who is #1 seller in the company although he owns website, which BTW is nowhere to be seen in SERPs gets 100% of his customers by the word of mouth.
    It takes talent and years of practice but at this level internet is just another tool to him he uses for checking emails nothing more.
    Google may not exist and still make no chip to his superb income.
    • [1] reply
    • Very interesting thread so far
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  • I am too concerned but I guess you can't do much so I will, and like most people, will just try to harder to spread their niche across the internet.
  • WF is a bunch of amazing, great, and smart people. How about opening up a new OPEN Source search engine built by WF folks. Imagine now that WF stands around at 145th rank in Alexa, I'm sure it's easy to get the ball rolling thru all these great people here with all this knowledge too. lol
    Google and Microsoft started from their garages, so why can't we?
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I agree...that would be something to think about indeed
  • Well there's always changes taking place. That's why it's important to keep our marketing diversified. And worse comes to worse there is always Bing and Yahoo to rank in for organic search if Google tumbles for some reason -- which is possible, but I don't see happening too soon.

  • And let's add what I call "You Rank" to the equation, which is something I theorized about many years ago. I have a feeling that the data Google collects on YOU and YOUR websites will affect rank.

    For example, if Google thinks you are a link spammer from past actions, yet you build a new "100% whitehat" site, your known history could play a part in the ranking of any new sites you create, including your new whitehat site.

    On the other hand, if you have a known history of developing high-quality sites, any new site you create could get a boost based on your history, and not on "typical" SEO factors.

    There's some hints that this is already happening. For example, a situation Dr. Mani discussed with me in private a few months ago could be a case of You Rank, where all sites assiciated with a person were de-valued based on just a few of the sites.
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  • Call me crazy, but I really don't see how this affects those who provide high quality content on their sites. Take the example in the Fox News piece about Lake Tahoe -- they would see key attributes about the site. Okay. So then what? People who just needed a quick fact aren't the ones who are likely to make a purchase of a vacation package at Lake Tahoe. They aren't likely to click ads in your site anyway. Those searching for Lake Tahoe because they want to read about it and what's nice to see there will still look for articles and content about it rather than just the facts that Google displays.

    I mean heck, as has been pointed out in this thread, Google already provides facts to people who do searches. This is just an expansion of what they were doing.

    Someone else mentioned that Google could provide a list of popular TV sets, leaving those who provide comparisons out in the cold. The thing is, most people who are doing a search for the best LCD TV set aren't going to just want a list from Google. They'll look at the list and then search for detailed reviews of those TV sets and that's something Google won't be offering them. All they'll offer is short facts.

    So again, provide real, useful information in long form and you'll be fine. Use auto spun junk which isn't even readable and you'll lose your shirt.

    Oh and by the way folks, I can think of at least half a dozen other ways to generate free or low cost traffic in addition to Google searches. Yes, you need to do SEO. However, let's never forget what backlinks originally were invented for -- to allow you to jump to another site which has information which may be related to what you are currently reading about.
  • Now there is a GREAT idea...my initial reaction was to create some kind of Big G boycott, or pool money to institute a law suit or something...or even try to all create a swing to bing or yahoo or something with an "Association of Internet Users" voluntary placed banner ads that promote such a move...but creating a new search engine...awesome idea! How would one go about doing that?
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    • I have thought of doing this before. You just have to be very careful as Google shuts down anything that rises up against it!
    • I think these are great ideas. Google is getting to big for it's britches.
  • haha I thought this thread had died. Creating a new search engine is gonna cost a lot of money if you want to be able to rival Google at all but I'm sure with all the smart minds here it could be done!
  • agc: It completely reminds me of what happened with YouTube. The winners clearly have a very unfair advantage over those just starting out. With a ton of extra features and control over how everything on their profile is viewed as well as partner advertisements and all that. Since they are owned by Google how long until that is exactly how the Google search engine works I wonder?
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    "Google plans major overhaul to search engine"

    "Over the next few months, Google's search engine will begin spitting out more than a list of blue web links. It will also present more facts and direct answers to queries at the top of the search-results page. The changes to search are among the biggest in the company's history and could affect millions of websites that rely on Google's current page-ranking results. At the same time, they could give more ways to serve up advertisements..." What are your thoughts on this?