Awarn - 11:23 pm on Nov 21, 2012 (gmt 0)

Who says Google like sites that give searchers what they want? If a searcher is looking to buy an item. They want to go to a page and buy it. Not go through several pages etc. To find a site that lists the item but doesn't stock the item is a waste of the searchers time. I can spend a whole lot of time on a site searching through a rat maze and never find what I want. I too can go to a site and hit one page and find exactly what I want. To assume that searchers come to a site through the homepage is not always correct. I know I have customers that spend hours at a time on the site. The site was designed in response to comments made by our customers. Google has hit us with Penguin yet customers still find us on page 2 because we actually do have the product. I don't think Google truly understands business. Some buyers are browsers that look but don't buy, other buyers go directly to what they want and buy. Some people look and bookmark and comeback months later. That information is hard to track. The good sites will still get sales maybe just not as much with Google as it is today. Then we get the comments on poor customer satisfaction from people buying online. That is caused by putting some of these poor companies at the top.

What gets me is here we are implementing all the security and PCI scans and specialized shipping features etc to accomodate customers with options and tracking features. And yet I see companies without secure shopping carts, no verification etc being ranked higher. Yet Google says we are suppose to ask which site makes the customers feel more secure. Google gives a good speech but doesn't seem to follow what they preach. So are we building sites for Google or for our customers? I don't think what Google is looking for is the same as what our customers are looking for.