claaarky - 7:12 pm on Jan 8, 2013 (gmt 0)

TMS, I see that as Google gets more granular and specific with the traffic it sends, our traffic 'could' go down. However, that traffic is likely to convert much better, because it's more specific and qualified, so we don't necessarily lose financially in that scenario, we just have less traffic.

It's also possible we wouldn't have less traffic, as we could pick up traffic elsewhere if our site is found to be a better match to more individual searchers than our competitors. In that scenario we win big time....same traffic as before but it's much better converting.

If the argument is Google will be sending more of their traffic to their own sites then, yes, the end of the world is nigh. They have all the information they need about every site in the world to set up in competition, do a better job and have all their sites ranking top on merit.

It's difficult to be certain how this will play out though. Going down this road appears obvious but Google needs websites and it needs websites to need it. If Google gives us an incentive to move away from depending on them then one day we might actually decide to block Google and then it has nothing to show in its' results. Would they risk that?

Building a business on Google traffic is risky, no doubt about that, but assuming Google will go for the 'easy money' is a big underestimation of their ability.

My view is Google wants to do a better job of sending the right traffic to the right sites. They are miles away from that at the moment (if my keyword stats are anything to go by) and it might actually be better for us when they perfect it, you never know.