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What this really shows is that we shouldn't optimixe our sites for Google only. Time for a few changes.
Buy AdWords. They don't depend on algorithms which are far from perfect.
Wouldn't it be nice if we had a choice, but the only traffic driving SE is Google, the others just aren’t worth putting any effort into
Onya
Woz
Viewing all the angst on discussion on Dominic, it may well be a good thing - that it has finally put to rest the short era of building a business on free search engine listings. That era effectively passed a fair time ago, and hopefully these google changes will convince those living in the past that its a different world now that the web has grown as a business, plummetted, and finally re-emerged as a more rational, mature business arena.
Yep only short-term opportunistic companies depend on one promotion channel - "free" or not. Long term strategy is characterised by a flexible promotion mix.
Depends on your business + the nature of the market your business operates in, and is imapcted if any one channel holds a large percentage of qualified prospects. Long term strategy is characterised by creating a brand.
Google sells adwords for a reason.
I can understand someone only making a few sales a month not being able to afford advertising. But 10,000? Use Adwords.
efficiency comes to all markets,just depends on the time frame..
No, no not google.......
Go out with a bang theory? No...not google..
Hmmmmm I wonder how Adwords are doing right about now?
Do you think they have increased 10 fold yet?
I can say for sure in my industry it has increased 10 fold.
But google is innocent, this is just a magic update.
Not hardly wake up..........
You mean you didn't make the additional $10,000 profit from Google that you had made in the past I assume?
Google has been, and probably will be for many years to come, a gold diggers dream. I feel a little sorry for those that mined a little less gold this month, but on the other hand someone else got it instead!
I initially thought that Google implementing this algo in a live environment was completely stupid, but after a few days I see another strategy.....shake as many SEO's out of this market as possible, then Google has to spend less on combatting people who are trying to manipualte it!
Not sure I'm correct with this idea, but if I am then Google have pulled a winner. If I'm not we may go back a few paces in future months. Either way all that matters is that you can sustain the costs of war!
As worried about Google as people are, if I were Brett I'd be doubly worried. Webmaster World is turning into a preschool full of crybabies. I didn't see the press release where free Google placement became an entitlement.
On the positive side, this certainly reminds me that the Internet still has tons of potential. With competition like this, opportunities abound.
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[edited by: ciml at 12:20 pm (utc) on May 28, 2003]
[edit reason] See Sticky [/edit]
Overall, on all the sites I look at taken in combination - absolutely none! If you look at any single site in isolation it could have benefited or might have lost out.
People tend to (quite obviously) look at what has happened to them as the most crucial issue. I would have thought that there has been no dramatic impact on the vast majority of websites.
There is plenty of traffic out there without Google. But as others have also said, if Google is important to your business - use AdWords.
Percentage I do not think google is trying to put SEO companies out of business, combat people who are trying to manipulate it YES, but no matter how much perfect google or any other search engine is still there are rooms for SEO companies. a few years back it was almost impossible to get listed in Yahoo and Yahoo was not using google. not getting listed in Yahoo looked like the end of the world, but it all changed. Yahoo started using Google .
Google right now is almost the best but there will be another some time and Yahoo will oneday stop using google.
People are so much worried specially SEO companies.
SEO is a very stressful job and very risky whenever search engines change their ways but there is always a way .
Just wait for the next update and most backlinks will appear again. Every thing will be OK ofcourse there will be some challeges but we will make it..
Folks, we can talk all we want, with a search engine controlling anything between 50-90% of all searches on the web, depending on the market, it's ridiculous to claim what this search engine does has no impact on millions of web business owners.
[edited by: nutsandbolts at 8:38 am (utc) on May 28, 2003]
Google may control 50%-90% of web searches. Great. They don't control anywhere near 50%-90% of web traffic, and there are literally a million ways to get good traffic outside of Google.
this May 2003 I lost About 10,000 US Dollars because of recent Google Technical problems.
That's a shame and a blow I am sure you weren't prepared for. However, I don't think it is likely that your loss of income can be attributed to "technical problems" at Google.
However I am sure that this nightmare will be over and Google is Best search Engine. No complain ,.. And thanks to GoogleGuy for it's effort to contribute to webmaster world.
If your loss of income is likely to put you out of business, don't wait for the "technical problems" to resolve themselves. Buy adwords and buy it now!
You can work out the SEO/SEM problems later. In the meantime, you need traffic. Get on it right away. If you don't know how to go about it, there are plenty of SEO/SEM types right here. Choose one you trust and ask for help.
Good luck!
So with that out of the way, the fact remains that drastic changes in Google rankings will have a deep impact on small web business.
You wouldn't fight a top5 ranking in Google, would you? If you have that, and your product doesn't suck, then that ranking will make you money. If you lose that ranking, you will lose that money.
Anybody here telling me they do not make any money from successfully optimizing for Google either are not in web business, or have a site that does not converse.
Why is this forum, Google News, the most popular forum on the board by magnitudes? Why do people get all hysterical about Google? Because we don't make any money out of it?
Lets get real.
Lol, reading those discussions I'm often reminded of the story of the elderly victorian lady, her little niche, and the enormous naked pink elephant in the china shop. Whispers the lady: "Stop staring, dear, just pretend it isn't there..."
it is not so much about the eggs and baskets.
its about free money on the street lying there for many months >> grab it and enjoy the ride while it lasts!
I don't really think so. If one is loosign now, somebody else is winning, and you've made a bad SEO choice by overoptimizing for the previous algo. In effect you have "stolen" profit from the underoptimized guys over the last month, and now you're paying for it.
I don't say you're not "loosing" business, I'm just saying it's not Googles business. google delivers just as much traffik, just as many searches, and for the most problably the same quality of searches. We tend to forget the "big picture" of the searching crowd who don't care about particular rankings in particular keywords. If you're loosing out relative to your competitors after an algo update it's really because of risky and bad business decissions on your behalf.
If you sell ice cream all year round, are te sausage vendors stealing your profits in winter? Hardly...
SN
No way, I wont buy adwords. It does not matter what happens
This attitude only makes search engines more and more expensive. What I am doing is trying to concentrate on other search engines as well. Take a vacation with my family and Relax.
I have seen similary situations even though this is the worst. Google is not every thing. Yahoo still is important and very soon Yahoo is going to change it's result.
I am going to concentrate on Inktomi and alltheweb.
I have also been penalized by Google on a different site. I have seen the traffic outside of Google. It's not a cakewalk, but you get creative, and in the end it has become a positive now that it's back in.
So I do know the feeling of hitting a brick wall, and of wanting to hit someone at Google.
And that's the problem-- If you look at the threads in this forum over the last month the vast majority of sentiment is bent towards "Look what Google did to me!" as opposed to "Any ideas on working to move forward?" There is definitely anger and blame directed at Google, and my point is that it is completely misplaced. There are constructive things that can be done. I can look at my lower ranking during this period, look at those above me, and see what I need to do to improve.
It just gets old reading through all these posts and seeing piles of people thinking the only way to the top is spam reporting everyone above them. It'd be great to see some creativity and elbow grease and common sense. It's to the point where Brett could use some "whiner" algorithmic filters of his own to lose some of the noise. I guess I should take my own advice and just look elsewhere if I'm so dissatisfied with what I see.
Plus the Google results in my area seem pretty much the same as last month and haven't dropped in quality (and I do routinely check a large number of search phrases).
I feel so left out.
I would actually like to see some of these "spammy" results, it sounds like there are still a lot of good opportunities out there.
