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It's not like Google is scumware taking over people's Windows boxes and making all their searches come up funny. No one's being -forced- to use Google at all. The results could be complete and total crap and there still wouldn't be any liability.
I'm confused by the apparently-randomly-fluctuating SERPs too (they've been flip-flopping back and forth between two data sets for more than a week now, on the searches I'm watching). But if users don't like them, they'll just use something else. Google's not imposing anything on anyone. *shrug*
The flaw in this analysis is that Google isn't in business to please webmasters who don't pay them anything. Google's customers are Adword buyers, and the searchers are the product. The non-paying sites in the SERPs are there just to draw in the searchers. Basically, Google is to the Internet what commercial networks are to TV channels. The sitcoms, etc. lure in the viewers (which are the product being sold to advertisers), who have to put up with ads in the programs.
If they block your site from a significant portion of the internet searching audience for no good reason, I would say they are imposing on you as a web master and business person.
How many millions of dollars in man hours has been wasted by web masters trying to be unblocked? If that is not imposing I do not know what is.
It's a zero sum game. While you may be upset that your site was knocked from #1 to buried in the SERPs in the last update, the webmasters who runs the sites now in the #1 spots you used to have are as happy as can be. That's the way the SE game works.
I am not upset, I am disappointed in the @$!@#!@# running G. And my site(s) with an 'S' have been blocked, they were not 'knocked out'. Being knocked out is one thing but being locked out is an entirely different thing.
I've never written sites with Search Engines as the main concern, just keeping in mind the various guidelines - users are the main concern and the sites are written for them. If Google doesn't like 'em, well Google doesn't like 'em. I gave up trying to second guess Google.
On the whole most of my sites are doing fine on Google, just a few travel-related sites that are lost without trace and they are doing reasonably well from other links and search engines anyway. So why change anything.
(My real fave "Google recovery story", is one of my sites that sold Local Widgets. When the monthly updates were going on this site was sunk every month and would slowly climb back up the serps again, just to get sunk at the next update. At the end of last year, the owner of the site retired and the new owner is no longer selling Local Widgets. The only mention of 'em on the site is one small note saying they are no longer sold. Guess which site now continually ranks #1 for a search on Local Widgets....? Ho hum.)
The fact is that as things stand Google is an undisputed monopsony in the search engine world. We structure our websites around it whether we are businesses, charities, societies, clans, whatever. This won't continue. Google is almost unique in this position whether it be in the offline or online world.
I feel justified in my statement that the days when I cared about my site's position in Google SERPS are coming to an end. My site is for visitors and not for Google. I just hope that when Yahoo and MSN knock Google off the top spot I get recognition from them for this. Internet websites are for surfers, not for search engine bots.
rfgdxm1 - I completely agree with you but this is nothing to do with the topic of this thread. I well appreciate Google has to make money, I'd even go as far to say that if I were Brin or Page I'd try even harder to make Google more profitable - there's nothing wrong with that - of course not. The question asked here though is, given that Google will be facing a lot more competition over the next 18 months or so AND it's SERPS algo is just so completely inpenetrable to webmasters, what's the point in Google SEO at all?
The trouble is that if you want visitors, you need google. Despite what some people think, this is still the reality now and for many months to come.
If you don't know what to do to get higher rankings, then just concentrating on making your site better for visitors seems to me to be the best thing to do. .... it may also be the best seo tactic as well!
robster124
I bet you won't be able to resist making a few seo tweaks when you get a few new ideas. Its a drug we are all adicted to. Its fun in a masochistic way and the rewards are great. Google has given the opportunity for us all to have high street shop fronts for free, lets never forget that. Not everyone can be in the high street, but we have the tantilising chance. Personally I cannot afford £30,000,000 for a shop in central London, Google has given us an alternative and when we are ranking badly we should not be bitter. Its a game, and we should base our internet income on the fact that when we are ranking well its a bonus, when we are out we are back in the real world of dog eats dog, with noone to blame.
"what's the point in Google SEO at all?
"
Because if you can suss it for long enough you make a fortune.
You misunderstand me. I meant that they're not imposing on SEARCHERS. Searchers may use Google or not, according to their own free will. Even if the results were total garbage, it still wouldn't be like Google was forcing them on any searchers anywhere. Hence bad serps in Google really can't be compared to a virus at all.
As for the webmasters, Google doesn't owe anyone a living, period. Google's not "imposing" anything upon you either; they're giving you traffic, and right now they're giving you less of it than they used to. Shrug. They don't HAVE to have you in their index at all.
