NPR: Matt Cutts wants websites to be packaged like Apple products

[robert76]

Listen to this interview from NPR yesterday:

Google's Search Tweak Puts A Company At Risk [npr.org]

I know we'll have fun picking apart and analyzing this statement!

[edited by: tedster at 5:52 pm (utc) on May 4, 2011]
[edit reason] make link clickable [/edit]

[crobb305]

Thanks for sharing.

[ken_b]

So Lieberman will be paying outside contractors like Fernstrom a buck a description for the rest of the summer.

A whole dollar per description. That ought to be some high quality writing!

[tedster]

My first response to the story and the interview was "This is solid business advice - for any business, onnline or offline." The kind of description re-writing described by the owner of One Way Furniture is something anyone with success in the print catalog business already knows about - except it definitely costs more than $1 per item!

If the only effect of Panda was to reward sites for engaging content, that would be fine in my opinion. The problem seems to be that this isn't all that seems to be happening.

[walkman]

Looks like Matt Cutts opened his own off-shoring company in India or something and is trying to drum up business. So it's official, Panda has nothing to do with quality, just write some non-sense to fool Google.

Notice how NPR said it may rank their site in a few months or not. Maybe Matt Cutts gave NPR a clue or maybe they meant it will take them a few months to write the stupid descriptions.

What we have here is Google muscling everyone to go a certain way, in essence to design for Google.

[StoutFiles]

So it's official, Panda has nothing to do with quality, just write some non-sense to fool Google.

It's actually everything to do with quality. Google wants to direct buyers to the product source, not the hundreds of resellers. Rewriting descriptions may work for now, but then some other update will come along to knock resellers back down.

Sell unique products or start counting your days.

[walkman]

It's actually everything to do with quality. Google wants to direct buyers to the product source, not the hundreds of resellers. Rewriting descriptions may work for now, but then some other update will come along to knock resellers back down.

Sell unique products or start counting your days.

Tell me something, what store sells the Nike Zoom Kobe Bryant VI. And is Google going to have a one result page from now on?

[g1smd]

I don't buy it, especially when there's at least one luxury brand keyword search where 978 of the 1000 results are sites selling fake and counterfeit goods - and that's a result with between 4 and 15 entries already removed by DMCA action from each and every one of the 100 pages of results. Farmer, panda and all the rest, made little or no dent in that.

[browsee]

What we have here is Google muscling everyone to go a certain way, in essence to design for Google.

Is this the reason why eHow changed the site design after Feb? Is there a relation between site design,look and feel and quality? If the site looks good then quality is good? Is Matt out of his mind?

[dickbaker]

A buck per description. I'm redoing product pages that, just like those in the article, have the manufacturer data on them. I'm adding more to those pages, though. In some cases one product page takes an entire day. I'm giving some thought to doing videos of each product, which could consume a whole lot more time.

In my niche, the top sites have the manufacturer's description and little else. Sometimes the sites don't even have that. They're ecomm sites and, while some are established and heavily trafficked, others are on the first page for reasons I can't discern.

I don't sell the products, but I need to feature them, so I need to do something beyond what the ecomm sites are doing.

[robert76]

Should have warned not to read the transcript in the link but listen to the audio instead.

Matt's vision is a beautiful box, beautiful package, just the entire experience is really wonderful like when you buy an Apple.

Based on this, Google is looking a lot closer at the visual elements of a page. I posed the color theory in this forum before but it really didn't take well. May be time to take another look at these types of elements instead of rewriting pages.

[Shatner]

What the NPR story fails to address is that the guy rewriting all of his product descriptions really doesn't know if that's the problem and is probably just wasting his time.

They act as though it's Yay, Google has forced people to write interesting stuff! But there's no evidence of that, just an assumption.

Pretty shoddy reporting actually, but about on par with all the other stuff being written about Panda.

Had the guy said he'd seen recovery after rewriting all of his product descriptions, then they'd have a story, but he didn't.

Also, this is about more than just generic product descriptions. A lot of sites with 100% original content have been completely destroyed... and there's no explanation why. While many corporate news services which just copy/paste reuters stories (cough*Yahoo*cough) have taken their traffic.

But just to limit the discussion to this one store... should retailers be ranked based on the quality of their products, and not the quality of the freelancers they hire to write BS about their products?

[walkman]

Is this the reason why eHow changed the site design after Feb? Is there a relation between site design,look and feel and quality? If the site looks good then quality is good? Is Matt out of his mind?

Hmmmmm....they must bring tens of millions to Google so don't rule out that an Adsense manager 'heard' something through the grapevine and 'suggested' that eHow would look better if they... It all depends on how Google rewards the adsense people, everyone has bills to pay.

[scooterdude]

I am curious, what happens to all this expenditure if an unwelcome spider comes a calling, as is bound to happen now that its obvious to most webmasters,

that folk who have pet arachnids are being rewarded in the SERPs

[johnhh]

so don't rule out that an Adsense manager 'heard' something

I don't know about Adsense managers but I know Adwords people invite the clients out to the plex to "discuss" their sites and arrange things on the basis if you keep spending then we can do ... and this is not rumour I have been told directly by a really big spender ...

[browsee]

Based on this, Google is looking a lot closer at the visual elements of a page. I posed the color theory in this forum before but it really didn't take well. May be time to take another look at these types of elements instead of rewriting pages.

@robert76, we had discussion on design aspect.
[webmasterworld.com...]

I changed look and feel of my site completely, but I did not see any traffic gain yet.

[roodle]

should retailers be ranked based on the quality of their products, and not the quality of the freelancers they hire to write BS about their products?

Yeah I do wonder whether this makes sense. Surely there's something twisted going on if the only way to rank well is to re-hash a/o 'fictionalize' your content such that it's unique. Sounds like it'll lead to all kinds of nonsense ways to get that no.1 spot. Then when the public actually read the content they'll be wondering why companies can't cut to the chase and give them exactly the boilerplate content Google is trying to banish from the web. Romancing furniture? (shakes head)

[Whitey]

If the only effect of Panda was to reward sites for engaging content, that would be fine in my opinion. The problem seems to be that this isn't all that seems to be happening.

I'm seeing sites with pages of unique content hit. It's not so simple.

Sell unique products or start counting your days.

Exactly .... Google isn't just looking at the body of the document , it's many more factors. If you're one of thousands of people selling permutations of bar stools in location x , how much variations of quality content can you write, how much "buzz" will you create , and what can you do that Google can't do via it's paid services.

[walkman]

This furniture guy is doing it smart, giving Google a black eye and Google can't really screw him even more. So far all those that complained loud and clear about Panda, Google, er the algo, fixed them. Google is scared to death of the media.

If this continues the press will further turn again Google, because it makes a good story. Right now newspapers actually believe the crap that the algo is independent and treats everyone the same, no manual exceptions etc. Wait until they find out about the manual fixes after Panda.

[Reno]

Google wants to direct buyers to the product source, not the hundreds of resellers. Rewriting descriptions may work for now, but then some other update will come along to knock resellers back down.

StoutFiles has nailed it. This may not be universally true (yet), but for what I'm seeing and experiencing, it's the most logical explanation...

Sell unique products or start counting your days.

...and thus the reason so many took the fall. Google is on the shooting range, and middlemen are the targets.

.......................

[Shatner]

>>>Sell unique products or start counting your days

Correction. Sell unique products or be Amazon.com

Of the many unfair things about Panda, one of the most unfair for ecommerce sites is that Google gives a pass to anyone who is big enough, even if they're doing the same things they are penalizing smaller sites for.

Google has taken a very clear, anti-small business stance.

[Whitey]

Google has taken a very clear, anti-small business stance.

Not specifially, IMO - the survival and prosperity of middle men has only ever been in the added value they bring in distribution and service. Google is by default better at this - not that i like it from a personal point of view, but that's the way it is and we have to play along with it where we can.

[g1smd]

Google wants to direct buyers to the product source, not the hundreds of resellers.

That just doesn't work in many markets. Heinz don't sell to the public. I have to go to Tesco, ASDA or Sainsburys, for their product. Oh, they are big enough for a free pass?

[storeowner]

Sell unique products or start counting your days.

Product-wise there really isn't anything unique unless you produce your own art to sell. Even if you find something unique to sell, chances are the market will eventually be flooded with similar products.

So if ecomm sites want to be unique, we have to stand out with the website experience, the way products are presented on the page (good detailed photos?), customer service, answering questions, speedy delivery. Any way Google can measure these?

[walkman]

That just doesn't work in many markets. Heinz don't sell to the public. I have to go to Tesco, ASDA or Sainsburys, for their product. Oh, they are big enough for a free pass?

Yep! Amazon and Footlocker etc can sell Nike sneakers but a small sow store apparently can't. Why is that? If Google sends people directly to the origin how many results will they be on the search page, one?

What Google is doing is preparing to be or being the middleman. Now they even bought an insurance, cable, ISP comparison service. They had the mortgage and credit card one already. Local search exists, travel is coming soon and shopping exists too. So they are a portal, masquerading as a search engine and penalizing competition by first slapping 10-20 Google links and then pushing "thin content" pages down. All while having a virtual monopoly.

[dickbaker]

This thread has taken a timely turn.

With my rankings for my own small online store in the tank, I'm doing AdWords, although the ads don't do anything. What is bringing in buyers is Google Shopping/Products.

Google has changed the format of those listings in the last several months. Where before sites were jockeying to get ranked well in Products, Google now has a bunch of merchants under one listing, based upon price. Click on the button, and you get five or ten or twenty retailers for the product.

It almost looks as though Google is moving to become the middleman, and eliminate the need for retailers to have a website. All they need to have is the shopping cart and the product pages.

I know it sounds tinfoil hat, but it looks like Google just might want to take over ecommerce by making themselves the conduit to the shopping cart.

[roodle]

Google just might want to take over ecommerce by making themselves the conduit to the shopping cart.

I can't believe that. Another company trying to dictate what is good for society on the internet while lining their own pockets. Facebook is another one. The 'Walmarts' of the net are taking shape...

[roodle]

Sry I meant CAN believe that...

[storeowner]

Sell unique products or start counting your days.

Product-wise there really isn't anything unique unless you produce your own art to sell. Even if you find something unique to sell, chances are the market will eventually be flooded with similar products.

So if ecomm sites want to be unique, we have to stand out with the website experience, the way products are presented on the page (good detailed photos?), customer service, answering questions, speedy delivery. Any way Google can measure these?

[Rlilly]

> Any way Google can measure these?

Human editing and its becoming more apparent that it is in widespread use at the Plex