Seems the concept of quoting text is lost on some.
Getting the "quotes" right ( yes I mangled your text there whilst trying to tweak it..mea culpa ..mes excuses..sorry ) is harder when one is blocking the script calls to google here..takes away the ability to edit..and means writing all the tags in by hand.I was also in somewhat of a hurry , just "looking"in", between things in "real life"..
But you got the gist of what I meant I think ? :) ..someone apparently did.
re the idea of the ads being more relevant than the organics..I tend to agree with you there..the ads are often as far away from matching the query as the organics, when the ads are on target , it is indeed because the advertisers have spent a lot of time going through the adwords settings ( which if left to Google's default settings are in "take as much of the clients money as possible show ads for searches, and to searchers that the client would not want them to show for, make it as complex as we can for the client to have their ads shown only to those who they want to see them" ), anyone here who reads the adwords forums would know this, and that Google constantly switch things around in settings, or "broaden "things" to supposedly help advertisers , but whose real aim is to spend even more of your ad budget until you discover that they are now "helping you by showing ads for your widgets to most of India.
Some the ads are only more accurate than the organics when related to the queries because some advertisers know that Google is as tricksy as hell..also "we" know they are ads..the "relevant to search term" ads stand out from the "organics" to us webmasters.
However what Google and the advertisers are counting on, is the fact ( this really is a fact, unlike a lot of things which get called "facts" in these threads ) most searchers ( waaaay more than half of them, and probably near to 99% of them ) can't tell the ads from the organics, They just think that Google place "the best answers", at the top of the results. Adsense publishers , and Google also count on the fact ( again a real "fact" ) that most website visitors can't tell the ads from the content..even when the difference screams out at us webmasters..almost all clicks on ads ( either adwords or adsense are made by people who do not know that they are clicking on an ad..and we know that..we ( if we place or run ads ) are complicit with Google in that "bait and switch" ), ask a non webmaster searcher to click the ads on SERPs, and they'll not be sure where to click..we webmasters would though..
Usually in these kind of " there has been an algo update and now the SERPs are crappier " , one eventually hears someone say in "Google's defence" something like "if they tweak the SERPs to make them more money, they'd lose credibility and people would switch to another search engine" or a similar phrase..This line of reasoning completely fails to take into account the following things..
Google now have ( via android ) over 90% of the cellphone pre installed search engine search market..and search via "cell phone" is now way bigger than search via computers..those of us who use computers ( desktop or portable ) is a percentage compared to those whose web activity is entirely via cellphone..Those cell phone users do not know how to switch from Google ( built in on android ) to another search engine..Most cellphone users either "go on facebook" , "go on google" , "go on instagram"..yes..we all know this..( and many of us make our living from this )..the fact is ( and while it is just us webmasters here in a webmaster forum we can be honest about it ) that even the intelligent people that we know, if they do not work on websites, have no idea how any of "this" works, to them it is all like magic..show them a page of simple source code ( let alone program code ) and they'll understand as much of it as cows do about a passing train..we once understood as little about how websites and the internet works, and how search engines work , and what are ads and what is content, as those people..
Google know that too..they know that people are not going to switch from one search engine to another like they switched from myspace to facebook and are now leaving facebook..and "tech journalists" and "tv journalist" are not likely to get "the public" to switch away from Google either , because when you have worked with some of those "tech journalists", you know that most of them have problems changing the batteries in their own mice, and cannot understand how cookies work any more than your cat can..let alone how search engines affect the economies and what we see, and what information we can access..
The only thing that Google has to worry about is legislation being passed that would affect their ability to "track" users, because it is that ability to track users, that attracts the big spending advertisers..
Why do they make these "updates"..
If they didn't.. we would all be gaming them effortlessly as one once could with altavista..because after every announced update ( and in between them when the little tweaks to the algo are happening ) webmasters are observing the SERPs, analysing the movements, and deciphering some parts of the "black box"..so Google have to keep changing the parts ( or at least the weighting of the various parts in relation to each other ) of the "black box"..if Google didn't keep doing that, people would not stop using Google to search, but..fewer ads would be bought if advertisers could easily game Google..They have to keep the ad revenue coming in and increasing every quarter, because if they falter, Wall street will show them no mercy..the best way to keep that ad revenue coming in, and growing, is to not allow the SERPs ( especially in the "money term areas" ) to be too stable for more than a quarter..
Businesses , especially large ones, like stability ( with growth if they can have it too ), they need it, they need to be able to plan ahead..they need to be able to influence their sales figures..so ..they can "roll the dice" ( rely on organics ) or they can "buy some stability""..via adwords..
Relying on organics means understanding something of how organics works, and how search works, and how people who are searching "tick" etc..Businesses can "buy the services of someone who claims to have that knowledge"..an SEO..But SEO can cost lot of money, and has no guarantees..( ever seen an SEO "expert" who only wants to be paid after achieving results, not before , or during ) but how can they know that the SEO "knows what they are talking about ? We know that many don't have a clue, but they can write a good resumé. How does a business know the good SEO from the scammers..Unless they know someone ( or preferably multiple "someones" )who has had their figures improved by the SEO..and who personally recommends them..So, the business buys ads, from Google, or from an agency who places their ads at Google. maybe someone in the business decides to watch and observe SERPs, read a few webmaster forums, think a bit, and mix a little SEO experimentation with the ad buying.
Google really have no choice but to stir up SERPs from time to time, that is their motivation, their imperative,( I wish they'd be more honest about "the why", but I don't think they ever will be ) how one responds to that stirring up ? as iamlost said, diversify, that doesn't necessarily mean diversify ones's business ( although that can help not to have all one's eggs in the same niche basket ) but definitely means diversify ones tactics..One has to change either what one does, or how one does it, or both, because Google will have to continue to change how they rank you and your business , accepting / admitting why they have to keep doing so can help you avoid being a casualty when they do so..to start with..move to being less reliant upon being found in Google, reduce your reliance upon traffic from Google.
