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The stories he describes with the Google algorithm impacting his traffic (and subsequently, bottom line) is pretty scary. A rephrased quote from Matt Cutts on

The stories he describes with the Google algorithm impacting his traffic (and subsequently, bottom line) is pretty scary. A rephrased quote from Matt Cutts on an algorithm change cutting MetaFilter's traffic: "Oh yeah, it never reversed. It should have. You were accidentally put in the bad pile."

lubujackson 10y ago
Pretty much sums up Google customer service.
bbcbasic 10y ago
Yes any business relying solely in SE traffic is super risky.
jonknee 10y ago
That's a major source of anxiety for me. A random event completely outside of my control and I'm wiped off the map without a recourse. Every update has unintended consequences for someone...
coderdude 10y ago
I used to work for a company that sold furniture online. We were good but the majority of our business came from the beloved serps. It hurt us dramatically when our boilerplate product copy, sent to all online retailers, counted against us as though we were spam. It was beyond my capabilities to develop a method to automatically reword the copy. Surprise, surprise. We started to pay people to write unique descriptions for the products that everyone on the net was carrying. Then affiliates would pick it up and screw us again. That's it. No happy ending. Company was bought by our most underhanded competitor. Now I do my own thing. I should note we rode the Google gravy train for about 8 years before that happened. After "panda" the company couldnt afford to buy every bit of its traffic. I doubt that's what Google was shooting for with that update but it really changed some lives.
- archildress 10y ago
  That's really an incredible story, and I doubt that it exists in a vacuum. I'd really like to see a piece about companies like yours and others that were impacted heavily by algorithm changes. The part that probably bothers me the most is that if the MetaFilter founder didn't have a direct connection to Matt Cutts, it probably would've just been the end of his site at the scale he was at.

lubujackson 10y ago

Pretty much sums up Google customer service.

bbcbasic 10y ago

Yes any business relying solely in SE traffic is super risky.

jonknee 10y ago

That's a major source of anxiety for me. A random event completely outside of my control and I'm wiped off the map without a recourse. Every update has unintended consequences for someone...

coderdude 10y ago

I used to work for a company that sold furniture online. We were good but the majority of our business came from the beloved serps. It hurt us dramatically when our boilerplate product copy, sent to all online retailers, counted against us as though we were spam. It was beyond my capabilities to develop a method to automatically reword the copy. Surprise, surprise. We started to pay people to write unique descriptions for the products that everyone on the net was carrying. Then affiliates would pick it up and screw us again. That's it. No happy ending. Company was bought by our most underhanded competitor. Now I do my own thing. I should note we rode the Google gravy train for about 8 years before that happened. After "panda" the company couldnt afford to buy every bit of its traffic. I doubt that's what Google was shooting for with that update but it really changed some lives.

archildress 10y ago
That's really an incredible story, and I doubt that it exists in a vacuum. I'd really like to see a piece about companies like yours and others that were impacted heavily by algorithm changes. The part that probably bothers me the most is that if the MetaFilter founder didn't have a direct connection to Matt Cutts, it probably would've just been the end of his site at the scale he was at.