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I'm not a big proponent of advanced SEO and mostly stick to doing the right things (proper page title, good content, easy to read/type links, use of H1, H2 etc.

by chime 15y ago

I'm not a big proponent of advanced SEO and mostly stick to doing the right things (proper page title, good content, easy to read/type links, use of H1, H2 etc.) I don't make 100 landing pages or optimize my apps/sites for SEO by using all possible synonyms for my keywords. I don't do these things because they do not make my content better or improve usability but simply try to increase search engine rankings. > You follow best practices. You get torched for it. You are deciding how many employees to fire & if you should simply file bankruptcy and be done with it. Anytime I read any SEO complaints against Google, I notice this huge sense of entitlement that the authors and commenters have, as if Google owes them something with respect to search engine rankings just because they might be paying for AdWords or some other Google service. You have the full right to complain if your ad campaigns do not work as advertised. But it's your own fault if you have to fire employees because Google changed their primary search algorithm which tanked your traffic. Sorry. Google does not owe you anything even if their statements are contradictory. > And the truth is, this sort of shift is common, because as soon as Google openly recommends something people take it to the Nth degree & find ways to exploit it, which forces Google to change. The author hits the nail on the head right here and even suggests the proper method: > The only ways to get clarity from Google on issues of importance are to: * ignore what Google suggests & test what actually works Don't try to read too much into how Google works from a comment by an employee here or an official blog post there. Just do what your site needs to function properly and most importantly offer something that people want.

jshen 15y ago
"But it's your own fault if you have to fire employees because Google changed their primary search algorithm which tanked your traffic. " I used to work for an ecommerce site. Over 60% of our traffic and sales came from google. To handle those orders we hired people, then if we lost ranking in google we would have to fire them. How would that have been our fault?
- chime 15y ago
  > Over 60% of our traffic and sales came from google. Because you did not diversify strongly enough. Certainly, Google is a great way to get lots of traffic but if 60% of your sales comes from a single source with whom you do not have a signed contract, it is your own fault if you cannot handle your business when the sales tank. It is no different than putting 60% of your investments in a single stock and seeing the company fail, wiping out 60% of your savings. Sure, you didn't cause the company to fail but you did plan very poorly. People keep blaming Google when this happens. But who told you to rely on Google for 60% of your sales, especially when you haven't paid them or signed anything with them with respect to search engine rankings? Please note that my reply is directed more to the owners of the ecom site than you personally.
  - jshen 15y ago
    I think you missed my point. We can handle our business when google drops us, but the volume from google is large enough that it required hiring more people. If that goes away, we'd fire those people. I agree with your larger point, but let's be honest, when people are shopping for things online they usually type it into a search engine (if they don't go to amazon directly). Depending on the type of product you are selling you may not be able to get around this.
    - aaronwall 15y ago
      A lot of the biggest brands see more "search" referrals that are just their brand name going through search engines. As web browsers replace address bars with search boxes the search engines in a very real sense act like a utility the redirects the traffic flow through a page with ads on it. If you rank fine then no big deal, but if you don't show up for your own brand then that is brutal. Of course most the sites hit by Panda were not hit so hard that they don't show up for their site name (unless their site was named after a generic commercial keyword where there were lots of other competitors already) but in the cases where it was a lot of those businesses were just hosed. It is yet another way to boost big brands...not only put weight on brand related signals, but make the generics more likely to get clipped by the algorithm at some point. That forces non-brands to build brand assets & re-enforce them display ads and such. Google is even buying a ton of display ads that advertise display ads. And a lot of those ads highlight how display ads have increased branded search queries for the brands that are buying them.

by chime 15y ago

jshen 15y ago

"But it's your own fault if you have to fire employees because Google changed their primary search algorithm which tanked your traffic. " I used to work for an ecommerce site. Over 60% of our traffic and sales came from google. To handle those orders we hired people, then if we lost ranking in google we would have to fire them. How would that have been our fault?

chime 15y ago
> Over 60% of our traffic and sales came from google. Because you did not diversify strongly enough. Certainly, Google is a great way to get lots of traffic but if 60% of your sales comes from a single source with whom you do not have a signed contract, it is your own fault if you cannot handle your business when the sales tank. It is no different than putting 60% of your investments in a single stock and seeing the company fail, wiping out 60% of your savings. Sure, you didn't cause the company to fail but you did plan very poorly. People keep blaming Google when this happens. But who told you to rely on Google for 60% of your sales, especially when you haven't paid them or signed anything with them with respect to search engine rankings? Please note that my reply is directed more to the owners of the ecom site than you personally.
- jshen 15y ago
  I think you missed my point. We can handle our business when google drops us, but the volume from google is large enough that it required hiring more people. If that goes away, we'd fire those people. I agree with your larger point, but let's be honest, when people are shopping for things online they usually type it into a search engine (if they don't go to amazon directly). Depending on the type of product you are selling you may not be able to get around this.
  - aaronwall 15y ago
    A lot of the biggest brands see more "search" referrals that are just their brand name going through search engines. As web browsers replace address bars with search boxes the search engines in a very real sense act like a utility the redirects the traffic flow through a page with ads on it. If you rank fine then no big deal, but if you don't show up for your own brand then that is brutal. Of course most the sites hit by Panda were not hit so hard that they don't show up for their site name (unless their site was named after a generic commercial keyword where there were lots of other competitors already) but in the cases where it was a lot of those businesses were just hosed. It is yet another way to boost big brands...not only put weight on brand related signals, but make the generics more likely to get clipped by the algorithm at some point. That forces non-brands to build brand assets & re-enforce them display ads and such. Google is even buying a ton of display ads that advertise display ads. And a lot of those ads highlight how display ads have increased branded search queries for the brands that are buying them.