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I feel sorry for you, but in your position, my absolute first priority would be finding sales from sources other than Google. They're a private company and they

I feel sorry for you, but in your position, my absolute first priority would be finding sales from sources other than Google. They're a private company and they have no obligation to you whatsoever.

albertgoeswoof 4y ago
I agree, that’s why half our sales come from elsewhere (social media, mailing list, subscriptions etc.) But we can’t ignore the power of organic search. For most people it’s where they start when shopping With the level of power google has over us, can they really hide behind the defense of being a private company? What are the changes being made to the algorithm? Why isn’t this public knowledge? Perhaps we should augment any decline in traffic from Google via paid search ads on Google. If google really is operating as a private company, maximising shareholder value, deliberately pushing businesses onto this path is a perfectly logical strategy for them to pursue. The unfortunate implications on society is a consolidation of wealth and power and a widening gap between those who have and those who do not.
- zikzak 4y ago
  Do you submit a feed to Google? https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7439058?hl=en https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7439058?hl=en
  - rurp 4y ago
    Not to be snarky but is there any evidence this goes somewhere other than /dev/null? I've seen support forum threads with hundreds of posts, many of them from users saying they had submitted feedback, and can't think of a single time it visibly made a difference.
    - pyr0hu 4y ago
      He is not talking about submitting feedbacks, but using the Google Merchants for providing a feed for their products.
      - beckman466 4y ago
- zepearl 4y ago
  If I interpret your statement correctly, you're basically asking, in a summarized form, this: Is it right for Google, by changing their (non-public) algos, to de-rank to lower levels your website? ? (therefore multiple themes like a potential conflict involving their public_vs_private services, impact of changes on the global users, can search algos be non-public, lack of alternatives, etc...)
zxienin 4y ago
Are there successful examples of ".. sales from sources other than Google", or ones where majority is not via GS (google search)? Short of good examples, this tough love comes of misplaced. GS is THE dominant search engine. They WANT to be in that spot. It sounds strange to me, that google put themselves in such spot, and project that no one should have obligation towards them.
- Barrin92 4y ago
  a lot of small ecommerce companies use social media these days. I talked to a guy running a men's grooming product company recently and they almost exclusively use TikTok/Youtube/instagram and have put a lot of emphasis on having a community around it and relying on word of mouth rather than buying ads on google or Facebook or relying on search.
  - jeromegv 4y ago
    There are tons of strategies, that is one of them. Many people use it. Doesn't mean this is the right one for everyone. This comes with risk too. You are at the mercy of the tiktok/YT/IG algo instead of the Google algo. There's lots of work that goes into making content that is engaging and liked on social media. Having your community is not enough because even if you have 20K followers, if your content is not engaging, people won't see it in their feed. As for relying strictly on word of mouth? Sure, but that's likely a minority of brands. Most people need the distribution from one of the big tech co.
- albertgoeswoof 4y ago
  Here's some examples that we use: - Instagram Posts + Stories - Weekly Email to Mailing List subscribers - Subscription for Free Delivery/Benefits (like Amazon Prime) There are a lot of people that come direct as well or through Google searches for our brand name, especially repeat customers (about 70% of our customers have ordered before). These people can be word of mouth, ads we take out in other publications, non-sponsored blog posts from others etc.
  - 4y ago
quattrofan 4y ago
XCSme 4y ago
> They're a private company and they have no obligation to you whatsoever This is not really a bad thing, just treat them as a partner, they even do things for "free". They could stop working for/with you at any time, this shouldn't stop you for making the most out of the collaboration for now, but it's harder to plan for the long-term.

I feel sorry for you, but in your position, my absolute first priority would be finding sales from sources other than Google. They're a private company and they have no obligation to you whatsoever.

albertgoeswoof 4y ago

I agree, that’s why half our sales come from elsewhere (social media, mailing list, subscriptions etc.) But we can’t ignore the power of organic search. For most people it’s where they start when shopping With the level of power google has over us, can they really hide behind the defense of being a private company? What are the changes being made to the algorithm? Why isn’t this public knowledge? Perhaps we should augment any decline in traffic from Google via paid search ads on Google. If google really is operating as a private company, maximising shareholder value, deliberately pushing businesses onto this path is a perfectly logical strategy for them to pursue. The unfortunate implications on society is a consolidation of wealth and power and a widening gap between those who have and those who do not.

zikzak 4y ago
Do you submit a feed to Google? https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7439058?hl=en https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7439058?hl=en
- rurp 4y ago
  Not to be snarky but is there any evidence this goes somewhere other than /dev/null? I've seen support forum threads with hundreds of posts, many of them from users saying they had submitted feedback, and can't think of a single time it visibly made a difference.
  - pyr0hu 4y ago
    He is not talking about submitting feedbacks, but using the Google Merchants for providing a feed for their products.
    - beckman466 4y ago
zepearl 4y ago
If I interpret your statement correctly, you're basically asking, in a summarized form, this: Is it right for Google, by changing their (non-public) algos, to de-rank to lower levels your website? ? (therefore multiple themes like a potential conflict involving their public_vs_private services, impact of changes on the global users, can search algos be non-public, lack of alternatives, etc...)

zxienin 4y ago

Are there successful examples of ".. sales from sources other than Google", or ones where majority is not via GS (google search)? Short of good examples, this tough love comes of misplaced. GS is THE dominant search engine. They WANT to be in that spot. It sounds strange to me, that google put themselves in such spot, and project that no one should have obligation towards them.

Barrin92 4y ago
a lot of small ecommerce companies use social media these days. I talked to a guy running a men's grooming product company recently and they almost exclusively use TikTok/Youtube/instagram and have put a lot of emphasis on having a community around it and relying on word of mouth rather than buying ads on google or Facebook or relying on search.
- jeromegv 4y ago
  There are tons of strategies, that is one of them. Many people use it. Doesn't mean this is the right one for everyone. This comes with risk too. You are at the mercy of the tiktok/YT/IG algo instead of the Google algo. There's lots of work that goes into making content that is engaging and liked on social media. Having your community is not enough because even if you have 20K followers, if your content is not engaging, people won't see it in their feed. As for relying strictly on word of mouth? Sure, but that's likely a minority of brands. Most people need the distribution from one of the big tech co.
albertgoeswoof 4y ago
Here's some examples that we use: - Instagram Posts + Stories - Weekly Email to Mailing List subscribers - Subscription for Free Delivery/Benefits (like Amazon Prime) There are a lot of people that come direct as well or through Google searches for our brand name, especially repeat customers (about 70% of our customers have ordered before). These people can be word of mouth, ads we take out in other publications, non-sponsored blog posts from others etc.
- 4y ago

quattrofan 4y ago

XCSme 4y ago

> They're a private company and they have no obligation to you whatsoever This is not really a bad thing, just treat them as a partner, they even do things for "free". They could stop working for/with you at any time, this shouldn't stop you for making the most out of the collaboration for now, but it's harder to plan for the long-term.