Re: Google ranking dropped

From: Brian Caldwell <bcaldwell_at_Quinstreet.com>
Date: Wed 12 May 2004 13:14:32 -0500

Rob said:

"Google is a highly profitable company. And how did they get to be
profitable? By delivering proper rankings of web sites when
people go searching for them....

...No one has convinced me yet that it wasn't a cynical attempt
to screw money out of millions of web site owners by refusing to
list their sites properly and forcing them into paying for AdWords.
So, in my humble opinion, if Google starts to "screw around" with
my rankings, it is no longer doing the job that made it famous."

I disagree with this premise. Google earns REVENUE by selling ad space
and through partnership deals that extend the reach of their search
tools, among other revenue streams that are a bit more obscure...They
became POPULAR based on their relevant and very quick query results.

They have a fiduciary duty to their advertisers. They have a duty to
searchers also, and the value of their search tools are directly related
to the financial success of their advertisers.

No one has a right to Organic top 10 rankings for their site. Yes you
can optimize your site to the top if you know the right tactics to use.
Some tactics are short term, other tactics have more legs (and are what
I recommend for all my clients) and are viewed as more "legitimate" by
most SE's.

Everyone(except Porn, Gambling and Pharma) has a democratic right to
advertise in AdWords (or Overture or FindWhat for that matter) to get
placement on the first page of the Google SERP. PPC in my opinion is THE
best way to get traffic to your site in the short term, while you tweak
the site for Organic rankings. You do yourself and your customers a
disservice by ignoring this traffic source.

If the Florida update in Google back in November displaced your
websites, then you have a duty as SEO to figure out why Google does not
like your pages. I can tell you that from my position, where I work with
hundreds of optimizers every day, the best way to get your ranking back
in Google is to learn and implement tactics that address the changes
made with the implementation of the Hilltop algorithm (Florida update.)

Google has indeed been improving their search results over the last few
months. Not everyone is happy about what they've done to be sure, but in
my opinion they are doing the right thing for the end user right now and
the advertisers are being asked to take a hard look at their SEO
tactics. In this way they are actually "going back to their roots" in
providing a great Search Engine. No one can or should expect the
algorithms to remain stationary, simply because Google has competition
in the market.

The good news for you is that Yahoo appears at this time to be favoring
websites that were ranked well in Google pre-Florida. So check Yahoo, I
would bet your sites are doing well there, even if Google does not
currently like the way you've put the pages together. That assumes that
you, as an SEO pro, have already gotten your sites ranked in Yahoo and
other engines and have not simply been relying on Google for all of your
revenues...you know what they say about "all eggs in one basket"...

The bottom line is that Google is not intentionally hurting legitimate
businesses through algorithm updates. Affiliate sites are a different
story altogether...This is the best reason for ALL websites to be built
as practical, interesting, engaging, valuable content resource sites,
with lot's of backlinks from RELEVANT topic sources and a deep directory
structure.=20

Regards,

Brian Caldwell





Received on Wed May 12 2004 - 13:14:32 CDT