The Search Engines, A War Against SEO Firms or Spam?
Date Published: April 12, 2005
Google's United States Patent Application was released on March
31st 2005 and this 30 page document gives the SEO community a lot
more to think about. I think it would of been a lot funnier if they
waited until April 1st (April fools day) just to mess with everyone.
Anyways, is this a war against the SEO community or against spam? It
seems at times that its geared directly towards the SEO community,
but I feel that the the goal with the search engines (with the free
listings) is to provide the most relevant results and improve the
users experience in the process. The sponsored side is a totally
different issue, but that will be later on. So essentially the main
target is Spam, but in the process, the SEO community has been hit
hard as of late. On to the the patent, first of all if you
have happened to read anything on the actual patent, and you are
wondering about Search Engine 125, if you go to the .com url,
this is not associated with Google in anyway. If you check the whois
record, you will clearly see that it was registered on March 31st,
2005 and not by Google. If Google really wanted that url they surely
would of registered it. In a way it seems like a test to see who
would take it and what would they do with it, just like expired
domains and those supposedly great search engines and sites we never
heard of. When I first started reading about this patent, one of
the first things that I thought about was the url and is it free, but that sort of quick rich scheme is not something that
I am interested in, nor would I want to get branded that way either.
I'm not saying that I don't want to get rich, but I like to put my
time and money into something that will provide long term benefits
and that is spam free. All in
all, I feel this is a great move for the search engines. This will
hopefully deter the get rich quick schemes and spam filled search
engine results pages (SERPS). (If you ever wondered what
SERPS meant, now you do). I long for the days when spam was
something that you only saw on a can in your cupboard, not that I
would have it in mine. The only thing that I
do not like with this new approach with Google, is that a lot of new
innocent bystander sites get caught in this fiasco with Google
trying to improve the results in the search engines. It is making it
a lot harder for the smaller guys or late comers to the world of
search marketing to succeed. Especially if they are impatient. With
Google having such a big percentage of the actual search traffic
volume, they can literally make or break a business that is
dependant on the search engines. But on the bright side, this does
make the market somewhat a tad bit more secure for those that are
already established, or those that are willing to wait it out.
The Need to Push Local Search
One thing that I would like to see is Yahoo and Google pushing
Local Search on TV ads. This is something that will greatly improve
peoples search experience, and I feel will catch on. Personally, I'd
rather go to Google or Yahoo use their local search rather than
shift through the yellow pages to find something. Once Local search takes off, and
Yahoo incorporates local search for us up in Canada, hopefully this
will encourage the local business to see the benefits of the
internet, and that it is worthwhile to grow their business to the
internet. The Move to Yahoo and MSN Search I have to
admit that with Yahoo and MSN Search both launching their own search
databases, I am greatly enjoying the option of being able to get
different results (from different databases) from the top 3 search
engines. Still MSN Search is in last place at the moment, but Yahoo
only gets second spot really because its my current homepage (My
Yahoo!). My loyalty towards Google in the last year is lowering as
I am finding results with Yahoo and MSN more often now. I feel it is
only a matter of time before people begin to slowly change. MSN is
pushing their new MSN Search the past few months and this is great.
People will hopefully start to use the other search engines more
often now. A War with Paid Advertising?
Now, the war with the Search Engines and Paid Advertising Firms
is real I'm afraid. In one of the forums lately, one of the
moderators reported about a marketer that took the Google AdWords
test, passed and certified was told that they could not handle this
large PPC client. I have to say this was extremely surprising. For
the longest time since Google started offering this certification a
few months ago, it was the talk of the SEO Community, but now, those
that do not have it I would assume are far happier now. Those not in
the program do not have to report to their Google rep with their new
account. At this time I would assume that Google would only really
be interested in the really big money makers with PPC ad buyers and
the big PPC firms. Its almost like taking out the middle man. Sounds
good right? But, you have to remember that someone working outside
of Google or MSN/Yahoo for that matter, their goal is to minimize
your total expenditure with your paid advertising and increase your
traffic and hits. For myself, I would feel far more comfortable with
a good PPC firm than a Google/MSN/Yahoo rep. To me their goal is to
make their search engine more revenue while the PPC firm with PPC is
to find the most cost effective way to increase traffic to my site
and make that all important sale. So, all in all, things have
taken a very interesting twist lately and I have to admit it does
make things interesting on my side of the table, adds drama I guess.
Interesting Articles and views on Google's New Patent From the SEO
Community
Gerard Manning
SEO Services in Canada
Website Marketing by Manning
Search Marketing
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