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Web 3.0 Saturday
08Dec
Ending Chronic Googlependancy
Dec 8, 2007 at 10:01AM
I know, it's December and I'm supposed to be all about the BloggingPoet.com 33 Days of Christmas but business is business, frankly business is bad and I think I know why.
I know it wasn't always this way but as long as I've been online the basic business model for web publishers has been to become googlependent and hope it all works out. Millions of online companies, be they publishers or retailers, wholesalers or resellers, spend billions of Dollars and billions of hours every year in efforts to make their online properties dependent on Google as their primary source of income. Thus my use of the word, 'googlependancy.'
Now I'm not saying it's the goal of these businesses to become googlependent but every minute we spend working to optimize our websites to get the highest Google page rank and the highest possible search engine referral rates is another minute we spend marching our way towards total and irreversible googlependancy. For some the googlediction has already progressed to the point of no return.
Does anyone remember the old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket?
Add to that the fact that all this time and money could be going to things like actually turning out good quality products and making a profit for the little guy and you'll understand the lunacy of the googlependent approach to doing business online. Then Google slaps you in the face by changing their secret search algorithm thereby dropping your page rank drops 2 points and forcing you to do it all over again.
This is not a sustainable business practice.
I don't know what the answer is but my Google basket is filled to the brim with eggs falling everywhere I go. I'm sure there's more I can learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but I no longer plan to spend my time trying to learn it. From now own my eggs are going in multiple baskets. There has got to be a better way and I plan to learn it.
Any ideas?
You can help us fight our Chronic Googlependancy by shopping at BillysToyStore.com. Then we'll talk about our "Amapendacy."
Update: Some ways you can help cure cronic googlependancy are Yuwie and Sivatar. Another is through the use of blog based applications likeBloggingPoet411.com. Yes it is somewhat googlependent but it also catalogs results in such a way as not to need Google.
Anyone know of more?
I know it wasn't always this way but as long as I've been online the basic business model for web publishers has been to become googlependent and hope it all works out. Millions of online companies, be they publishers or retailers, wholesalers or resellers, spend billions of Dollars and billions of hours every year in efforts to make their online properties dependent on Google as their primary source of income. Thus my use of the word, 'googlependancy.'
Now I'm not saying it's the goal of these businesses to become googlependent but every minute we spend working to optimize our websites to get the highest Google page rank and the highest possible search engine referral rates is another minute we spend marching our way towards total and irreversible googlependancy. For some the googlediction has already progressed to the point of no return.
Does anyone remember the old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket?
Add to that the fact that all this time and money could be going to things like actually turning out good quality products and making a profit for the little guy and you'll understand the lunacy of the googlependent approach to doing business online. Then Google slaps you in the face by changing their secret search algorithm thereby dropping your page rank drops 2 points and forcing you to do it all over again.
This is not a sustainable business practice.
I don't know what the answer is but my Google basket is filled to the brim with eggs falling everywhere I go. I'm sure there's more I can learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but I no longer plan to spend my time trying to learn it. From now own my eggs are going in multiple baskets. There has got to be a better way and I plan to learn it.
Any ideas?
You can help us fight our Chronic Googlependancy by shopping at BillysToyStore.com. Then we'll talk about our "Amapendacy."
Update: Some ways you can help cure cronic googlependancy are Yuwie and Sivatar. Another is through the use of blog based applications like
Anyone know of more?
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Reader Comments (4)
I feel your pain Billy. My biggest problem with Google, is that you have to get it "just right" or you might make a mistake and get kicked from the algorhythm. I understand they're building a better product, but honestly when you get right down to it, humans make mistakes, and often that leads to drastic decisions by Google's algo. Case and point, recently changing 4 letters in greensboring's code yielded a recovery in revenue of nearly 200% that I had been banging my head for the last 6 months. What happened is when I upgraded to a new version of the software I use, they had the language marked as english-great britain. When I changed it just to English, the site fully recovered.
But, the latest shake ups in adsense have been the toughest, and oddly though I've been given more access to various programs then many sites do, I find them useless. Adsense Video is horrible, and the Adsense Referrals programs has not yielded a single lead. Yet, of all the alternatives I try, none of them make the revenue adsense does. So I guess I shouldn't be too picky, and likewise, I'd still be doing what I did, even if it didn't pay.
Beth,
I'm in the same boat. I depend on Google Adsense and search traffic just like you do but this year I'm really going to make an effort to find a better way. And if I do you're in too.
Hey Billy - good read. Google rules the Internet and they really control the way people do their business. Hopefully this will change, but at least for the short term it looks like they're boss.
BTW - If it was not for your post to Jason's blog about this I wouldn't have found it. I definitely suggest you announce your blog posts over at sivatar so others will know.
Mike, Thanks for reminding me...