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Google Farmer Update aka Panda Slaps Google Shopping and Google Maps Competitors

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Be sure to scroll down to the many resources and tips from top SEOs on how to survive Panda, improve your site and regain some of your traffic.

Long term be sure you understand that Google Favors Big Brands and how Google will impact your business and life.

google panda update
Click image for Panda Update Survival Tips

All of the sites mentioned below are on the Numbers Crunchers list of the most affected domains published by SearchEngineLand.

If your site is on that list and not mentioned below, let me know in the comments and I will add it.

If your business was affected you are encouraged to leave a comment.

GOOGLE FARMER UPDATE MOST AFFECTED:

UPDATE March 1, 2011: The types of sites most affected by Google Farmer Update are:

  • Article directories including Wisegeek, EzineArticles, Hubpages, Squidoo, articlesbase, CBS’s Bnet findarticles, etc.
  • Competitors to Google Shopping such as TheFind, ShopWiki, BizRate, Buzzillions, Shopping.com, Kaboodle, DigitalTrends, TestFreaks, GaltTech.
  • Competitors to Google Maps / Google Places that are Local Search Directories such as Merchant Circle, InsiderPages, American Towns, Manta, CitiTownInfo.
  • Competitors to Google Maps / Google Places that are travel related sites include Roadside America, TravelPod, Trails.com, and MyTravelGuide.
  • Answers sites including do it yourself sites such as fixya, lovetoknow, howtodothings, doityourself, answerbag.

I argue that many of these sites have great added value for users and ARE NOT “thin on content”. More details on competitors to Google Shopping and Google Maps below.

While the Google update (that occurred last Thursday, February 24, 2011) has been dubbed the “Farmer Update” because the target was supposedly content farms, the list of Sistrix’ top 100 losers includes many who are direct Google Competitors.

GOOGLE SLAPPED GOOGLE COMPETITORS:

Glancing through the tables of Sistrix data, I picked out this incomplete list of sites affected and grouped them by type. No doubt I missed a few and many similar sites will be affected.

Many are competitors to Google Maps (because they offer maps or business listings or travel information). Sites on the lists published by Sistrix and Search Engine Land of most affected sites including Merchant Circle, American Towns, Manta (business listings), InsiderPages (Local Business Listings), CitiTownInfo.com, and you could also travel sites include Roadside America, TravelPod, Trails.com, and MyTravelGuide.

Google Shopping competitors Google-slapped by the Farmer Update include TheFind, BizRate, ShopWiki, Buzzilions, Shopping.com, Kaboodle, Buzzillions, DigitalTrends, TestFreaks, GaltTech (one of the oldest sites on the Internet) – all shopping comparison or review sites that make it easy to find out who carries a specific product and compare prices.

I know many still haven’t wrapped their minds around why it is bad to have only ONE source for anything, why I believe Google IS Evil, or why I keep warning about the dangers of Google Favoring Brands and  Google’s Monopoly, so here is an example.

Google Shopping Business Card Holders Search for Business Card Holders Favored Stores Under Any Store

While TheFind lists 4,401 stores with 138,507 products matching a search for business card holders, Google Shopping suggests only the five stores shown in the screen capture to the right of this text: Amazon, eBags, Buy.com Walmart and Office Depot.

When you click More they offer a total of twenty stores (fifteen additional).  Something else I find interesting:

Google Shopping Business Card Holders More Stores

Google recently went after Overstock’s organic listings but they’re featuring them in Google Product search?

What if you were on Google Product Search and wanted to see any of those thousands of other small stores that sell business card holders?

Even though these other sellers DO list their products on Google Shopping, Google doesn’t choose to show them to us. You would have to know the name of the store and search on it specifically.

When I searched for +”business card holders” +”Executive Gift Shoppe” – a small store whose product feed I am familiar with – Google returns only THREE of their business card holders.  I changed the search to +card +”Executive Gift Shoppe” and got 403 results.

So Google can broad match ppc ads for the phrase business card holder in AdWords but CHOOSES to only show three of the roughly 264 business card holders listed in that store’s feed.

Worse yet, I specifically searched for that one store, but Google showed me 403 results but that store only has about 264 business cards. That means Google probably showed me 139 results from OTHER stores (I didn’t count them manually) even though that store had exactly the same item in stock! Here is a screen capture of one of them:

Google Shopping Card Executive Gift Shoppe
Click the image to see full size - note the last product offered by Google Shopping is for New and Blue

Executive Gift Shoppe carries that same business card holder for $40.50 – $3.70 cheaper. So why didn’t Google Shopping show me what I specifically asked for in the store I specified? It isn’t because it isn’t there. When I search for that specific product name on Google there it is:

Multi-Purple Crystal Business Card Case
The first product listed on this page is THE EXACT product Google showed me in another store even though I searched specifically for that type of product in Executive Gift Shoppe's store.

TheFind shows two other small stores selling that exact item. Neither of those comes up in a search for their business name on Google Shopping. SO, if Google causes TheFind to disappear from the search results, we don’t know about them to go to their site directly, and we ONLY had Google Shopping, we would not see the item in the store I specifically searched on nor the two other small stores that sell it.

We would ONLY see what Google chooses to show us.

This is simply unacceptable for shoppers and devastating for small businesses. If Sistrix is correct and TheFind lost 83% in this farmer update that could equate to a drop of 83% in their income. (Exactly how much would depend on which products got dropped, the profit margins or commissions on each product -TheFind participates in affiliate programs – and the conversion rates per project.)

No matter what the exact percentages end up being, what business can survive a massive drop in sales?

THIS IS THE FUTURE GOOGLE has planned for Small Businesses!

Are we going to let them further destroy our economy or are we going to wake up in time to save small local and online businesses?  I have explained how in many posts here including these:

DIAGNOSING GOOGLE TRAFFIC LOSSES:

GOOGLE PANDA INFOGRAPHICS:

Google Farmer Update Advice:

GOOGLE FARMER ADVICE:

GOOGLE FARMER OPINIONS:

  • Is the Google Panda Update Fair?

After that we could use some comic relief. I offer here a Matt Cutts video parody Google on Brands followed by AdWords Scam Ads created by Aaron Wall at SEOBook:

I hope those reading this will leave their input in the comments – and don’t forget my related posts on why I believe Google IS Evil, why I keep warning about the dangers of Google Favoring Brands and  Google’s Monopoly.

P.S. Any theories why they would hit Technorati? (On theSystix Google Farmer Update table published by SearchEngineLand.)

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap
Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.
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Comments

  1. I think google is taking too much to do with what people are looking for in their search engine. I think their approach would be so much different if they had some competition. The only bright spot is, nothing last forever on the internet. Does anyone remember MySpace. Google should be cautious.

    Reply

    • Hi John,

      I am glad that you’re still getting traffic from G but I warn you that it could drop at any time. I know small businesses that lost about 1/3 of their traffic to MayDay and after Panda they were down to less than half. Google is going to consistently keep doing that – and when they do, what you will see is that instead of small sellers of appliances on the first page all you will see are Big Brands that sell appliances.

      Read the text in red in this post. If Google intentionally hides a small businesses products that ARE in their feed to Google Product Search for their best converting phrases – and that IS what the screen captures in this post show – they are the greatest threat to small business that has ever existed. Do NOT count on continuing to get traffic from them.

      The solution for small business is:

      1. Get their Local Directory listings using the system I use so they are listed on 100s of sites. That way when Google constantly churns which sites appear on page one you’ll be in any directory that manages to be displayed on page 1 so there is still a path to your business from Google.
      2. Learn to use Social Media to find buyers who are actively looking for you. That is part of my pillar creation process you can read about in Sharing Pillar Content.
      Reply

  3. I’m really disapointed in Google and their panda smanda update! Google says they are all about quality but only big names are showing up in the top ten listings, and the most annoying thing of all is that these big companies has some of the unhelpful content on the web. What happened to Google just being a simple search engine?

    Reply

  5. Organic SEO is process of improving a website naural target & visibility in Search engines….we know that very well the google panda update is nt joke it has affected high pr website & bigbrands & we need to be more cautious about it…..I agree with your post theres no doubt its slap on competitors of Google…….
    Smith would love you to read ..The Bourne LegacyMy Profile

    Reply

  6. Well just search for the google, for any terms you will find what we have done to the internet !!! you will find lots of autoblogs, juncky spuned articles, unnecessary and totally irrelevant content….Google have done the right thing 🙂 at least now a quality writers and content provider will have their credits 🙂

    Reply

  8. Google is on a mission to deliver high quality search results. It applies to paid and natural search results. People involved in internet marketing must help Google in these titanic efforts.
    Lisa would love you to read ..ParfumMy Profile

    Reply

  9. google is the biggest search engine till now.. and i’m sure it’s going to remain like that untill somebody comes up with something new and revolutionary, but taking into consideration that it’s a search engine, i don’t really think u could to something more on it.. but who knows, that’s how big brands appear..

    ~alex

    Reply

  10. Hi James,

    I clicked here from your other story r/t commentluv. I have also been worried because Google has become a monopoly of sorts. The online blog or business owner is in a quandary as to the dilemma caused by this.

    On one hand, websites want Google to notice their site, but on the other hand, I at least, am all for supporting local and small businesses to help our economy. I’m not talking about just the economy of the US, but the worldwide economy. Great article! Sally
    Sally Brown would love you to read ..It’s Time To Step Up To Blog Engage!My Profile

    Reply

  11. Frankly, I can’t hate on a private business kicking competitors off their property when their competitors are trying to sell the same good as the private business.

    Unfortunately, when you have such a massive impact on the global economy as a whole, governments should take notice. It boggles my mind that any government has yet to tell Google firmly NO to any of their business practices. $500,000,000 lawsuit! Ehhh, chump change to a 21,000,000,000+ company! Sometime in the future I can’t help but think the entire world will end up being “powered by Google.” And when competitors step up and challenge, Google will and can cut all resources to ensure the competitor is squashed. We are definitely becoming too dependent on search engines to live our lives. And it’s not like business owners can really resist Google at this point…the majority of people use Google, so the only way to make money is to do your best to be on the top of Google.

    Reply

    • Hi Ciro,

      Powered by Google is EXACTLY where the world is going and if we don’t want to go there we need to be able to jump off before we get locked behind the gate to never return.

      In order to understand how Google ended up with so much power we must understand who owns the major media and what their master plan is. Start with my post on Why We Can’t Trust Google.

      No company can compete with Google when they get free media coverage continually telling everyone how wonderful they are on television, in movies, in the papers and online.

      No company can compete when Google gives away for free what other companies have to have income for to cover their overhead.

      You’re right – Google’s monopoly means the average business gets 65=98% of all their Internet traffic from that one source UNLESS they really work at creating new sources.

      The bad news is that Google is now churning results. Look at the keywords bringing you traffic in your analytics for any Web site starting July 28, 2011 and note the very generic one word keywords that will never convert (and will raise your bounce rates).

      To survive businesses and bloggers need to focus locally and create another path to the information.
      growmap would love you to read ..Blog Outreach ServicesMy Profile

      Reply

  13. If anyone else has noticed, major search engine competitors to Google also have PR N/A now. Google is very fond of its virtual, virtual monopoly.

    Reply

  14. The big boys always get the attention. What good is that, they are already well known and famous. Someone should come out and give big G a run for their money by focusing on the small players which has a broader base than those fat goose who’re only good at squeezing the small fries out of business.

    Reply

    • Hi Martin,

      That is another one of my beefs about Google favoring big brands. Who needs a search engine to find ebay or Target or Best Buy? The problem is that no one can give Google a run for their money because Google already has all the searchers and that is where the money is.

      There IS one solution and that will be for an independent social network that is pro-small business to gain popularity with alternative thinkers like me. There is a new social network I’m hoping might do that called GoSkoop.
      growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet Marketing: Where to StartMy Profile

      Reply

  15. Even if we boycott everything that google does, we can’t stop them from their domination. It’s just that in the real world a lot of people are relying on google.

    Reply

    • I agree, Alice. That is why you never see me calling for anyone to boycott Google. What I ask them to do is use alternatives whenever they are available and to share those alternatives to Google with their friends, family, followers, readers, favorite businesses – everyone they know.
      growmap would love you to read ..Support Small BusinessesMy Profile

      Reply

  16. I was really affected by the Farmer update for some reason (my site quickly solved the query they used in less than 10 seconds) and I was 2nd in Google now I’m half way down page 4! Hopefully this will bounce back.

    May compile a paper on how to avoid looking like the “farmer” site.

    Reply

  18. A slightly disturbing change of tack by Google. I’m guessing that one of the reasons for this big change is Bing’s growth. Like you said, Google seems to be pulling traffic away from certain sectors and driving it into their own markeplace. Maybe this is a fallback position to offset some of the losses they’ll see as Bing takes market share.

    Reply

  19. Good post and plenty of good comments! Such things always make me hopeful that people in general are not as stupid as large companies and governments tend to think.
    In the long run, google is doing themselves no favor. I notice a constant decline in search result quality and they are making it worse constantly. They seem to overlook the fact that good results and good information are the base for their business. A company will never be able to replace the whole online community providing good content. Who is going to visit a website that he knows is mostly advertising and marketing?

    I for myself rarely use google these days. I have my hub pages that I know will provide the information requested or at least guide me to a source where I can find it.

    I also notice this behaviour increasingly for people that are everything else but online experts. My 67 year old father for instance who is having trouble attaching a file to an email complains about google and (successfully) seeks ways around.

    It wouldn`t be the first company that fails over greed and ignorance.

    Let the large corporations have their single purchase customers and focus on quality that gets you loyal customers, saves you a lot on advertising, enables better margins and lets your overall gain higher and consitant profits.

    PS:
    1. Thank you for showing G-analytics alternatives. I`ll recommend it to all users of my price comparison engine script.
    2. I have never used google analytics and I discourage all my customers and friends not to use google adwords. Well, this isn`t really hard as adwords usually is a guarantee to produce a loss.

    Reply

  20. I think the problem is everyone is relying on google to much. I know SEO is very important to websites, especially online shopping websites for example.

    But their is other ways of promoting a website which business owners should also focus on.

    After all google is changing all the time and your google traffic can disapear in the blink of an eye.

    Reply

    • The problem is that businesses that count on search engine traffic do NOT have a choice. Google has such a huge market share of both organic and ppc traffic that there IS no replacement source of traffic. All the other search engines combined can not send a fraction of what Google can. THAT is why so many are “relying” on Google.

      The real solution is to influence Internet USERS to use other search engines. Eventually more traffic will come from Social Media sites and referrals from related blogs but you have to have incoming links from thousands of sites to generate anywhere near the traffic Google sends.

      I agree – your Google traffic can disappear in the blink of an eye – and they are ramping up for it to disappear right when stores that count on holiday sales most need it.

      ANY site that has seen their traffic drop suddenly and then come back is highly likely to see it drop just as much during the critical holiday shopping season and any other selling seasons specific to keywords. THAT is why Google Analytics is free – so they know what keywords convert when and can divert it away from small businesses to their favored Big Brands just in time.

      I caution business owners NOT to panic and pay ridiculous prices for ppc advertising to try to drive the sales you were expecting. It is NOT a sound business strategy to make sales that cost you more in advertising than you generate in profits.
      growmap would love you to read ..Kikolani Blog Post Promotion Ultimate Guide EbookMy Profile

      Reply

  21. Sad to here that google’s is now playing their game in a VERY dirty way. The online world is a great place and has lots of opportunity for those small businesses. But with the way google is doing their “strategy”, very disappointing..

    Reply

  22. Google has become the evil monster. It is out of control. They are destroying peoples business and living. Webmasters must unite to stop google. Boycott google search. Boycott gmail. Boycott adwords. Boycott chrome. Dont give this monster an inch. Boycott everything it does.

    Reply

    • Hi James,

      The problem is bigger than just Google. The plutocracy (few global mega-wealthy) can control any publicly traded corporation that offers a majority of stock and has the money to corrupt any government – so stopping them at this point will require supernatural intervention or at least many influential leaders working collaboratively to drive change and create a better world collectively.
      growmap would love you to read ..How to Win Friends and Influence Bloggers- OthersMy Profile

      Reply

  24. There is no way to convey how much I completely agree with you on this article. I’ve been telling people about Google and their monopolistic endeavors for a while now. I’ve been trying to let people know of analytic choices like PiWik and anything else I know of that is a comparable service to Google’s stranglehold on the internet. The sad part is, we, as a people, gave them this power, and it’s a power they’ll keep until we take it away again, as a people.

    When any one company has that much influence to impact markets and business so suddenly, it’s never a good thing. They’re in bed with the CIA to a degree as well, search google+CIA and you’ll find plenty of information. If they’re not in bed with the CIA yet, they’re only steps away. None of us want big brother, why do we want Google when they’re just about as close with the way they do things now.

    Their spin is always laughable. Matt Cutts, their mouthpiece and all the fanboys and fangirls over on Google “help forums” kill me. The company presently double talks more than most politicians I’ve ever heard. Don’t be evil my ass. Google is nothing more than another historical example of how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Want to help do something about G and make the world a better place? Educate people about alternatives, tell your own horror stories of how G and their “do no evil” mantra cut you to the quick.

    As already mentioned, they’re already buddy buddy with the government, and although I’d like to believe the DoJ and FTC will do something about them, I’m not so sure the corruptness in government will allow it. Only time will tell. Until then, we have nothing to rely on but ourselves. Educate people, show them alternatives, and loosen G’s stranglehold on the internet.
    Jim Sanders would love you to read ..trogar1971 wrote a new blog post- Article Marketing the Good the Bad the Ugly and the Realities of Article Marketing TodayMy Profile

    Reply

    • Hello James and welcome to GrowMap,

      It is always good to “meet” someone else who can see where this is all heading and is willing to use the power of the keyboard to educate others on what we can do about it.

      I am researching as many Google alternatives as I can find so if you want to throw some links in here that would be great. I am known to be link-happy and encourage my commentators and guest bloggers to use as many links as are relevant in whatever they write here.

      If you have more than 3-4-5 (can’t remember what I have it set on) comments may be moderated but I’ll approve them as soon as I see them. IMHO, the more details and evidence we can share the better.
      growmap would love you to read ..Twitterquette- Twitter Feeds are NOT Burger King – Why Everyone Can Not Have It Their WayMy Profile

      Reply

      • Hello again Gail,

        Well, on that note, to get away from them for analytics, I use Piwik, http://piwik.org/ as it’s free, and open source, and not all that difficult to use.

        On the rest, it’s all about finding replacement parts for Google services, and most of those are self explanatory. Use a different search engine, use a different free email account. There’s plenty of other choices in those areas.

        2 forum threads you and your readers might be interested in over at V7N Webmster’s Forums:
        http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-forum/241275-farmer-update-fallout-small-businesses.html
        http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-forum/177497-google-evil.html

        The ONE place I see difficult for me, to TOTALLY break away from them, comes to SEO. The one thing we all need is search driven keyword terminology to be successful with our SEO efforts, whether that be Google rankings, or rankings with others, and I know of no other keyword tool comparable to Google’s. Do others exist? Yes, but the issue becomes that no other search engine has the data in as large amounts as Google to make the results as potentially accurate. That is the ONE place I see it hard to break away from them.
        Jim Sanders would love you to read ..trogar1971 wrote a new blog post- The Base Internet Marketing Strategies Cornerstone – Knowing Our Target MarketMy Profile

        Reply

        • Hi Jim,

          Glad to have you commenting here. I have Piwik written on my white board and have been talking to my techie friends about switching all of our blogs from Google Analytics to Piwik.

          I avoid Google myself and encourage everyone I know to use INDEPENDENT alternatives (i.e., not Yahoo, Bing, other multi-national corporate controlled anythings).

          As you mention, Google’s monopoly makes it necessary to pull traffic for as long as we can from that source.

          Look at Majestic SEO for link data and their new Site Explorer tool.

          I recently shared a blog post about the top four most accurate rank checkers that might be of interest to you.

          Thank you for sharing my links in the v7N Web Development Community. I am super swamped the next week or two but will be active in your forum whenever time allows and am happy to answer any questions anyone wants to direct my way.

          Besides all the content here (and I am always happy to point someone directly to it if they don’t find it right away on their own), I have thousands of notes, links and information stored in Tomboy Notes and thousands of links saved online as well.
          Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Best of GrowMap – Our Most Important Posts All in One PlaceMy Profile

          Reply

          • Hello Gail,

            Firstly, I wanted to say thanks for popping by V7N, I’m sure your vast online blogging experience will be a credit to the community there. Next, I’m glad you are looking into Piwik as the code placement is basically the same as google anylytics, just swap the Piwik code after you install the software on a server, and you are set. Best of all, you can monitor MULTIPLE websites, you just have to create them within Piwik itself, generate the code, and past it in. I run it on both of my websites presently without issue from one Piwik install.

            I also thought you might want to look at my recent reply to one of your posts, as after reading it, it got me thinking, and I posted my own thoughts about the direction you mention Google is presently taking.

            http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-forum/241275-farmer-update-fallout-small-businesses-2.html

            Anyways, next question then, do you have a reliable search replacement option for WordPress? I tend to follow Jooste De Valk when it comes to WordPress SEO, of course, letting out most of the Google related stuff like analytics and the likes. He suggests that the default WordPress search function isn’t all that reliable or robust, and tends suggesting a Google customized search, which of course, I want no part of. Do you know of any other open source or free option to help address that situation by chance?
            Jim Sanders would love you to read ..trogar1971 wrote a new blog post- Ezine Articles Smoke and MirrorsMy Profile

  25. I guess google killed 2 ducks with one shot and blames it only on the farmer spam sites.

    But after reading this post, I think they’re true intentions was to get ahead of their competitors.

    Hopefully Bing and Google do something smartly to try to get some audience and also webmasters as a lot (11%) are not very happy with them.
    Gustavo would love you to read ..Password Recovery and Reset for Windows Vista XP 7My Profile

    Reply

  27. Thank goodness for page 1 rankings in Bing and Yahoo, without them I would have no traffic left. Fell off page 1 for my 4 primary keywords. Ended up in positions around 650 when previous between 2 and 5.

    Content is 75% original but 25% spun (shouldn’t have been lazy I think ) but site is very new so this may be natural Google dancing.

    The monopoly that Google have over what people view in the net is ridiculous. When you read stories about jobs being cut and peoples businesses hitting sever difficulties it just shows that Google are too powerful.

    I for one sincerely hope the likes of Bing, Yahoo and Altavista can stage a comeback and put a huge dent in Googles revenue for a change. The company has seriously forgotten it’s roots and turned into nothing more than a cash crunching behemoth that needs cutting down to size.

    Reply

  29. I guess no one can match with Google when it comes to online service. They really did a great job, and they are constantly making way to make it even better.
    Google deserves to be recognized. They try to make datas/informations available throughout the globe, thus, we live in a more convenient lifestyle.

    Reply

  31. Wow Gail, I had no idea how widespread this google update was and how it affected the small business owner. The rest of the world is learning from the US about democracy and embracing it while google is trying to create a monopoly worldwide. CRAZY! The smal business owners won’t stand for that once they realize what’s going on. Thanks for making me more aware!
    Heather would love you to read ..Egmont NewsMy Profile

    Reply

    • Hi Heather,

      Thank you so much for reading this post and taking the time to comment. I see bloggers as important influencers who can create a better world by understanding and sharing these types of issues that affect small businesses.

      The more of us who can recommend to our readers the importance of using independent alternatives for everything we do and buy – including alternative search engines – the faster we can create a better world for all.

      Have you seen my post on Internet marketing priorities for small businesses? I’ll put it in CommentLuv in this reply.
      growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet MarketingMy Profile

      Reply

  33. I am amazed at how well you put your resources together, Gail, and turn them into such a valuable resource – thank you.

    I haven’t been affected much; I suppose there was no reason to hit blogs like mine.

    That’s the thing with Google though; it changes by the minute, and we have to change with it. Of course, it’s nice to vent, but so what? We still have to pick up the pieces and move on.

    Ana

    Reply

    • Hi Ana,

      I have thousands of notes where I keep links to pertinent blog posts by topic. That allows me to quickly research and link to supporting information on just about any topic I write on. Since I know what I want the supporting data to contain I can also do very targeted searches looking for a recent blog post that made the points I am including in my own post.

      Bloggers are not generally the target of Google’s algo changes – ecommerce and small businesses sites are because Google is systematically moving big brands above them in the serps and pushing the small businesses down.

      I know more about what Google is up to than most because my IBM background in diagnosing cause and effect allowed me to test and determine what AdWords was doing and at one time I was managing dozens of small ecommerce accounts that allowed me to reproduce specific results to confirm that I was correct.

      What we as influential bloggers who know the score must do is use the power of the keyboard to encourage our readers to use independent alternatives.

      I encourage you and others to read my Google Search Engine Fairy post and check out the video in that post and the ones on RFID. Few are aware of all that is going on and those videos explain much. If you have any questions you know how to reach me.
      growmap would love you to read ..SEO- SERPS- Is There a Google Search Engine FairyMy Profile

      Reply

  34. Another reason how hard it is to compete in an already competitive world. We are promoting printer toner cartridge which is really hard to promote. We are trying all kinds of marketing strategy just to grab a good market share.

    Reply

  35. I knew google has started to favor big brand since they started to test the instant search idea, which practically helps big brands take the show and steal much of the long tail keyword traffic some would get.

    Now they are starting to do this kind of crap and only list those that pay them to do it and penalize those that refuse. I don’t know how this looks to others, but it’s not a search engine anymore, it’s more like a directory with a lot of premium results.

    I don’t know why but when I read this article Microsoft sprung to mind with their not so legal Netscape overtaking.
    Alex would love you to read ..Salon de infrumusetareMy Profile

    Reply

    • Hi Alex,

      How Google is like Microsoft occurred to more people than just you and me. When I explained to Bob Cringely at PBS what Google was doing in AdWords and showed him proof he immediately wrote about that plus how Google steals ideas from startups and converts them to their own. The title of his post? The Next Microsoft: Google is Learning Too Well from the Master.

      It wasn’t only Netscape that Microsoft did in. Every update of Windows would intentionally break non-Microsoft software. How many times will the average user have the applications stop working or have to buy a new version before they just stop using alternatives? I would say only once for most people.

      I am online so much that I get pressure spots on my wrists so I wanted a padded keyboard. The only one in stock was a microsoft keyboard (3+ years ago). I was running Windows 98 which was still fully supported at that time.

      I drove 45 miles to buy it, got it home and guess what? The Microsoft keyboard and mouse would not work with Windows 98. To use it I would have had to upgrade my OS (which is how companies force us to buy products when we don’t actually need them yet). What a crock. I returned it and bought another brand.

      I lost respect for Microsoft when Bill Gates told Time Magazine that any PC running 3.1 could run Windows 95 without upgrading the hardware. The truth was you COULD load it but it wouldn’t run. What he SHOULD have said was you might have to upgrade your hardware BUT IT WOULD BE WORTH IT – and that was true. (3.1 had quirks that non-geeks had trouble dealing with regarding dropping offline – dial-up connections back then – but looking like they were still online.)

      NO it would NOT run. That was a lie – one of many. I wish I could find that article. Unfair competition, monopolies, greed – that pretty much sums it up. I didn’t find the story I was thinking of but I did manage to find Winner Take All: Microsoft vs Netscape, Bill Gates: Mine, All Mine and this one about Microsoft’s controversial business practices.
      growmap would love you to read ..SEO- SERPS- Is There a Google Search Engine FairyMy Profile

      Reply

  36. I got hit hard and I didn’t even think I did anything wrong. I run affiliate sites but the content is 100% unique. After many years of careful research I have come to the considered opinion that Google just hates me! 🙂
    Marc would love you to read ..Epson Stylus SX515W All-in-OneMy Profile

    Reply

  37. Wow, thank you for an interesting and thought provoking article about Google. It definitely appears that Google is trying to eliminate some of its competition on the larger fronts — but I’m also wondering if it’s possible that this is the company’s attempt to emulate Bing’s strategy. Thoughts?

    Reply

    • Hi Charles,

      I honestly haven’t paid much attention to what Bing is doing. I tuned out Microsoft when they launched the joke that was their entry into the ppc world and switched to Ubuntu years ago too.

      Eventually Google will eliminate all competition but what they would really love to do is own the Internet – and if people don’t start objecting that will happen. Did you see the other posts about Google?

      I put a link in the post I’ll put in CommentLuv in this reply that may interest you about why there are so many tickets and arrests.
      growmap would love you to read ..MyBlogLog Finally Officially Axed by YahooMy Profile

      Reply

  38. Do you really want a shopping engine to show you 4400+ stores? Most of which you probably wouldn’t trust with your credit card information…

    I’m not saying Google is right, but I don’t think your arguments against them are as great as you think.

    Reply

    • Hi Steve,

      Yes I do. I want to choose – not have some father figure Big Brother make my decisions for me. Here are some reasons why:

      1) Maybe I have bought from one of those other stores before but I don’t remember where their site is or I’m on a different PC but want to buy now. I can use TheFind or ShopWiki to locate the store I want, but I can’t find that on Google Shopping.

      2) Some of us know the extreme importance of supporting small businesses and see no reason to make them give Google or Amazon or eBay a cut of everything we buy. If I know who I want to buy from, Google, Amazon and eBay do not deserve a commission for sending me to those sites.

      3) I may want a very unique product that does not exist as a commodity on the few sites Google is promoting. I can ONLY find it in one of those small stores – and maybe in only one of all of them.

      4) Only fools trust Big Brands who have consistently proven they don’t care about their customers and are definitely not trustworthy. Buying from them – knowing that their customer service is poor to non-existent – is MORE risky than buying from a small store with many online reviews!

      5) We don’t have to share our credit card information to any store any more because most of them offer PayPal and Google Checkout as options.
      growmap would love you to read ..Why the Economy is In Decline and What We Can Do to Improve ItMy Profile

      Reply

      • Excellent comments and I’m in full agreement – also with Alex from Jocuri’s comment re- Google: not a search engine anymore but a directory with premium results. One of Google’s current plans is making search results geographically relevant to your location, which justifies the emphasis on Google places. Any directory now seems to take precedence in the listings, but these are often not what someone is looking for (and many are the so-called scraper sites that google is supposedly penalising). The result is skewed search results and a Google that looks like a net version of a Yellow Pages, containing many more yellow pages. Is it the beginning of the end for a true search engine that operates without bias?

        Reply

  39. This is a great observation and one that I’ve been pulling on myself. Google doesn’t seem to like when people do the work that they think they should be doing.

    Why would they want a shopping comparison site to rank highly when they can deliver users directly to retailers or drop them into product search via a Shopping Onebox?

    I’m not sure the motivation is evil though. I think many at Google truly believe that cutting out the middle man would be a better customer experience. The problem is that Google isn’t the subject matter expert in all these areas, most of the actual middle men ARE.

    Just because you’re smart at search results doesn’t mean you’re a smart merchant. Just because you’re smart at search results doesn’t mean you’re a smart vertical directory provider.

    The Farmer Update didn’t help the smaller businesses since the signal weights for brands were clearly upped. Amazon, Target, Walmart and even Overstock gained as a result of the update. I’m not sure Google really wanted this but it seems like that signal was necessary to help demote other ‘low-quality’ sites.

    I wish more folks would take time from cheering Mahalo’s demise and look at the real impact and implications of the change.
    AJ Kohn would love you to read ..Farmer Update About Sites Not ContentMy Profile

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  40. Gail, Excellent writing.

    My recommendation for any website is to look for other sources of traffic besides Google.

    I posted about it recently:
    1. Why referring sites traffic is better than search engines traffic http://blog.publishedin.com/post/3035271055/why-referring-sites-traffic-is-better-than-search
    2. The Dirty Little Secrets of Search, and why you should care
    http://blog.publishedin.com/post/3313551187/the-dirty-little-secrets-of-search-and-why-you-should

    Yossi Barazani
    Founder
    http://publishedin.com

    Reply

  41. Google tue, partout dans le monde Google est le mal et tue les plus petites entreprises, ne respecte pas le droit des marques notamment en France. Google pratique l’abus de position dominante. C’est une société malsaine et qui cause beaucoup de dégats, en ayant le droit de vie ou de mort sur toutes le petites sociétés internet, c’est anormal, il faut privilégier d’autres moteurs de recherche et ne pas laisser la position dominante aux voyous du net.

    Translation from Babelfish: Google keep silent, everywhere in the Google world is the evil and keep silent more the small companies, does not respect the trade-mark law in particular in France. Google practises l’ dominant position abuse. C’ is an unhealthy company and which causes many damage, by having the right of life or of died on all small firms Internet, c’ is abnormal, it is necessary to privilege d’ other search engines and not to leave the dominant position to the hooligans of the Net.

    Reply

  42. Google certainly knows how to go against its own policy of “Do No Evil” seeing the facts that can be made out of this current algorithm update. This is certainly a great cause of worry for small time business owners

    Reply

  43. As someone, who is always in lookout for information, tailor made for customized requirements, I am often very disappointed by Google search engine. Now, what I gather from your read is ghastly, I cannot let some popular search engine decide, what’s good for me & what services i choose. There has to be some way to curtain this cruel monopoly!

    Reply

  44. It’s sickening when I hear what Google is doing. I know it’s their algorithm but they’re just too big now. They can’t have this dramatic impact on the economy – nobody is! If the govt chooses to bail out Wall Street because they’re too big to fail, they should go after Google because they’re screwing companies that have to fire ppl overnight because of their decisions. Good, bad, who cares? The point is they shouldn’t have this dramatic an impact.
    Henway would love you to read ..123 reg reviewsMy Profile

    Reply

  46. i hope google’s change in search algorithm will not affect those blogs which arent much popular and also will it have any effect on article directories, i have couple of them

    Reply

    • Hi Balbir,

      You never know what it will affect or has affected for a while – and even then they may give the traffic back after a few weeks or a month and then take it away again during the critical shopping periods. That is what is happening with the sites hit by the MayDay update and I predict that is what will happen to the sites hit lately too.

      Come back around Thanksgiving and we’ll see what it looks like then.
      Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Yahoo Stores Expert Rob Snell 10-354-767 Sales IncreaseMy Profile

      Reply

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