
25
Nov
2007
Posted by Mihaela Lica as SEO Advice
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You all know that Google slapped bloggers and webmasters around the web in the face at its latest PR update. And you all heard that Google “hates” SEOs for trying to manipulate rankings. What you probably didn’t know is that Google OWNS an SEO company – known under the name of “Performics.”
Now I am not going to debate this – my title today says it loud and clear how I feel about the whole issue – and basically how I felt since Google purchased DoubleClick. “Be afraid. Be very very afraid,” I said back then. Nothing changed. Except that now you actually know which company to hire if you want top placement in the Google SERP guaranteed. Because, isn’t it, Performics is owned by Google and Google is a company that “strives excellence” and that does everything for customer satisfaction. What Google forgets is where it came from and it also forgets the meaning of “respect.”
So let’s give some definitions for Google, just in case.
Respect (ri-spekt´) v.t. 1To have deferential regard for; esteem. 2 To treat with propriety or consideration. 3 To avoid intruding upon; regard as inviolable. 4 To have reference to; concern. – n. 1 A high regard for an appreciation of worth; esteem. 2 Due regard or consideration: respect for the law. 3 pl. Expression of consideration; compliments: to pay one’s respects, 4 The condition of being honored or respected. 5 A specific aspect or detail: In some respects the plan is impractical. 6 Reference or relation: usu. With to: with respect to profits.
Now, in some respects Google has no respect for its users. Its hypocrisy knows no borders.
Performics is an SEO company – one that uses all the traditional SEO techniques to rank its clients “naturally” in the search engines (this would be the happiest scenario). These techniques will include, of course, linking strategies – probably links purchasing too. And link exchanges – very “unnatural” SERP strategies according to Google all mighty.
And I can bet that NONE of Performics’ clients lost its PageRank at the latest Google PR update.
In a different scenario I can only see Performics promising “top Google rankings guaranteed” simply because they will rank sites manually. And no one can possibly slap Google one in this case.
Now what Google did in the past 6 months leaves a bitter taste for many webmasters:
Deindexing blogs for “selling links,” lowering their PR (PageRank) and thus lowering their chances of revenue, And what Google forgot in this process is that ALL of these webmasters are its USERS. Those USERS who expect quality and a respectful treatment. Those USERS who made Google what it is today: the most powerful search engine of them all.
Google also forgot that all those webmasters worked hard to achieve the SE rankings and PageRanks: both natural search engine optimization or paid strategies require time and effort, work and sweat. Google destroyed on purpose the dreams of many. The “do no evil” slogan raises now many questions.
So what can we do? There is only one solution: remind Google of its roots. Drive it back to its garage, that’s what.
And turn to better, user friendlier search engines. I say start using hakia, use Ask.com – anything else. Of course it is hard to avoid living under Google’s evil reign. Google is everywhere and it is hard to know what they really own or not. But you can have some fun checking out the list of Google acquisitions at the Wikipedia.
15 Responses
Derrick Tan
November 25th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
1Great article. Loves the way you speak. But we have no choice but to abide by their ‘rules and regulations’.
Mihaela Lica
November 25th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
2Well Derrick, we actually do have a choice. Most of the traffic of this blog comes from the community and not from Google – sure – there is a lot from Google, because, isn’t it, SEO is my job, but I think that the social media can kill Google’s supremacy. I believe in “powered by the people” more than in a corporation that, in the end, achieved its glory using the “power of the people.”
I cannot by a hypocrite and say “I will stop using Google all together” – but I can do a little step: I stop using Google search right NOW!
James - DigitalKeyToInfo
November 25th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
3I thought I heard recently that the EU was rejecting Google’s buy of DoubleClick (for reasons obvious to us). I wonder if that will affect things?
Performics ownership was something I either did not know or forgot. A very good point and I wonder if you are right about PR slap not hitting their customers. It would make an interesting court case if you are right.
Google is so embedded into everything on the Web right now it is very difficult to drop Google from everything. The best thing you can do is use Google like they are using you. For your profit and limit what they get from you as much as possible. Beat them at their own game.
Very insightful post.
Alina Popescu
November 26th, 2007 at 10:35 am
4The more I think about it, the more your suggestion makes sense. Most of us bloggers use Google owned stuff, from blogger to google search and google adsense. We cannot really drop them all, but we can move our searches elsewhere. I wonder if they do something in case of a massive traffic and usage drop
Mihaela Lica
November 26th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
5Oh James a trial against Google would be fun, but pointless. I strongly believe that it will be more fun to force Google to admit its mistakes. We can start by no longer using Google search, then by eliminating adsense from our sites. And that, Alina, answers your question too… somehow. Adsense is nothing but “paid link placement.” Was google slapping websites that only display adsense? Of course not. It slapped instead all the bloggers who work hard to make a living online.
Houston Properties
November 28th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
6Great article. Google has done an excellent job of starting with the theme of “do no evil.” As they get bigger, richer and many of the early people leave the company – they have the data to understand how to REALLY make money on the internet. And they’re now starting to use it.
Mihaela Lica
November 28th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
7I think they started to use it a long-long time ago. And they used us in the process too.
Deborah
December 1st, 2007 at 10:21 am
8Wow, their ownership of Performics was news to me. Love your inclusion of the definition of respect
Mihaela Lica
December 1st, 2007 at 4:51 pm
9I suppose the ownership of Performics is news to many, Deb.
Johan
December 10th, 2007 at 6:26 am
10Does this mean that SEO is fruitless? Do you think that Google’s deindexing blogs are the same reasons they change their search engine algorithms?
Mihaela Lica
December 10th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
11Hi Johan,
I think Google is overwhelmed by the amount of sites skilled enough to exploit its algorithm failures. To rank websites solely based on links is not fair. But the bot cannot see the quality of content, so links will always play a role. Google can do whatever it wants. After all it is a private company and if they choose to deindex blogs, so be it. What I am saying is that SEO should not focus solely on Google. SEO should focus on gaining authority for a site: targeted traffic that increases the trust rank in all the search engines.
Marian
December 19th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
12I just discovered your blog, this article is excellent. Going to surf on the archives now
SEO consultant
January 18th, 2008 at 4:30 am
13Google owns Performics and MSN now owns AvuenueA|Razorfish. It just seems that search engines owning SEO firms is THE oddest couple ever! But I guess it must be super easy for Performics and Avenue A|Razorfish to close deals!
The Dude Dean - UX Design Master
July 25th, 2008 at 11:40 am
14Google hit me for a page rank deduction of one point at this time, worse yet my traffic dropped from a peak of 8K a month down to about 2K per month.
Tony Murphy
September 7th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
15Hi,
Agree completely with your sentiment. Google are too powerful and power corrupts. My personal feeling is that many people are now looking to Social Marketing so that the dependence on Google is minimised. However for now we are still very much dependent on Google until a viable alternative appears!
cheers
Tony
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