Could you survive without Google?

[Actor Mike]

Ever since the PageRank bitch slap a couple of weeks ago, I've read on so many forums and blogs that Google are evil, that Google are the anti-Christ, that Google need to be taught a lesson, that Google are being anti-competitive, etc...

In essence a lot of folks are pretty unhappy with Big G right now

However everyone is still wanting to keep in Google's good books so that they can continue to get search traffic. It kinda makes sense, right? Let's face it, Google are the biggest search engine out there and you don't want to piss them off.

I've been thinking about whether or not any of my sites could survive without some Google loving. Could using social media power sufficient traffic to make search engine traffic irrelevant? Would adopting a more proactive approach to getting quality inbound links still pay the bills?

Could I survive without Google?

If you're thinking the same then it might be worth following this story. Vlad the Affiliate has just ditched Google. He's changed his robots.txt file to disallow the Googlebot and submitted a request via Webmaster Tools for his site to be removed from the index.

What he's telling Big G is that he's not prepared to bend over and take it every time they want to move the goalposts.

I've got to hand it to the fella. What he's done is what a lot of the folks who have been whinging and wining about Google over the last few weeks haven't got the balls to do.

It'll be interesting to see how it pans out for him.

[conker_on_net]

In all honesty - I would have to make some monumentus changes (optimise for yahoo and msn). Even then I don't know if I would get by.

So to answer your question: Probably not!

[cosmocentral]

It would be tough. Hey nothing lasts forever. Something new will come up.

[wisdomtool]

We can if Yahoo, Microsoft pick up their acts and be strong competitors to Google. At this moment no. Google is too fast for them.

[conker_on_net]

That is very true, it wold be very Darwin esq. The weak disappear and the strong adapt.

[mizaks]

Of course I can survive without Google. Without sex and beer, now that is another story . . .

[Scorpio]

I can't give a totally honest answer here.. May be I do need them to an extent

[wisdomtool]

I was hoping for Widgetbucks to grow stronger to be a threat to Google, hopefully the current bad news about them aren't true.

[cosmocentral]

I think we can live quite well even without Google. Lets say Google goes out of business tomorrow. Users will just start using other search engines. Water from one bottle to another thats all. There gonna be some reorganize of course, we can call it system loss.

[conker_on_net]

but could you survive if google did still exist, but they banned your site or something. Personally I would have to change my game big time.

[Actor Mike]

Originally Posted by mizaks

Of course I can survive without Google. Without sex and beer, now that is another story . . .

Fair point!

I'm becoming more of the opinion that social media will be what drives traffic in the future. I'm not talking years down the line, either. I'm thinking over the next 12-18 months.

When I first came online (mid 90's cuz I'm an old fart) the only way to find information was via the search engines and even they sucked. Today's newbie, however, will already be aware of social media sites and will be more likely to use them for search rather than just blindly turn to Google, for example.

[Nora]

I couldn't.. all other search engines are horrible compared to Google.

[bookit2freedom]

you could survive without google if you are determined enough, but since everyone uses google, you will miss out on the 80% of the people that only use google.

[seo daddy]

Originally Posted by mizaks

Of course I can survive without Google. Without sex and beer, now that is another story . . .

Too true!!!!!

[satangod]

Originally Posted by mizaks

Of course I can survive without Google. Without sex and beer, now that is another story . . .

Pick one choice 1. google
2. sex
3. alcohol

Could I survive without Google: Yes
Would I like to ban Google bots: Of course not!

I'm sure it's not right to relay on one source of traffic (whether Google or not), if most of your users come from Google, it's your problem not Google's. I use Google myself for all my searching because they are the best and that's what all people I know do. I strongly believe that Google has all the right to do whatever they want with their algorithms, it's simply their right as it's my right to do whatever I want with my sites. Social media traffic is not sable at all and most of them won't even bookmark my site. Let's face it: Google is No.1 search engine, it's very easy to ban their bots if you hate Google, as easy as shutting down your site!

[seo daddy]

Originally Posted by satangod

Pick one choice 1. google
2. sex
3. alcohol

You seem confused

Try

Originally Posted by seo daddy

1. sex
2. google
3. alcohol

Man can live without adsense and money.....(just)
but procreation is the key to a new generation of adsense warriors

[sandrodz]

my site won't last a day without google no actually I don't care, this is my hobby not a job

[Actor Mike]

Originally Posted by ahelpinghand

Could I survive without Google: Yes
Would I like to ban Google bots: Of course not!

I'm sure it's not right to relay on one source of traffic (whether Google or not), if most of your users come from Google, it's your problem not Google's. I use Google myself for all my searching because they are the best and that's what all people I know do. I strongly believe that Google has all the right to do whatever they want with their algorithms, it's simply their right as it's my right to do whatever I want with my sites. Social media traffic is not sable at all and most of them won't even bookmark my site. Let's face it: Google is No.1 search engine, it's very easy to ban their bots if you hate Google, as easy as shutting down your site!

OK so what would you do if, for whatever reason, Big G banned your site? According to your logic it would fall over and die.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to.

Google have got to be the big bullies in the play ground. Does that make them right?

You're spot on with what you say about it's Googles right to do whatever they like with their algo. It's also our right to do whatever we like with Google, right?

[vanquishdesign]

If google died tomorrow, something else would take its place.