Throughout the years Google has hijacked the first page of their search results. When we the content generators lived the good times, Google had 3 Adwords results in the top of natural results and several on the right. That allowed us to focus on generating good content for users, and on the way getting on the first page to get visitors interested in our content and possibly to purchase from us. But it seems the rules posted by Google are transforming their own desire to monopolize visits to adwords paid results and to their own content. From some time to our days, Google gave special importance to local results. Specialized websites providing good information about their town or city had good positions in Google first page. But google noticed that people building websites were getting good part of the traffic for local search results, and that is when they decided to get a bigger part of that cake. In the good times for content generators, there were 10 natural results and some Adwords, but for Google to accomplish highjacking the homepage, they now have 4 Instead of three top search results with snippets. After those results they show Google Maps map and then the paid sponsors on Google Maps. In the bottom of the page they show up to 3 rows of image snippets that link to Google Places. This nicely executed page finish reduces the possibility of searchers to click on the 8th, 9th and 10th links of the natural search results, and of course there is no way people will go to second page. When you look at this changes on the homepage, and you are generating content to dream and get to the first page, you can’t avoid to feel Google has hijacked the homepage of their own search engine. It’s almost impossible for a searcher to arrive to your hard worked gained 1st position in natural results. And don’t even think of getting visitors if you are not on the first or second position. Google has always used content generated by SEOs, writers and well built websites to make money, but after you look at a local keyword search results you can’t avoid thinking they have taken it to far now. And as a SEO I can’t avoid to make myself the next questions: If Google is using Adwords paid results, Google Maps and Google Maps paid results to accomplish getting 100% of the clics, why don’t they just eliminate all natural results from the first page of the search results? If Google is doing everything within their hands to avoid visitors to arrive to second page, why don’t they just eliminate the pagination and leave the first page with their Adwords and Maps results? How far is Google willing to go to kill natural results? Why Google search engine doesn’t just merge with Google Maps and stop kidding around? If I had 5 minutes with a Google Search Chief, I would remind him or her that what made Google big in the first place was content generated on third party sides. I will also tell them there are many website out there deserving nice natural search result clicks because they provide good information for the user different from reviews. A mall sells because it has Good amount of people walking, many third party shops and good products. But if the owner of the mall notices the shop owners are making money and decides to buy the shops and sell those products, this becomes a party of me with me and quality will go down. Google doesn’t seems like a search engine anymore, for me it looks like a mall in a socialist third world country hijacked by its dictator.
And he'd remind you that their direct competition is not all the other search engines, but rather Amazon, Facebook, Apple (and a few more). You can't compete with these giants by providing relevant search results from websites alone. That won't keep your bottom line going up. The days when that was their competitive edge are long gone.
And I would remind them that Google's goal from the beginning was: “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Not: "Show as much paid ads as possible to make even more money than they already earn". You are wrong if you think all this is about competition, its about service to searchers.
1. I am not wrong, since it's E. Schmid who said that their closest competitor is Amazon (and you can safely assume FB, Apple & Twitter too). You can find it online. 2. So, what you're saying is: Display dinky sites with relevant content and die. If everything was hunky-dory, do you think they'd be implementing all the changes? 3. To add to the 2nd point, if a business isn't flexible and the people running it don't realize that times are changing, that business will most definitely die. It's sad to see that so many webmasters are suffering and some even lost their livelihood, but the big G has to do what it has to do.
qwikad 1. Yes you are wrong. Amazon, Facebook, Apple might be their competition, but Google can´t make decisions based on their competition, they have to make them based on good service. 2. Why do you assume they are dinky sites? There are many people out there producing good content. Don't belittle them. 3. Yeah business must change, that’s why Google now owns Youtube, second most used search engine and search results show Youtube links; Google Maps, focused on georeferenced results for people who want to find things on a map, Gmail and all its services: Google Calendar, for reminding people of their tasks; Google Drive, for stock your files, Google +, their social network; Google Earth, for people who want to check things from a satellite; and of course, many other services that cover different people’s needs. Google has been evolving long ago, you just didn’t notice . But stacking up ads in the homepage and burring natural search results it’s taking too far. Or if they really want to bury the natural results, as said above, why don’t just eliminate google pagination? Why don’t just make first page search results paid ads? If you want to kill something just kill it, do not submit to the torture of agony. I’ll tell you why, because they still depend on their goal from the beginning: “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". But they are trying to ignore that goal to make more money. I do understand your answer though, coming from a guy that owns a site full of ads.
I am afraid he is not wrong.... corporate google is about more profits... if it means taking over more, and more of top results, then they will do so, and if the market bears, then they will continue to slip in ads where-ever possible... not sure why you guys are talking about "competition" If this is what you guys are afraid of, then end it now! I am not looking to complete with amazon, so therefore I target LSI keywords, and not those high value money keywords I cant afford anyways... yep, it is getting harder year after year, and if you want to get in now, then be prepared to spend around $3k-$5k+ in order to get your foot in the door! In order for you to start making any money these days, then you are just going to have to invest, otherwise, no need trying.... 5-10 years from now, it may take $5-$10k just to get your foot in the door; I read an amazon post couple months back, he spent $3k, and took him nearly year to earn $500/mo... no need bitching about what is currently happening... $100m companies are taking over, and they do not care if you earn $500/mo or not, it is not about you, it is about who can afford to keep up with everyone else.... sorry to say, you are not going to setup a site, then expect to go anywhere for free! It is just not going to happen, even more so with all these ecomm sites selling exactly the same products... BTW: I am already $3k+ in the hole... my profit thus far! $20 It is real folks!!! If you cant keep up, dont step up... (riddock) and i highly recommend that you avoid setting up brand new sites on a brand new domain; google will not let you stray too far off the farm for a min of six months, so I suggest you buy a clean 1yr+ domain that has cleared the google shake-down.... want a high success rate potential? 1: buy clean domain that is over year old. 2: Do heavy niche research to see if you are viable. 3: Setup attractive high converting theme... 4: high end content is a MUST! 5: High end SEO is a MUST! If you are lucky and did everything right, then you may start making money anywhere from few months-one year... otherwise, turn to FB/Google Ads... (are you an ad guru/master?) If not, then do not waste your time, or you will be wasting your money....
You are wrong too. You generalize and not all businesses are the same. I don’t care if you make 3k. I think that is too low. I am completely sure you do not have to spend 3 or 5k to make money. Many businesses do money by selling services not products. When you sell services it’s all about leads and those can be earned with natural results. I am never leaving the businesses and you are not guru to tell me I can or cannot handle the biz. I will continue to work to get as richer as possible and when I see something I don’t like, I will say it. Just like now I tell you Google is taking it too far with ads and they look like a cover of an oversold magazine. I also tell you, you have no clue about business, starting with the fact that you have not considered third world country google is different from google.com, it shows in your words the lack of knowledge and experience.
ROFL... you kids... Good luck... My estimate comes from outsourcing your work, so if you can do all this tedious work yourself, then no doubt it wont cost you as much, but if you outsource, then it is going to cost you dearly if you want to stay in the game, why? because those that know their shit are not going to be cheap, and you will no doubt want the best on your team to increase your odds.... and I do not give a shit what you think "content generator" floppy... you are upset that your junk content is no longer taking the internet by storm anymore, and I am not telling you what to do; I am telling you what you must do if you want to keep up with google, otherwise google will chase you off again, again, again, and again times 10....
It’s funny all this kid SEOs telling you to spend more money on AdWords, when clearly Google Adwords can send hits to a landing page that will never have the good quality of a well written article. It will increase your costs? Yeah, but many people don’t have a clue on how to build a good quality landing page to increase key words quality in Adwords. And not all sites can be built to be a landing page for Adwords. In the other hand, good quality content speaks for itself, which is why it gets to the first position in the natural results in the first place. But google is killing that good content by resembling an oversold magazine.
and I agree 100% agree that google is taking up more and more search results, and I suspect they will continue to do so as time goes on... ultimately, google does not care about you having the best content.... They only care about profits, and shareholders... In the end... It is not about you... It is all about google....
Oh, and on their way to kill natural search results they should change their slogan or goal from “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." to "sell as much as possible no matter what".
not going to happen... google would go belly up... once you get past the 10 top results, then your chances of getting a click through probably drops 99.9%, so that means only a few compaines in the world would pay for ads... and who is going to pay for ads too be on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th page? NOBODY! If google ended natural results, then it all ends... Google thrives on free content that others post... without free content, and natural results... (then google would not last long at all....) I hate to tell you this, but there are people out there right now making money on the "search results" you seem to hate so much. These people have put the money, energy, work, and time in order to be where they are today! If you are going to rely on SEO, then it takes money, effort, and time, other then that, google does not care what you have to say or how you feel. you only have two options: adapt or die!!!
Don't get discouraged. I have a nonprofit website, entirely funded by me (total costs just a few hundred dollars per year for hosting, etc.). I take no ads, no paid links, and I sell nothing. I do 100% of the writing and SEO myself, outsourcing nothing. Yet I get about 40,000 unique visitors a month, many of those from pages that land on Google's first page for various keywords. In sum, you can get pages to Google's first page if you write good content and do good onpage and offpage SEO. It's not rocket science.
Are you forgetting on major point, not all search is sale orientated, millions and millions or searches per hour have no possible sale at the end , Google has to balance this with providing a good service and making money. There are millions of high traffic search terms that have no ads, what does that tell you? Google is providing billions of dollars in free information they have to make money on the rest, it is give and take.
Un journal qui parle de la même chose: http://www.journaldunet.com/solutions/seo-referencement/1195154-google-est-il-devenu-bete/
Google is not the beginning and end of the internet. In fact, Amazon is crushing Google as the first place to search for products. No doubt many product advertisers have and more will abandon Google Adwords as users continue to flock from Google to Amazon. 55% of product searches happen on Amazon first - source: https://www.bloomreach.com/en/resources/blogs/2016/11/how-to-thrive-in-a-world-with-amazon.html 43% of all ecommerce in 2016 occurred on Amazon - source: https://intelligence.slice.com/echo-turns-volume-amazons-ambitions-audacious-bets-pay-off/ With Google losing a lot of product search marketshare, they will have to pinch webmasters in other areas to maintain profits. Eventually Google will either plateau or begin to follow the same downward trend as their product searches have taken. Much of this depends on how aggressive or greedy they are. If Google gets too greedy, they may upset their users and accelerate the inevitable. Hijacking the first page of the search results, as some have called it, may be an indication of just how much they need to compensate for merchants leaving Adwords for Amazon where more buyers and a better ROI exist.
I do not think google is losing, google is increasing their profits day by day. That is the game and it always happen when something become very important they always try to earn more money. Its sad but that is how it works!
Still, Google has to provide balanced results according to the users engagement and but some of the paid ads (depends on the users usability)