An open letter to the Google algorithm
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Dear Google algorithm,
I see from what you have done that I have REALLY offended you. You have reduced the amount of traffic you send here by 50%, so you must be very angry with me.
In view of this, I just want you to hear my side of the story…
I know you like to see blogs post content every single day, regardless of quality. I know you have ‘issues’ telling great content from crap, because you are just a piece of software, and that you use how regular someone posts to a blog as a way to determine the quality of that blogs information.
You really need to understand that the Google way of deciding value seems insane to us humans! If we used the Google quality model, a blade of grass, for example, would be of higher value than a flawless diamond. Grass is really common you see Google, but flawless diamonds are extremely rare.
I ‘could’ have written a few more posts this week, just to keep you happy Google, and I would have – only I decided to spend all my ‘blog time’, actually communicating with the people who read and comment in this blog!
Google – If you ever decide to start ranking blogs based on the quality of the writing, the quality of the comments and the number of people who actually read and comment there – we can be friends again. There are flawless diamonds in the comments section of this blog – if only you knew!
However, whilst you continue to rank blogs based volume over quality, you can take the worthless 0.4% of traffic you generate for me and poke it up your software driven, clueless *@*!$
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Love and hugs,
Jim Connolly
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Jim, I really enjoyed the Dear Google letter. Got a good laugh out of it!
- Doc
Jim, I LOVE your blog! There’s always honesty and great content plus you write from the heart. I laughed when I read this post!
As ‘newbie’ to the online marketing world, I refuse to clutter up my blog with worthless posts just to get better ranks. Although I believe SEO is important, it’s only a piece of the puzzle. I prefer word-of-mouth to be honest.
Tks,
Kelley
Definitely agree with you!Always building good content is not a joke.
And I just read the google seo starter guide.There was nothing amazing told in the google seo report.
Its just another seo basics report which you can learn from each of the millions of blogs on SEO.
I blog to keep fresh content on my site. I follow you because you give great info. Twitter takes up more of my time and is becoming more valuable. I like every aspect of SM and that could be my niche… if I could be as smart as you. Great following you.
Susie,
Thanks for the comment. So long as you blog for your own reasons and NOT because you feel pressured (by Google) – that’s great!
I often update this blog 4 times or more in a week – but only because I want to and have something I want to share. Not for Google.
That’s why you don’t / won’t see ‘guest bloggers’ here – just to get something ‘out there’.
LOL – A placed to be entertained and educated, I love it!
Jim, my business partner and I used to lament about how much our clients’ success was tied to Google. “We all live and die by Google,” was what we used to say. Of course, that was from a search marketer’s perspective.
Over time, our agency has transitioned more into a social media play – not simply because that’s where the business opportunity was, but more to the reality of what your “dear Google algorithm” letter clearly demonstrates.
Do we still rely on Google? Absolutely. But the online marketing landscape has changed significantly right before our eyes… kind of like watching a sunrise. Thanks for your contribution.
Jason,
Good to see that http://www.capturetheconversation.com/ are embracing social media as well as SEO.
Nice site by the way.
Hi Jim,
As always, you are right on point. Google likely takes word count over content as well. As a new business owner and a marketer, I need Google, but sometimes I wonder what help they really are. Oh well, onward and upward. Personally, I am moving a lot of my activity over to direct mail, where my rankings are related to what I actually offer and deliver.
Lisa
Lisa,
Thanks for the comment.
You mention in your comment that you are moving to direct mail;
That’s pretty-much what I am doing here, without the cost or pitfalls of direct mail.
This is, to borrow a line from Homer Simpson, funny because it’s true.
Any genuine traffic comes from quality back-links anyway.
Mark,
Anyone who can get a Homer Simpson quote into a marketing blog, AND make a great point is my kind of person!!
As I said on Twitter, diamonds are rare, but you are one of them. Keep setting the high standard for yourself and the rest of us.
Well put, Jim. Keep up the good work and let Google bury its head in the sand.
I also have seen a 50%+ cut in my AdSense income on my best site (not a blog). The quality of what’s there has not changed, but I was working on a new project and had slowed down on updates.
Crazy! But it just demonstrates the validity of the advice often given by the wise not to build a business that depends on the unreliability of the Google machine.
This made me smile as it is a unique way of addressing something that doesn’t matter that much to you anyway (my gutt feeling). Your blog and some of the others get shared on Twitter and other social sites as well as by word of mouth so Google’s search traffic reduction is something you will get past in no time. Keep pumping out great content and doing your thing.
If there’s too much rubbish of sites in a niche, they can boost you out of the top by building links and deep links over and over.
Traffic depends on keywords and links in niche at Google.
If you stop getting new links AND others in niche are getting more and more, you will get “penalized” by losing visitors.
I’ve made some theories about this, perhaps they are not perfect, but this seems to be Google’s law. And Google’s law has absolutely nothing to do with quality content.
Thanks for your comments. I too resist the idea of churning content for the sake of churning, it is ruining what blogging set out to be in the first place. I hate telling my clients that is what they need to do, but it is just the way it is right now. Thanks for the great post.
Speaking of backlinks, I left you one today