How Google Can Make or Break A Small Business 352
securitas writes "USA Today's Jefferson Graham reports on how Google affects small business through its rankings and text ads. The feature describes how the fortunes of small companies turned when their Google ranking rose or dropped, as well as the effects of Google's paid search text advertising model. Search Engine Watch says that Google now performs an estimated 80% of the searches (200 million) on the Internet every day. The result is that Google has become a critical part of any online marketing strategy and has spawned a whole Google-optimization industry where consultants can charge $5,000 per site for tweaking. The feature is light on technical details but the stories of those who prospered and suffered due to Google make a good read."
Google Adwords (Score:5, Interesting)
I've bought a bunch of ads on Google, most recently for my startup, Findory News [findory.com]. Most web advertising is expensive, difficult to set up, and performs poorly. But, because you can pick such specific keywords with Google Adwords and the advertising engine refuses to show ads that don't perform well, you can easily get in front of people that might be interested in them.
Re:Google Adwords (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Google Adwords (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Google Adwords (Score:2)
Re:Google Adwords (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Google Adwords (Score:4, Insightful)
- Waiting 2 minutes between submits.
Spammers can't be productive in that kind of environment.
However (Score:2)
Now I may not be an advertising expert, but how can advertising be designed to depend on what other people do?
Re:Google Adwords (Score:5, Interesting)
In other words, if your webpage text contains a discussion about "intrusion detection systems" it is highly likely that your Google ad banner will have up to four different companies that sell such devices or software. The advantage is that the Webmaster can offer valid commercial links to his free discussion and often make 25-cents per click; the advantage to the retailer is that they have higher exposure and a greater chance of selling their product. The disadvantage to all of us, unfortunately, is that we're still stuck with banner ads long into the forseeable future.
Regards,
Re:Google Adwords (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess it's a matter of perspective, but I see it as a win for the consumer as well when they are brought together with a merchant who supplies them with something they really wanted or needed. The problem with banner ads in general is that they are usually huge spammy catch alls pimping products that no-one gives a shit about. Googles adwords go a long way towards fixing this problem, at least their ads are somewhat relevant to the subject at hand, whatever that may be....
Re:Google Adwords (Score:2)
I am sure that people advertizing anywhere need to be most careful about the presentation techniques. I do believe that the real issue here is access to this information. It is probable that we need some legislation that regulates the way that this information is made available so that anyone can obtain the strategy data for Search Engine Listings and buy accordingly. This is not intended to regulate how but to regulate that it be told how to do this. Otherwise the selling of space on a search engine is
The best way to get a good Google placement is to. (Score:3, Insightful)
I run a health related website that is #2 for a single keyword and I've not spent a penny, but I have spent years being a valuable resource to the people who have an interest in the subject matter.
The key, I'll say it again, is relevance.
Re:Google Adwords (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Google Adwords (Score:5, Interesting)
> Small businesses with tiny marketing budgets can buy ads easily.
I've had different results with AdWords. I wanted to test the waters with it so I set a budget of $1.00/day and 5 cents per click. I was quickly disabled for having "too few clicks" so I increased it to 25 cents per click and had the ad re-enabled. Again, it was disabled because of too few clicks. Finally, I tried raising it to $1.00 per click and again had the same results. I'm not sure what you consider cheap, but paying more than $1.00 per click to get decent placement is not my idea of cheap. I can find better click-throughs elswehere for around 35 cents per click and not be charged $5 to re-enable my ad if it does too poorly. For a small business getting started, it's tough to pay than a dollar or two CPM. A thousand impressions with .5% CT rate doesn't add up to much business, and the money for those ads doesn't grow on trees.
I've had better click-throughs with Market Banker [marketbanker.com] or ads on Kuro5hin.
Re:Google Adwords (Score:3, Interesting)
This methodology on Google's part is a win/win. You don't end up with a useless ad that no one is clicking on and they don't end up serving ads people don't want to see.
Re:Google Adwords (Score:4, Informative)
Ah the good ol' feudal days have returned... (Score:4, Interesting)
gotta say it.. (Score:2)
I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords!
Search Engine Watch is Bogus (Score:5, Insightful)
For those of you too young to remember the days before Google, there were other search engines, such as Altavista (the first big one) and Yahoo. The reason Google became the most popular is that they do a very good job of ranking the interesting items first, which is important when there are 39000 hits for your query. The Search Engine Promotion business, when it's not just a scam sold by spammers, is mainly about doing artificial things to make Google's robots think your page would be interesting to humans; it's much better to _actually_ make your page interesting to actual humans, and hope Google's robots pick up on that.
Re:Ah the good ol' feudal days have returned... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's almost as crappy a model as the one based on having a domain name you think everyone will type in.
Re:Newest version of the Google Toolbar (Score:2)
Speaking from a position of ignorance, what is the Google toolbar, and why would anyone use it? I'm guessing it's like the somewhat annoying Google search box in Firebird and Galeon.
Re:Newest version of the Google Toolbar (Score:2)
This desription is basically correct. The good bell and whistle that it includes simple to configure free pop-up blocker which is very useful for the average home user.
The complaint is that they changed the default action of the search function in the past week or so, so that it now supplies you with advertising for the first
No... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No... (Score:5, Insightful)
$5,000 per site (Score:5, Insightful)
Go Google!
Re:$5,000 per site (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$5,000 per site (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd guess it is probably because most, if not all, of those consultants that will take $5k to get you a high spot on Google are just guessing or are even scammers.
$5k to get a number one spot would indeed be cheap. $5k to get told to make a bunch of annoying changes to your site that end up not doing anything other than waste your time is expensive.
Google's business model depends on them being a really good search engine, and being a really good search
Re:$5,000 per site (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$5,000 per site (Score:3, Interesting)
It's probably stuff you already know, like filling pages up with keywords, generating link-farms, and such like. Thousands of domain names doesn't hurt either. Basically it's all junk, as you're selling access to someone else's resource, and any clients will end up pissed if google decides to change their algorithm and you've taken their money for
Re:$5,000 per site (Score:5, Interesting)
Frankly, these small companies who are putting all of their eggs in one basket by relying so heavily upon Google are destined to fail.
Google did the re-ranking to encourage folks to both pay for Adwords AND to make a push for Froogle (which is free as in you don't have to pay for listings!!)
Its amazing how people who are getting something for nothing can bitch when that something turns into what they generally have to put into it - nothing.
SEO isn't rocket science and those who would pay $5000 for it have too much money in their budget. I have achieved #1 rankings without implementing half of what I could to boost them otherwise....
It's simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Just put some actual information on the site! (Score:3, Insightful)
I bet an article on "roll forming" would have worked just as well. If someone wants to find a SOAP client for GForge [gforge.org],
typing "gforge soap client" into Google puts you where it should - right here [infoether.com].
Seems like this is being made a bit more complicated than necessary....
Re:Just put some actual information on the site! (Score:3, Informative)
it really works! (Score:5, Funny)
Reassess your business strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Reassess your business strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
They miss the point, feel Google owes them (Score:5, Insightful)
(Ok, technically their business is to sell as many AdWords as possible, but they do this by being the no. 1 search engine, and they are that because they provide the best search experience for the user.)
Google Alert (Score:5, Informative)
I use Google Alert [googlealert.com] for my personal site. I use it to track when other pages link to my site.
Per their About page:
With Google Alert, you can automatically keep track of anything on the web! Google Alert is the web's leading automated search and web intelligence solution. It runs daily Google searches for you and emails you when new results appear. Many people use Google Alert to keep track of what the web is saying about them, their interests or projects they are involved in. You can use Google Alert to keep track of any time someone mentions your name on the web. You can also track mentions of your website, your place of work, or your favorite hobby or celebrity -- the uses are limited only by your imagination. Click here for some great search ideas and some useful tips. The Frequently Asked Questions provide more detailed information about Google Alert. Selected as BBC's Website of the Day and USA Today's Hot Site, the free Google Alert service enables people in over 120 countries to stay up to date with their interests. Users include journalists, marketers, IT professionals, lawyers, doctors, salespeople, educators, researchers, and government employees. Click to start using Google Alert right away - it's easy and free!
Diversification (Score:4, Insightful)
Here we have another example of the danger of focusing on one entity to provide a product or service. Microsoft has the same issue. One security hole in IE can create all sorts of problems for the majority of the population.
Similarly, people have focused on Google as a search engine (for similar reasons - it is "user-friendly") and as a a result we are beginning to see the problems inherent in this approach.Re:Diversification (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, google is user-friendly, but (unlike windows) it's also the best of its kind. I don't think that google's dominance is a bad thing. I can't see any disadvantages in google being much more popular than the other search engines that are out there.
Re:Diversification (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with Google searches comes up because of people intentionally taking a crack at them. Litigious Bastards anyone? [scom.com].
Even miserable failure [google.com] still works.
Ironic (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ironic (Score:2)
Maybe Micronesia will invade the US while Slashdot is slashdotting Google...
Manipulating Google (Score:2)
Google needs to tweak too (Score:5, Interesting)
are URLs that look like this:
Of course said page contains ads for something else or is just a redirect/popup trap.
Google really needs to use their mad skillz to counteract this. Their algorithm is being screwed by the same type of people who brought us BonziBuddy and all that other worthless shit on the web.
They came up with the best search engine - I'm sure they can stay on top. But I wonder if they've even noticed, given the massive amount of data they must deal with.
Re:Google needs to tweak too (Score:2)
are URLs that look like this:
http://www.suppabiz.ws/search/results/compaq_ipaq _ battery.html
I was commenting the other day that the internet was ruined. I couldn't for the life of me find a review on a computer monitor. It was always stuff like:
(using the example above)
"Looking for information on Compaq iPaq battery? We are the leading Compaq iPaq battery site on internet. We plan on more Compaq iPaq battery related articles later, but we're just getting started on
Re:Google needs to tweak too (Score:4, Interesting)
It was very difficult to find any actual information about this laptop (other than the marketing crap on the ProStar site) on which I had to perform maintenance. In the end, I gave up the search entirely and just relied on my instincts (which turned out just fine, thanks).
Is this the $5000 consultants trick? Buy up dozens of semi-related domain names, use a bit of XSLT to make them slightly different, and then tweak the content for your clients? Not only is this very shady, it is going to reduce the effectiveness of Google dramatically
Re:Google needs to tweak too (Score:5, Insightful)
"Help us improve"
Click it. Then paste that URL in there (NOT as one that you were looking for, but in the comment box) and mention how it's just irrelevant crap.
PhD's vs. spammers. The spammers aren't be *that* bright, even if they are persistant.
Google doesn't owe you a living... (Score:5, Informative)
If you want to spend money on better placement, send it to the people who are providing the service -- Google -- and buy up ads.
Who to blame (Score:4, Insightful)
In the information age with transportation systems as they are, ideally there should be increased "economies of scale" and business should move to those who provide the best value (whatever combination of cheap, service, support, quality and product is optimal), and the huge massive amount of duplication of effort will be eliminated.
Unfortunately that *entirely* rests on consumers making educated choices and migrating to a small subset of "best of breed" service/product providers.
The fact that they aren't, and that Google rankings and adwords has this effect - is entirely due to the fact that consumers are stupid.
Don't blame Google. Blame stupid consumers.
Re:Google doesn't owe you a living... (Score:3, Insightful)
provide meaningfull content [wolfram.org] which deserves to be ranked highly in a search. If your site is the best source of information about foo, then more people will know that you sell foo, and will trust that you know what you are doing.
Re:Google doesn't owe you a living... (Score:2, Insightful)
You can consult buisnesses to do some adjustements that makes it easier for google spiders to spider your site.
For instance : dropping frames, change your 'get'-url's to 'normal' urls, providing metadata, making sure your site gets linked a lot, providing text alternatives for grafic buttons etc...
Stuff that a good webdeveloper should implement, but there are a lot of bad webdevelopers/sites out there.
Re:Google doesn't owe you a living... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Google doesn't owe you a living... (Score:2)
Google does it right (Score:5, Informative)
The process was simple - you tell it what words to bring up your ad, how specific like "games" versus "pc games" versus "first person shooter pc games". The more generic, the greather the chance of getting clicked, but the greater the cost. The ad is unobtrusive - just a text link (not a gigantic banner that will offend everybody else).
You can specify how many ads to pay for in advance. So if you only have enough money for 1000 clicks, it stops at 1000 - and you can either renew, or just leave it be.
Overall, it's just simple. The article mentions the bed and breakfast "Honeymoon Haven" or whatever that was worried about the service - I'd tell her not to be worried at all.
And I think that's why Google is doing the best so far: it's simple. No huge Yahoo like directories that make little sense, or extra ads cluttering the way. It gives me what I want, and if I want more, I click on it.
Perfect? No - some sites are optimizing themselvers to annoyance, like entering "'resident evil' walkthrough" and getting in the top 10 links annoying search engines or porn sites adding words and linking to each other to build up their Google score. But for 90% of the time, it's "good enough".
Re:Google does it right (Score:2)
Generally though, I agree - google's excellent.
Re:Google does it right (Score:3, Interesting)
break yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:break yourself (Score:2)
I think the thing that people (especially business owners) should keep in mind is that Google is in no obligation to anybody. They are simply a search engine.
Chicken and Egg problem. (Score:2, Insightful)
The problem is these businesses chose to depend on google and only google for their web hits...all their marketing eggs in one basket, so to speak.
Search will be a commodity soon (Score:2, Interesting)
It seems that Google is also less concerned with search quality then before -- just compare their quailty
Recommend Google Alternatives? (Score:2, Interesting)
Does anyone have recommendations to some good alternative engines? I used to use altavista, askjeeves, hotbot... but I don't remember the last time I got really useful results from them (maybe cuz I haven't used them for a couple years). What about those apps that you can download that search numerous engines?
It is interestin
The world changed after all (Score:2)
This is what's changing the world. Everyone remembers those old IBM ads about global e-business or some other buzzword. Now we're seeing the reality: a relatively small business can greatly increase the scope of its market and compete with big boys. The trick has always been to overcome the power law effect [backspaces.net] and move up the curve. Google is a phenomenal equalizer in this respect: write a good ad, put a good site online, and (most importantly) have a well-run business that does its job well, and you can go so
Ughh... (Score:2)
Makes me very sad, as I love Google. Hate to see it get gamed so easily!
Re:Ughh... (Score:3, Insightful)
Google breaking a business? (Score:2)
Well.. (Score:2)
There are always the people its good for, but it seems to screw with a lot of people over too. But hey...that's the business
breaking your business (Score:2)
Google is too much power in one place (Score:4, Insightful)
However, all of this is only owned by one company.
Does anyone else see the danger here? 80% of the internet uses google for searches. Think about this. 80% of people use the same service owned by the same people.
I am wary.
Luckily, google has a track history of being a fantastic and fairly honest company. But how long until someone that works there becomes too greedy.
There is a serious danger in having so much power centralized to one service. I commend google for creating the greatest source of knowledge in human history.
I just worry that, maybe, we'd be better off if we had some more options, in case google turned sour.
Surly SOMEONE can compete with google.
Re:Google is too much power in one place (Score:3, Insightful)
Not Powerful - Popular, because they're good (Score:4, Insightful)
Saying Google is too powerful and should be forced to carry politically correct content is somewhat like saying CNN is too powerful and should be forced to carry politically correct news, except that the Internet has far fewer limitations on capacity than cable TV and has a much lower cost for getting into the business. It's not only Wrong, but it would degrade the quality of the site, and people would go leave. By contrast, if you offer a competing channel (like Fox News or PBS or politically-correct-search-engine.gov), then people can make a choice between your favorite site and their current one.
Also, while the Search Engine Watch site says 80% of searches are Google, I've recently seen some discussion that Google is about 30-40% of the market, Yahoo's pretty close, and there are some others out there with non-trivial readership levels.
Re:Google is too much power in one place (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyone can switch to any search engine at any time. If in a users mind, Google quality starts to slip, the
Re:Google is too much power in one place (Score:2)
Perhaps Ive been so focused on google, that I simply havnt noticed other advances in search technology, or their competitors.
How _is_ that yahoo search these days? didnt they drop google recently?
Re:Google is too much power in one place (Score:2)
Apparently, my worries are unfounded. And you need to relax.
Isn't that a sign of a poor business? (Score:2)
For example, what do you think would be the most effective advertising for ThinkGeek.com:
1. A google addword for "xyz geek term" or
2. A banner add on slashdot
High Water Mark (Score:2)
I think everyone, anyone and especially EFF and Groklaw need to remember what was stated in that report.
80% is a huge portion of any market and all related market research to determining this number should be held onto by interested parties. It m
We've seen drops (Score:2)
We're thinking of buying into Google ad-words. A large percentage of the people who go to our site buy our products.
Re:We've seen drops (Score:2, Insightful)
Forgive me, but everyone loves a winner. You can't be a winner unless you're going to take a chance with a minor amount of m
Trust in Google? (Score:2, Interesting)
I would
Scripted Sites (Score:2, Insightful)
Judging from my personal impression Google has become less useful lately...
just my 2cents
searchers vs. searchees (Score:3, Interesting)
There's obviously been an arms race developing for a long time between the people running queries and the people with sites that might be returned by queries. Has anyone thought about what the likely endgame is? To me it seems possible that good impartial search engines are just doomed. How can you write algorithms that automatically read pages and determine their relevance to particular subjects in the face of web-page creators who will do anything to get ranked highly?
And it's not enough for your ranking method to be a little bit obscure or hard-to-understand; any search engine now has to face the prospect that the economy is capable of supporting smart poeple to work full time on figuring out how to break your ranking algorithm.
It's not hard to imagine a future where any search engine is either manually maintained (like the various web directories) or completely advertiser-run.
--Bruce Fields
Google needs accuracy and fairness (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to give good results, and seems reasonably fair.
The paid links are clearly identified.
If google started being unethical, or giving bad hits it would be less valuable.
Their only competative advantage is accurate results, they must keep it.
Speaking Of Google... (Score:3, Offtopic)
Just search for Bastards (Score:3, Informative)
Adwords -Clickbots (Score:4, Interesting)
Here is a paper [perlworks.com] describing my exchange with Overture on this issue. Summary of paper:
Since then I have determined by researching one of my own pay-per-click keywords is that Overture will filter out a client that has a cookie if it clicks more than once every 30 minutes.
Make your site different! (Score:5, Insightful)
Fungible is defined as "[r]eturnable or negotiable in kind or by substitution, as a quantity of grain for an equal amount of the same kind of grain". In other words, it means "interchangeable".
Apparently the information on these web sites is fungible: Google can substitute one business for another, and as far as Google is concerned, the result is the same.
This is not to say that the businesses necessarily offer products that are fungible; but apparently, for certain obvious searches about those products, the sites return essentially the same information. And it's that information -- not the products -- that Google "sells".
So each competing business offers essentially the same information as far as Google is concerned. These businesses then hire consultants to multiply the number of other sites linking to their version of that fungible information, in hopes that Google will see the links and consider their web site the more authoritative and thus higher paged-ranked source for the fungible information.
The problem is that the information is fungible. rather than try to multiply the links to the same old information, differentiate your site by offering different information.
One easy way to offer different information is to offer a different (and presumably but not necessarily lower) price. Or --egads! -- differentiate your site by offering a better product. Or a bundle product.
Or even better, give Google what it wants: diverse information. Write an article about your product or service that addresses a need your customers have. Offer it for free, and attract people to your site. If Ace Hardware offers free e-books on hoe to make home repairs, Google will index it, and I'll, end up there. and maybe I'll stay and buy, rather than go back to Google and find competitor Home depot.
Or give away free instructions for making paper models of your product, like Yamaha does with its motorcycles. That got Yamaha featured on Slashdot -- and for free. Put up a whitepaper -- not the usual crap whitepapers that come down to "the only solution is our product, and by god it's a vague solution" -- but a real whitepaper of real use to professionals in your industry.
Sponsor an open-source project that use or features or facilitates the use of, your product. and then sponsor that project's web space, on your server next to your site.
We could come up with example after example, but the take home point is this: if the information you offer is fungible, expect sooner or later someone else will win the page rank lottery and outrank you. So make sure you offer something unique and uniquely useful.
That'll be $5000.00, please.
Make or break? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Make or break? (Score:3, Informative)
Internet is THE media today; a lot of businesses utilize media to market their business. Sometime it's essential to their survival. So these new small businesses reply on the internet to market their business. Today, it can mean th
And yet we still have people... (Score:2)
How many businesses rely soley on search engines? (Score:3, Interesting)
Most businesses seem to use the web as an extension of their brick and mortar business. It's a place you visit when you need extended information on a company or a quick way to communicate with a corporate office.
Simply putting your site on your next batch of business cards will probably produce more relevant visits to your site than having every person who typed a word that happens to match with your advertising scheme with Google.
For instance, if I am going to do research on window curtains, I will probably hit up a few big brick and mortar store's websites, then go check out the products in person. Since the big corporations seem to be the only people running stores these days, it would seem that most people would know what is in their area without the assistance of the web (except for driving directions). Most folks would know Linens 'n Things, Bed Bath 'n Beyond, Riches, Target, Walmart, etc have such items and would not need to do a blanket search on Google for 'window curtains'.
Personally, when I do a search and see where a company obviously paid for their search location, I will rarely visit. I tend to assume they are just concerned about getting a bunch of hits for banners and redirection to sites I would have already visited on my own.
I know it's important to some web-only, small companies without a well-known name. But this is not something I would consider 'make or break' on a wide scale. It sounds more like a case of a small minority making a majority of noise over something they do not think is fair.
A Stupid Google Joke (Score:3, Funny)
Joe Computer #2: Just look it up on google.
Google paid links.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Google versus Froogle (Score:4, Interesting)
- Searching for "Apple" while looking for information about the company, who is on the board, company history.
- Searching for "Apple" while looking for an iPod.
This is an extremely bad example, but the point is I think the problem that Google is running into is that the line between information or selling products is becoming too fuzzy. But I would say that both searches are "legitimate". In the least, the blurring of this line only serves to dilute the search results.
Maybe a solution would be to move all product/purchase type searches to Froogle and have Google return ONLY informational sites instead of sites that sell products (which seems inline with their original intent).
Monopolies and humour. (Score:3, Interesting)
two words "driver library" (Score:3, Interesting)
I didn't pay for that. I just have a massive collection of drivers. My site consumes an 80GB harddrive and about 50% of that is drivers.
WinDrivers.com used to charge $50 a year for access to their collection which I remember because I thought it was so outragous. Now they charge $29.95 a year. Which is 5 cents less than I charge. However they still charge $5 for a day pass where I charge $1.
If you're looking for a specific file that Windows told you're missing and you type it in Google, my site will be top ranked if I have it. Sites like WinDrivers.com tend to ZIP up their files. I let them all hang out.
I'm also highly ranked on DirectX related things because I have practically every version of the SDK. And likewise, all the files are available indiviually. So looking for a specific file will result in my site comming up.
It's content that gets a site ranked high as well as the domain name, file name, and directory name.
I'm currently in the process of revamping the site which will probably kill me on Google for a bit as it reindexes everything but that doesn't take long.
You don't need to pay $5000 to get highly ranked. You just need some sense and a well designed web-site with stuff people would be looking for.
Slashdot isn't bad advertising either. Recycled Russian Brides was probably the most effective sig ad. I had a front page story once and a number of times I've written articles which have been posted on a major game development web-site. Free advertising in exchange for making something useful.
Ben
Re:We saw it too (Score:2)
Re:We saw it too (Score:2)
No.
We put keywords in meta elements, and keywords in the title. We have a short descriptive paragraph on our main pages. We just made sure our keywords and key phrases were popular and relevant to the site, and they were. We don't have invisible text or unnecessarily repeated words.
Site used to be in the top 50. Now it's not even in the top 200, and
Re:Great article now som genius will want to regul (Score:2)
Re:About Our Google Overlords (Score:2)
Re:I'm a google optimizer (Score:3, Funny)
There's a catch-phrase that would get you in my circular file real quick.
Re:Our company just got screwed.... (Score:4, Insightful)