Get Thee Traffick! [Part 1]: Is Google God?
Posted by Josh | Filed under Uncategorized
Most western theology is based on the belief in an all-knowing, all-powerful god, that judges individuals by the content of their character and occasionally intervenes in mysterious ways. Of course this is an extremely simplified statement, however when put so irreverently, the similarities that can be seen between “God†and Google are uncanny. And even though I am still hesitant to conclude that Google is here to make good on all the centuries of promises made by western theologians, it is beginning to appear that some website-owning professionals are developing a more reverent opinion.
When a company’s Google numbers are bad, a bizarre almost religious panic to settles in. CEOs, and Marketing Supervisors have site source code open more than emails, and MS Project windows, and surprise visits to cubicles have a dark solemnity to them, and questions like, “Does Google punish you for having similar or even identical links at the top and bottom of your site?” - or - “How about our press releases, some sites just copy them word for word and stick them up there, will Google punish us for that?” - or - “Does Google only reward us for inbound links from certain types of sites?”
I’m telling you it’s creepy!
I currently work for a niche market company that manufactures data acquisition hardware, and it’s been decided recently, that our site is riddled with terrible mistakes in coding and design, and even though we’ve uncovered some relatively obvious things that may have us appear unworthy in the eyes of Google, and we have begun the process of eliminating these wicked ways, we are still bringing in a team of SEOs as if our site is possessed, and in dire need of an exorcism.
This is well and good, but I keep hearing phrases from people around me that sound far too much like phrases I used to hear as a Mormon, “Son, I don’t care if my whole world comes crashing down around me, as long as I’m right with God come judgment day.” Well, at least with Google you know when you’re “right” with it, because you come up early in a keyword search, and you don’t have to die first.
All this focus on shaping the structure of a site for the purposes of getting a boost in keyword searches on Google is a little off track though in my opinion. In fact, it’s not even guaranteed by SEOs the themselves! On their websites they say things like:
“If you run into a business that does guarantee rankings within this amount of time, or guarantees rankings at all, you should consider looking into a different SEO agency.” — ubsearch.com
Well, if statements like this are to be believed, what is the point of blind obedience to Google (as interpreted by SEOs) anyway? Isn’t it to get site traffic? Or have I missed something in recent months?
Now I am well aware, that the over all tone of this entry may get misread from this point on, if it hasn’t been already. So let me make the following statement: I know that Search Engine Optimization is an extremely important and legitimate endeavor, and most certainly worth the money and time that is spent on it. I myself spend a great deal of time researching the topic, and implementing methods for improvement in SEO. However, my point to be made here is that for some, it has become such a primary focus that people are losing site of the purpose behind being reachable through search engines in the first place.
I don’t know about you, but I would take a steady increase in site traffic over a steady improvement in Google Search Ranking, if I had to chose between one or the other. However, the nice thing [the way I understand and observe it] is that you really can’t have one without the other anyway. Just like getting better search engine ranking, will increase your traffic; Building site traffic [by getting well known authors/creators of related web content to link to you], will net you better search engine results.
Moral: We must be careful not to offend Google, but let us be sure to always remember the age old axiom:
God (even Google) ultimately only helps those that help themselves.
So, how does one go about doing this? That’s for Part 2.
Next: Get Thee Traffick [Part 2]: Then Who is Satan?
