Michael Roebuck's Blog

Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings and a popular SEO Consultant published an article titled, "Google Sucks All the Way to the Bank!" I highly recommend you read the full article and subscribe to her newsletter if not already.

The article basically calls out Google for the decline in search result relevancy. It seems she is frustrated with seeing fluffy informational pages show up in the SERP's instead of retail commercial websites. She blames money as the tipping point stating PPC (where Google generates its revenue) is retail and traditional SEO (free) is fluffy information pages.

Isn't that what Google wants? Of course it's about the money. I agree with Jill that search results suck but I think they suck across the board. I don't have a solution either.

I've been a long believer that content should not be king in all instances. By telling clients to add content, you are telling them to create crap. Not just any crap, but unique crap that hasn't been created yet. How many different ways can you write about a retail product? I really only care about reading features and model numbers. I then go to Amazon to read the reviews. Anything over that is fluffy junk that some person had to write to fill space. Anything extra rarely has any meaningful purpose. Any extra fluffy content should be in the "About Us" section or other areas of the website.

And before you come back and say the content should be how to use the product, and what benefits it will give you, I tell you most of that content is junk as well. It was written to satisfy Google's requirement for content and therefore it was created for Google. NOT the customer.

Don't get me wrong, there are products out there that could benefit from explicit content. And I know that when 50 different websites are selling the same products there has to be differentiation. But I do believe there has to be a better way. It just hasn't been invented or implemented yet. Which means we will continue to see fluffy content pages rise to the top of the results.

Is this really part of Google's plan to make more money by forcing retailers to use PPC? Will organic SEO be replaced entirely by paid results? I'll have to consult my crystal ball and get back with you.

One thing is for sure; As long as Google rules the world, we must play by their rules.

Labels: content, copy, google