Why do you let google (or anybody else) ruin your sleep?
(This is a guest author article.)
There an increasingly disturbing trend I notice among a certain section of the blogging population of the internet and that is the excessive concern over google pageranks, technorati ratings, Alexa stats and so on. There are two reasons why I feel worried about this trend.
Firstly why is every second or third blog I see about "online marketing", "internet marketing", "monetization" or "SEO tips"? I blame this on the media. A bunch of newbies suddenly discovered a tool called blogging on the internet which they found that they could get into without much effort. They slap on a bunch of advertising links, sponsorships, paid content and so on and feel that they have a safe revenue stream. Most of these newbies have some things in common:
- Excessive confidence about their own skills which is not justified by their level of expertise.
- Been blogging only for around a month or two but suddenly think they can expertly advise everybody about blogging.
- Have an amateurish outlook but like to call themselves "pro bloggers".
- Have nothing unique or different to say about anything.
- Have minimal technical knowledge but are quick to catch on to the latest technology fads without fully understanding it.
- Participate in shady linking schemes and "memes" in order to boost their popularity (as seen by the large number of Javascript "widgets" loaded up on their pages.
- Usually have a condescending attitude to other bloggers and won't link out to anybody without clearly seeing any (monetary) benefits.
- Main priority: think about making money. Secondary priority: marketing their blogs in order to make money.
If you feel you fall into the above category, ask yourself why you feel targetted instead of asking me whether I pointed you out.
I partly blame this crowd for the increasing concern about pageranks, SEO, technorati and so on. After all, these tools are important in some ways, but their importance has been exaggerated beyond all limits. The bottom line about blogging is about people and that's where the focus should be. If they'd been spending half the time that they were optimizing their content for search engines or looking for other ways to improve their "revenue stream", in reaching out to other bloggers socially (by linking out or commenting on their blogs) or generally being nice to their friends, they could have achieved so much. Instead of which, these people keep up an arrogant face and shun the "unimportant" people as a whole while continuing to blindly follow the SEO trends and fads. Their main aim has been to be kind to mere web robots (scripts) rather than interacting with the primary audience: people. Reciprocity is a great thing! But once you get it into your head that you're an important guy or girl, then you've automatically isolated yourself from your audience. Even if you are in it for the money, you need to think of a business model that doesn't primarily rely on web search engines crawling your site.
I don't have much respect for online celebrities or popular bloggers. It's not a case of sour grapes. I simply cannot find anything to emulate in these people except the fact that they're famous for being famous within a certain limited circle. They want you to follow their trends but they are primarily concerned about marketing and making money and making money by telling others how to make money. Yes, there are some bloggers who are popular for reasons other than blogging, but I'm talking about this "frog in the well" crowd who cannot think much beyond "monetization". Making money isn't bad or wrong. But being obsessed about it will just ruin your sleep.
All I hope is that people (especially new bloggers) soon realize that the true value of blogging and social networking goes beyond numbers and software. It's about quality of interaction with real people and genuine friends and that's what makes the internet a truly social place… not google or technorati (or any other search engine/social networking site).
Sorry if I offended anybody with this piece. I couldn't think of a less harsh way to make my point though.
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Great article, hari. It sums it up pretty well. I'm glad I'm not on your hit list!
You wouldn't be, RT.
You are a nice guy, you care about the people who visit your blog and you are free in giving out links to others regardless of any SEO nonsense. Besides you take the time and effort to learn about things in greater detail and usually have something unique to say.
Besides this article arose partly out of our discussions by e-mail about google and SEO in general.
Great article! Don't let the Google monsters ever take your focus away from writing quality content!
I agree and yet disagree at the same time. How is that possible?
I agree with you about everything *except* excessive concern over what Google is doing to bloggers.
Google seem to think they can be the bully in the schoolyard, the internet police force which cracks down on paid links, the be all and end all source of all knowledge and inspiration on the internet. They think this is George Orwell's 1984, and they are Big Brother. We all better behave exactly as they want us to, or else.
Not only that, the hypocrisy is mind boggling. Google are currently in trouble with the ACCC over sponsored links themselves!
ACCC Alleges misleading and deceptive conduct by Trading Post and Google
Nobody reacts well to hypocrisy and big brother tactics. Honestly, it wouldn't matter who they were – it is *what* they are doing that upsets people. It goes against freedom of speech – freedom to link is something every blogger should be entitled to.
They think this because WE gave them that power. We made them the number one search engine on the web. We supported them by using their products. And now they want to stab people in the forehead with a fork as a reward?
What they are doing is wrong, and that is the major reason why people are speaking out about it.
The other reasons, like they are making it more difficult for people to make money etc, are secondary in this case – that's my belief..
Cheers,
Snoskred
I wasn't exactly praising google in my article. I said that we should make them irrelevant.
Some of their practices are monopolistic and anti-competitive and to be sure, they're heading down the Microsoft path.
The reason why bloggers shouldn't worry about google so much is because we have our own networks and we should aim to build that rather than kiss up to search engines.
Exactly. and that's why I advocate that bloggers stop reacting to everything google does. If we stopped caring at some point, google will get worried. They don't mind either positive or negative publicity so long as they're in the news and making money.
Thought provoking post.
Whilst I hear and understand what you are saying, and even agree with some of the things you seem so upset about, I also have to say that your choice of language occasionally defeats your own arguments.
Complaining about condescending attitudes and using terms like "newbies" (which to my mind has always been a rather pompous slur) is surely at odds with the fostering of the sorts of blogging and online relationships you are advocating. As someone who has been blogging for some time, is it not that same arrogance you cite in others, to see yourself as qualified to judge those who may have only recently joined the ranks, or to criticize their lack of technical knowledge? Does happening to know more about one subject than another person, make that person wiser or superior? Strengths, weaknesses, we all have them both.
Surely blogs are for one and all, are they not? And isn't it true that the platform allows any of us to talk about whatever we so choose? If someone is not "expert" or "qualified", blogging does not preclude them from having an opinion, even if it's way off the mark or technically unsound. The subjects you mention may be over represented, but that suggests a lot of interest exists on those subjects. (Could it possibly be worse than blogging about the "celebrity gossip" type nonsense that people suck up so willingly?) Who's to judge if it's right or wrong, good or bad? I see far more offensive drivel and uneducated invective on blogs outside the catch-all categories you mention than I do within them.
Yes there are lots of inept marketers, SEO'ers and bandwagon jumpers, there are are plenty of barely literate bloggers, and people blogging about hundreds of subjects that interest me not one iota, but they have as much right to blog as you or I or one of those "pro bloggers"/"A-Listers" or whatever other tag is the latest fashion.
My latest current blog is only around 6 months old, it has Javascript and ads and I talk about some of the things you mention – sometimes with sound knowledge, sometimes maybe not
I manage to monetize and I still enjoy good online relationships with my readership and still have fun doing so.
That reads as though I'm at odds with most of your post, but I'm not really. It was a good rant Ari, but don't lose sleep over the bad blogs or those that hold no interest. Enjoy the ones that work for you
Some of those terms were unnecessarily harsh and I agree with you. But I had to make a point strongly and couldn't think of a way to do it.
To me the term "newbie" is not offensive. I consider myself a newbie to a lot of things so I use that term in a positive way. However you will note that I am not targetting all newbies – just those who fit into my description above.
I realize that Hari, and it had to be a good post for me to respond at such rantlike length
On the newbie thing, I recall Yahoo chat rooms in the early 90's when the term was usually used derisively when referring to newcomers. I guess that defined the term for me. Like many words, the meaning and intent does change with the passage of time – I'm just an ornery old $*!# probably
Thanks Maurice. Your opinions are highly valued and I thank you for the inputs you've provided here. I just saw your blog and realize that you might have taken offence to some of my points, but your response has been very mature and you will understand that the underlying point is that people should care more about other people than google's web spiders (or any other spiders). I am not against making money online as my post might appear to be, but merely about not being obsessed about it to the extent that SE spiders become more valuable than human beings.
Regards
No no, I'm big enough and ugly enough to take care of myself, and honestly, no offense was taken at all Hari and that wasn't why I responded. Much of what you say rings very true.
(Too many bloggers have skins way too thin I know, but I'm leathery as well as ornery).
This post made my day!
I've noticed this obsession lately too. And so all of a sudden I was worried about Google without knowing whether I should be worried or what to do about it.
I simply don't have the excess time to learn how to control factors concerning Google. And I think it does take considerable time to control certain factors.
Your article has helped me to feel like I don't need to be worried about this.
I think if you're putting out good content with your blog consistently over time then with or without Google your blog readership will grow.
Thanks for bringing some sanity to the mass hysteria over this!!
I am a search engine optimiser by trade but don't get me confused with them, I fully agree with this article and everything you have said, dugg stumbled and delished.
It is great to say don't worry about it when you didn't get penalized for having links to credit card and mortgage companies in your footer.
Andy, I think what happened to you really stinks. It must be very frustrating for you. I don't get a lot of Google love to begin with, at least not that I can tell, so it's not worth it for me to worry yet…or maybe I'm wrong?
I hope you can find some justice.
Best regards, Sully
Are you complaining about me or the fact that google hasn't penalized me yet? As for the links on my site, I choose to put the advertising there and the people who publish the ads choose thet links. I have nothing to do with it and I've clearly labelled them as sponsored.
I read your article on google and I think you were hard-done by. But I hardly get 5% of my traffic from google in any case so am not worried about it. If advertisers want to deal with me based on my blog's pagerank, I'll choose to ignore that aspect.
By the way, thanks for adding me to your favourites in StumbleUpon.com
I get between 35 and 40% of my traffic from Google, and I still do after the penalty.
The penalty however affects me in other ways.
PageRank exists, and as long as it is judged in some ways as a quality metric, not just in selling links, it has value.
In addition, as many look to me for SEO advice, that was one of my routes to monetization.
I am saying that in a historical tense because I have lost a certain level of "social proof"
That little bar of green being used as some form of quality metric typically brings me 50-100 new visitors per day form various ratings charts. Whilst that might be looked on as Referral traffic, I would get less of it without the green bar.
I don't "game" other metrics by releasing Wordpress themes to boost my Technorati for instance, but that would also give me a massive boost.
You might also be falling into the trap of thinking that search traffic is insignificant.
Whilst not as good as referral traffic, it is far more targeted than most social media traffic. It is new visitors not returning forum members.
Google's stance on those links is that they are not clearly labelled and should have nofollow, and the fact you admit they are not editorial in Google's eyes makes it worse.
I am not trying to point a finger so much as placing a different perspective on your article.
Your article reads like "I am doing nothing wrong, and it is Google's problem if they don't like my site"
With only a small fraction of your pages in Google's primary index, I am not surprised that your traffic from Google is quite low.