You can actually talk to Google

By Adam Stetzer - 04/07/09 8

In the SEO world, many people view Google as an unapproachable force. Google owns 85% of the search traffic, making them king in both the SEO and PPC advertising industries. Many search optimization projects view good rankings in the Google search index as their primary object. But there is also a bit of fear around Google. I think this is natural. We have some clients who run entire ecommerce businesses based on SEO and their position in Google. It's natural for them to be a little fearful as a sudden change in search enging ranking could mean the end of their business. This fear is amplified by the bad information that is floating around the Internet in regard to SEO. I think that fear tactics are used no matter what the industry.

We are in a unique position because HubShout does both SEO and paid search (PPC) advertising, as well as running an SEO reseller program. As a result we actually get to talk to Google. Many people don't realize this, but when you have accounts of a certain size, Google opens a dialog with agencies and SEM firms. It's only natural. We are Google's client - at least on behalf of our clients. And we spend significant amounts of money with them.

There are other reasons to be talking to Google when it comes to search marketing. Specifically, the issue of click fraud. There are, unfortunately, many folks out there who would try to game the PPC system. Just like in SEO, there are those who would rather not play by the rules. This can be extremely costly. People just don't realize how fast a bill can run up when you are paying $18 per click. In today's world, clicks are becoming a type of currency. Just like links have value in SEO, clicks are extremely valuable in PPC.

Google pays close attention to the issue of PPC click fraud, just like they police SEO spam very closely. And we've had several occasions to talk to Google when we've seen click fraud on our clients accounts. In our experience, Google has been extremely responsive and has always made things right.

In summary, Google is not the secretive king of search engines people sometimes make it out to be in the forums. They are a business. And they know who their customers are and make great efforts to reach out to them just like any good business should.

Comments:

04/13/09 - Rob Buti said:

Hi Adam, I have become obsessed with SEO but I seem to have hit a wall. I've been trying to get some good links to my site, but I've been failing. I have a few links but they are all irrelevant to my sites content. Can you suggest any good books or?

04/13/09 - Adam said:

I know the feeling Rob. Your site has tons of content and a healthy amount of links. Looks really promising... Two questions?

1) What forums do you follow?

2) Why are you ranked on Purdue web? Go Boilers.

10/15/11 - Kate Mercer said:

Can you help me with an incorrect address and an inability to verify a places page?

10/17/11 - Adam said:

Hi there. Sure, we help customers with Google Places verification every day. You should give us a ring and talk to an Account Manager and they can walk you through the process.

11/03/11 - ilya said:

i previously build a website with a different builder and when i hired somenone else to do the seo ,they said that the ranking is soo low that there is changes need to be done , but the builder refused to do the changes because he has done his job. basically i did a new website with web.com and and the seo as well with them . and we took the domain from the previous website to the new website . basically my question is i wnat my previous website to be on goole as well with a differenet doamin . are you capabel of doing the changes for the website with the seo and the access end that i have a wordpress and filezilla ? can you do the changes for me and put it up on goolge i will buy another domain name if needed.

12/07/11 - erich wynn said:

we have a major internal issue going on right now concerning the google panda update...our website sells architectural plans...we also have our plans on some other publishing sites....we have copied many of their descriptions and pasted them to our site...will the panda update penalize us for this? Erich Wynn Dallas Design Group Architecture

12/08/11 - Adam said:

Hi Erich.

Essentially, YES! Google has decided that repeating content is just not okay. I understand the specific challenge this creates for e-commerce websites because you will have thousands (potentially) of web pages with product information that would be extremely cost prohibitive to re-write yourself. But the reality is that Google sets these rules and has a near-monopoly on organic traffic. So in short, there is nothing we can do about it.

This is one reason more and more e-commerce players are driving toward smaller, niche-focused product offerings. With this approach, they have far few products in their website and therefore can focus on creating unique content that is helpful on the topic they are selling. I suspect that we will see the big e-commerce guys breaking their big sites up into many many little sites for exactly the reason you are describing... Welcome to the post-panda SEO world!

04/01/12 - Josh Philips said:

What you say may be true for big accounts but for tha majority of us, google is the 'we can talk to you anythime, we just don't listen' monalithic entity. Most of us just do NOT matter to them. Take a reality pill friend.

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