[Ann Smarty]

There's one argument that's bugging me in Google penalties dilemma.

A small business can easily go bankrupt after Google takes away their traffic and the newer-emerged pesky argument from some beloved experts in our industry is "Blame yourself: If you relied on Google only for traffic, you were doing it wrong in the first place. Google is not the Internet blah blah blah.."

Now, I understand and even advocate "Don't rely on any one source of traffic / leads" strategy. But let's face it: when Google traffic comes, it somehow monopolizes your traffic sources: I know many business owners who actually started growing their teams when Google traffic started increasing. It's easy to become dependent on it and, let's face it, it's among the best converting sources as well.

Now, how much do you depend on Google traffic and are you trying to get independent?

[Test-ok]

I suppose it's how you look at it. If you can get a site ranking well in Google, thats the time to get customers/clients/sales to move away from finding you through search results...The word repeat business comes to mind...then your not depending on what google is sending you, if your products/services are outstanding you won't need to depend on page 1 results, not saying it wouldn't add to your business profile, but get it while you can and make them all count going forward. Google's a good launch pad.

[KernelPanic]

Originally Posted by Ann Smarty

There's one argument that's bugging me in Google penalties dilemma.

A small business can easily go bankrupt after Google takes away their traffic and the newer-emerged pesky argument from some beloved experts in our industry is "Blame yourself: If you relied on Google only for traffic, you were doing it wrong in the first place. Google is not the Internet blah blah blah.."

Now, I understand and even advocate "Don't rely on any one source of traffic / leads" strategy. But let's face it: when Google traffic comes, it somehow monopolizes your traffic sources: I know many business owners who actually started growing their teams when Google traffic started increasing. It's easy to become dependent on it and, let's face it, it's among the best converting sources as well.

Now, how much do you depend on Google traffic and are you trying to get independent?

That's a really good question Ann. I am one of the ones who say "if you rely 100% on a Google rank to maintain your business you will someday be sorry". You make a great point though; if the business is coming in through Google you can either expand to meet the demand or turn away the work because you don't want to become reliant on Google. Seriously, who is going to turn away the work? Few will, but if you lose the rank what are you going to do with a larger office space and the people hired to meet the demand?

My advice is to invest in other methods of gaining new business while you're in high cotton. Hire a business development professional and experiment with traditional advertising.

[LittleG]

"Blame yourself: If you relied on Google only for traffic, you were doing it wrong in the first place. Google is not the Internet blah blah blah..

Yes, typically (although not exclusively) this comment comes from people trying to take the high-ground when we all know that the majority of such comments are coming out of the mouths of people that don't have a clue about online business, or where the generation of revenue is not exclusively dependent on such a Google dependency. Or it comes from people that believe MC really cares about their business. Anyone doing online business should be systematically R&Ding a new type of traffic source monthly to sub-out the eventuality.

Once one of leading ecommerce shops has managed to get every single business to signup to their PPC platform where it appears to be a requirement to enter the SKU of products (why!), do you think they will kill their marketplace overnight just making sure that the 2.5 million price changes are now possible knowing that they will be undercutting the whole online market.

However, what is healthy it to take the approach:
Let's assume there is no more free traffic and it's all going to cost me money, and that I depend on online revenues exclusively for my business, what do I need to do to survive...is survival possible? Perhaps I should close and become a carpenter, at least I still have my tools if there is a powercut.

LittleG.

[Ann Smarty]

I got inspired by this thread and blogged this: http://www.seosmarty.com/documenting...oogle-penalty/
It's very personal but I would LOVE to know your thoughts

Edit: Also I just noticed I have "Let's face it" twice in my initial post here I fond it somehow funny

[Ldylarke]

While I'm not making gads of money off any of my sites, I do note that the majority of traffic does come from Google. So that kind of makes me angry. Angry because Google has a monopoly - which means that if I want to continue getting their market share, I have to play their games and by their rules.

In Canada, Google absolutely has the largest market share of use and traffic.

Since this need to NOT want to have to rely on Google is fairly new to me, I'm still at a loss on what to do about it. Though, on one of my sites I've already stated my anti-Google trust declaration by using a "I don't support Google" (I nofollow Google) badge in my side bar.

[Contra]

Pretty much the only customers that I get that didn't come from Google to my website are customers who found me on listings like Superpages, and they found those listings thru Google.

I have a very limited advertising budget, I can't even afford to go full in for SEO. So I can't be spreading money around to all kinds of different things. Everyone says the internet is the best way to advertise and even little old ladies are using it now instead of the phone book, so I put all my eggs in one basket.

[LittleG]

Great blog post Ann, just bin it and start again like many other webmasters.

Links are just as important as they ever were, just make sure Google can't detect them!

[Doodled]

I am very much a "don't rely on one source for your business" person. But I don't see why you have to turn away business to concentrate on finding other sources.

Every business, online or offline, should take time out to consider its marketing strategy and make sure it has multiple routes to market so I don't buy people who ignore the above piece of advice. It takes less than a day, especially with the help of an experienced online marketer, to identify large numbers of opportunities that could or do produce positive ROI.

BTW: In your blog you think MBG won't recover. I'm not so certain. The vast number of legit links it has now accumulated because of the "scandal" may end up tipping a scale.....

[Ann Smarty]

Originally Posted by Doodled

BTW: In your blog you think MBG won't recover. I'm not so certain. The vast number of legit links it has now accumulated because of the "scandal" may end up tipping a scale.....

It may recover if I tried to recover it but I won't
I don't believe its backlinks have anything to do with the penalty in the first place

[Doodled]

Originally Posted by Ann Smarty

It may recover if I tried to recover it but I won't
I don't believe its backlinks have anything to do with the penalty in the first place

... and Mr Cutts may just allow it to recover in order to prove you wrong!!!! He seems to like doing that.

[Grizzler]

Like your blog post, very personal but hits the nail. It could happen at any time for anyone whether by accident or through purpose. I cannot imagine how intense the three stages you had gone through must have been, but i bet (no doubt) they were high. I also like your quote in the conclusion, will make you stronger without a doubt and if i took anything away from reading it, that was it.

Enough of my jibber jabber... just a good luck from me.

[Feydakin]

Originally Posted by Ann Smarty

There's one argument that's bugging me in Google penalties dilemma.

A small business can easily go bankrupt after Google takes away their traffic and the newer-emerged pesky argument from some beloved experts in our industry is "Blame yourself: If you relied on Google only for traffic, you were doing it wrong in the first place. Google is not the Internet blah blah blah.."

Now, I understand and even advocate "Don't rely on any one source of traffic / leads" strategy. But let's face it: when Google traffic comes, it somehow monopolizes your traffic sources: I know many business owners who actually started growing their teams when Google traffic started increasing. It's easy to become dependent on it and, let's face it, it's among the best converting sources as well.

Now, how much do you depend on Google traffic and are you trying to get independent?

Some of us have been saying never rely on a single source of traffic / revenue / customers / business for decades. Far longer than there has has been a world wide web. Google and search does not change that statement. If anything it makes it even more important than ever. Yes, it is very easy to get lured in to the easy like of "free traffic" from search engines, but any time any business relies on a single source for anything, customers or product, you leave a massive hole in your business simply waiting to show up and ruin everything.

But, this is not a new thing. It has been a common business killer for as long as there have been businesses. The real issue is that there are more business owners now than at any time in the history of the modern world. And, unfortunately, most of them don't know enough about running a business to be successful over the long haul.

[faktorbiz]

If You got penalized - traffic could be decreased almost to 0 and yes, that's a huge problem. If Google will disappear - that's not a problem because there're more search engines.
You could use content marketing on Your blog/company website and don't afraid of penalties. Just write. All You need is Your time.

[Contra]

Originally Posted by faktorbiz

You could use content marketing on Your blog/company website and don't afraid of penalties. Just write. All You need is Your time.

I still want to know how to do that.

When your pipe breaks and your house is flooding, how much content are you looking to read? None, right? You want a plumber and you want one that knows how to plumb, not one who knows how to write blogs with "excellent content".