In Defence Of Google – Why The Search Giants Still ‘Aren’t Evil’

If you read a lot of tech blogs and particularly SEO blogs, then you might be forgiven for getting the impression that Google really isn’t very popular. It seems that almost everyone is pointing the finger at Google and blaming them for their lack of business, or for the lack of variation on the web. Google for most of us offers the number one way to get visitors to our site and thus get customers for our business. This means that we are pretty much at the beck and call of Google and there’s not a lot we can do about it – which of course puts a lot of noses out of joint.

This is also why we’re completely at Google’s mercy whenever they make some kind of algorithm change that alters the way they crawl and index the web. If we want to stay competitive, then we have no choice but to play ball and make whatever changes Google demands. And if the changes have resulted in your falling down the SERPs from page one to page eight, and your company folds as a result, well then of course you’re probably going to hop onto your blog for a good rant.

But while there are a lot of complaints regarding Google, they’re still the search providers that almost all of us use – so they must be doing something right. Google made a promise a long time ago that they wouldn’t ‘be evil’ and to my mind they are doing just fine at fulfilling that intention. Let me explain why I’m on Google’s side on this one…

It’s Their Prerogative

First of all, Google never asked you to try to get to the top of their SERPs, and it’s not really their fault if you haven’t looked into other ways to accumulate your traffic. Using old fashioned advertising, social networking, mailing lists and more are all still legitimate ways to build a user-base, so Google isn’t your only option. They built their search algorithms so it’s really up to them to do whatever they like with them – and if you don’t like it? Well then you can stick to Bing…

They’re Good at What They Do

Of course most of us don’t want to use Bing, and we can’t get as much traffic from there as we can from Google. Why is that? Because Google is still the best. And even if you look at the recent changes like Panda and Penguin, if you’re going to be completely honest they have further improved the way search works. You hardly ever find a website these days that’s filled with spun content or poorly translated foreign text, and more often than not the first few results are all relevant and useful to your searches. When Google stops providing a great service, then I’m sure someone else will swoop in and take their place.

They Gave Us a Job

More to the point we should be grateful that Google made it possible for so many of us to work online in the first place. Let’s look at this realistically – if it wasn’t for Google (or some equivalent), how many of you would still be able to earn money in the same way as you are now? I’ll put my hand up for one and say that I’d be out of work – so I can hardly be mad if my salary is decreased as a result of their changes. As Google giveth, so Google taketh away…

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This article is submitted by George Kent from PenTech Consulting. They offer a wide range of SEO and web designing services to their clients. You can visit their website to know more about the SEO in CT.