I’m an internet marketer, and every once in a while I am amazed at the things other internet marketers say, particularly about Google. They say things like, “This decision Google made appears to only apply to external sites.” Appears to? So you’re saying you don’t know?
Most of the work internet marketers do is an exact science, and not guesswork. When we do things for clients like fix broken links in their site, or make sure that all their webpages are being indexed by Google it is an exact science. The pages either are being indexed, or they’re not. If they’re not we have to fetch them, or work on the page to figure out if they have a noindex tag, or what the issue is. Then, when you throw AdWords into the mix it’s definitely an exact science because you have total control over how often, in what geographic locations, and even in what hours of the day the client’s ads show.
But with Google search sometimes people make it feel like we’re trying to steal the secret recipe of some franchise fried chicken restaurant. Add to the mix that Google is, after all, run by humans who, after all, are imperfect, and this makes the task of mastering this craft seem to some like an incredible acrobatic feat.
The latest marketing issue from Google is the use of their authorship feature. Google authorship gave writers the ability to link their blogs to their Google+ page, and this was to be used as a platform for writers to gain credibility for their work in the search engine. It was also an opportunity for the writer’s picture to be featured alongside the link to his/her post.
It was working fine, and everything was going well for a couple of years, and then rumor has it that some Google authors were selling their strong authorship status to pages that did not have any relevant content, thereby making more users click on links that were irrelevant to their search.
Well… I say let them do it.
You see, just as in a society, if you have the government interfering with business too much the free market suffers. In much the same way, if Google tries too hard to control what people are doing with their authorship, their Google+ pages, or their websites, then it will hinder a lot of people. Let Google authors lend their authorship to whatever website or party they want to, and if it’s irrelevant, then simply lower their authorship score. Don’t take authorship away because some people were abusing it. I’m sure there are already tons of parameters in their current algorithm that penalize authors for such tactics, so let it be.
I think that Google is a wonderful example of the free market at work, but, like so many entities that have risen in power, they start to fear that they will lose their power, and start operating unlike a free market entity, and start becoming more like a rigid police state. I think Google should consider relaxing a bit, and simply allowing people to shoot themselves in the foot if they chose to lend their name to an unrelated cause. In other words, let the free market be free.
Those are my two cents about Google, but regardless of what they throw at us, we have seen great results time and time again from the clients we do work for. Call Infront’s Marketing department to discuss your business marketing needs today.
Matthew is the President of Infront Webworks and is a New England native now calling Colorado Springs home. Matt attended The University of NH where he pursued a BS in Natural Resource Economics & Business Administration. Aside from Infront; Matthew has owned and managed two other online agencies based on the seacoast of New Hampshire and been a key player in multiple technology mergers & acquisitions. When he’s not bathing in technology, online marketing & business; he’s probably spending time with his wife and daughter, boating, skiing the trees, hiking or cooking..he is a foodie for sure!
