Google now offers song lyrics shown on the top of search results. While this is a good thing for users, this is a death-knell for websites that offer the same content.
In addition to displaying an excerpt of lyrics, Google directs users to Google Play to read the full lyrics. On that landing page, users can read the lyrics, play the song (subscription required) or to purchase the song through their Google account. They’re closely watching how lyric searches perform in search as identified by their Google Analytics campaign tags in the URL.
… utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics
What will this mean for content producers?
Largely, lyrics websites’ organic traffic will plummet. This isn’t a problem because of Google. This is a problem for them because the website didn’t offer unique value to visitors. And let’s be honest, lyrics are copied and pasted from other websites — at best, we can call them “curators.”
Content producers need to work twice as hard to attract and retain the traffic on their website. They need not only offer a quality product, but need to offer proprietary features that encourages people to endure obstacles to get to it.
Isn’t it unfair that Google just neutered an industry?
I don’t think so. Google has to listen and serve users who search. If search engine rankings and penalties (like Penguin and Panda) can’t help a user reach their goal, why not help?
I do share a concern about the real estate and amount of lyrics offered immediately. But, not enough for me to find Google at fault for killing an industry. Google has an obligation users who use the service 3.2 billion times per day
The industry killed itself. If your only value is to copy and paste other lyrics, you don’t deserve that traffic. The ad-laden websites are usually shady advertisers anyway, so it’s a poor user experience.
Where it gets questionable is when Google tactfully inserts sponsored Shopping results when users are looking for the best price for products. At a minimum, they disclose the nature of these recommendations, but we all know how likely it is that users will read those disclosures.
What lesson is there to learn from this?
While Genius (formerly, Rap Genius) is no angel in the eyes of the Google Web Spam team, they corrected their questionable SEO tactics. Earlier this year, Google took action against them for backlink abuse among other things.
Unlike the myriad of other lyrics websites, Genius’ unique value is the community of users, collaboration with artists and clean user interface. They’ve also pivoted towards curating other topics beyond music lyrics.
When I visit Genius, I am not looking for only lyrics, but often translations of various phrases used in music. Genius gives me that in a way that Google couldn’t ever replicate.
So, if you offer content on the web, do so it in a way that significantly adds to the user experience, builds loyalty and ensure that the product itself can’t be duplicated by others.
