Appeasing the Great God Google
Once upon a time there was a small travel business which became quite popular and made a modest amount of money. This was back in the days of old when the Great God Google (GGG), who oversees our online life, wasn’t too discriminating about how you came to be noticed and acknowledged by Him. (I use the pronoun out of convenience — GGG could well be female.) But with ever more disciples vying for his attention, GGG got picky and decided that only true homage was allowed and punished those who sought to buy his favours (or links). Hence the small travel company was banished over night, never to be found on the first, second or even third page of the GGG testament pages.
As it happened, the owner of the travel company had decided already that the rewards were too modest for the effort and had another bright idea. Online shopping! Huge market and GGG loves shops! Just look at Amazon and Etsy etc! This would be a delightful gift shop full of lovely things that people would really like to buy for their friends and family.
This time it would be done right. The SEO Book of Words would be followed to the letter! A High Priest was consulted (DM professional) who dispensed the words of wisdom from the GGG.
Lesson 1: Thou shalt populate the shop with keywords that are relevant to the products and the customer. However, ‘tagging’ is not allowed. GGG knows these are aimed at Him and not at Real People (RP). You must talk directly to RPs in proper English.
So the shop owner duly bought lots of lovely things and wrote reams about them and who might like to buy them so that her lucky customers might find her lovely products.
‘Ah’, said the HP,’you have too much duplication. GGG thinks you are trying to out-fox Him with repetition’. ‘But’, says The Owner, ‘ a lot of the products are very similar. They are just different designs, so it is reasonable that the descriptions will be similar’. ‘No matter, thou must find new ways to describe them or GGG will punish you!’
So she racked her brains and wrote more and at last was satisfied that her offering was as good as she could get it. And she waited…..but no-one came and the GGG gave her site no attention .
Lesson 2: Thou shalt build good links
‘You still need links’, said the HP. ‘The more links you have the higher GGG will rank you. However they must be from RPs who genuinely like your website. You must befriend them and get them to spread the Word. When GGG sees that you are truly popular then he will reward you by increasing your ranking and then even more people will find you and they will tell others and soon the World will be yours! ‘
So the Owner set about befriending RPs online. She joined communities, wrote articles, followed people on Social Media, sent some nice people some of her lovely products to review, set up some competitions for people to win some more of her lovely products…….and not once did she buy links or even pay a sou out so that GGG couldn’t say she was cheating.
And her SEO ranking grew and she was happy…….
But then, her ranking started to fall again, and it fell and fell until it was lower than when she started.
‘What have I done wrong?’ Asked the Owner in despair. ‘You have BAD LINKS’, said the HP. ‘But how can they be bad?’ asked the owner. ‘I have done everything you told me and still the GGG looks unfavourably on me.’
It transpires that some of those lovely people, who truly liked the Owner and her website, were spreading the word in a way GGG did not approve. They were including adverts in their web pages without using ‘No Follow’ links. So GGG assumed it was a paid for advert and of course thou shalt not short cut the process by paying for attention, unless of course it is GGG who you are paying!
What now?
Having wallowed in despair for a while, the Owner (moi) is starting again…….
If you have a similar story to tell I would love to hear from you. It would at least make me feel that I am not alone!
Any hints and tips from RPs gratefully received, but no HPs please — I have one of those already.
Kate Findlay
(of course this article is in itself a ploy to appease GGG….)
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