South Carolina, USA
Today, it looks like the chickens may just be coming home to roost for Google.
The Big G is alive and well……still largely well as of this publish date. Empires continue to be empires for quite a while.
But every empire eventually reaches a turning point when their seemingly unlimited power begins to dissolve into an illusion.
Google hit that point today.
For the past decade of owning my blog, I have been guiding bloggers to never rely on Google as a prime traffic source for any number of reasons. I cannot lie and say I saw this as the prime reason to avoid worshiping Google and making it the only traffic traffic source but I did understand quite clearly as does anyone with open eyes that they have been up to some shenanigans for a very long time.
The main problem with those shenanigans is that the absurd amounts of money and traffic generated by this behemoth for themselves and all bloggers ranking on page 1 is in part due to the practices that made the company a monopoly.
Today’s news means that perhaps the current gravy train will slow down a little bit based on an altered perception.
When the strategy changes the income and traffic drops either substantially or less dramatically but you damn well better believe that bloggers will lose some traffic and some income until Google figures out what to do next. Perception matters. Invincible monopolies appear quite differently as fallible ventures whose spotlighted competitive practices remind consumers: we have a choice.
One of the richest men in the world along with other titans are beginning to file massive lawsuits against the Big G. Google certainly has money and lawyers to spare but anybody willing to take off the blinders will quickly understand that Google traffic and Google income on demand, from a seeming unlimited tap, will dwindle on some level.
Of course your Google traffic and income will lessen because of the massive perception shift that occurred today. But on a deeper level, if their secret sauce becomes illegal or highly regulated then of course your traffic is going to drop even more as will your income until they decide to do things on the up and up.
Who knows if and when that day will come.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, I lead off this post with the explicit idea that ranking on page one of Google will still net you traffic and income. But now you understand damn well why my unorthodox Google strategy of looking way past the Big G and focusing on your own real estate as the prime source of traffic is intelligent, effective and efficient.
I hate to say I told you so……. But I told you so for the past decade of Blogging From Paradise.
Forget about my personal opinion on dependable blog traffic sources.
The Google news needs to be a wake up call for all bloggers who back burner their blogs and worship traffic sources outside of the sites they actually own, run and where they set the rules.
Why did I instantly fire up my blog and log into the back office to write this post? I put content on my blog first and foremost. I own it. I set the rules. My blog is the traffic driver. Sure I publish content off site but my blog always takes precedence because success is in ownership.
Run everything through your blog. Build it up. Make your blog the priority. Publish long form content to solve your targeted reader’s problems. Build your online real estate first and foremost in order to do things intelligently, effectively and successfully.
As for Google, you could either panic based on the news or develop posture and build your blog up. Consider social media, guest blogging and genuine blog commenting as ways to share value which drives people from off-site sources to your blog.
Publish offsite content to bridge the gap between your blog and the outside world. But make your blog A1 as far as being the traffic source which builds your targeted traffic and blogging income.
Everything ultimately begins and ends with your blog since you are a blogger and not a Google traffic driver.
I’m not going to lie. Google and their tactics benefited me as a user or consumer for many years. My blog also draws thousands of organic visits through Google every month even though I could care less about this traffic source. I’m not hating on the big G. But I am warning you and have been warning you for a very long time about the perils of depending on one traffic source, and a seemingly fickle traffic source based on the many algorithm changes we’ve seen over the years.
I also had a sneaking suspicion that the chickens would eventually come home to roost. For those not familiar with this phrase, it basically means that when you do less than honest, underhanded stuff at an incredible level of scale that you will eventually run into trouble and the gravy train will not so much stop but slow down significantly. Basically, when your power, influence and fortune is based on methods that could be considered to be highly unethical, immoral and toeing the legal line, eventually some of these tactics will be deemed illegal and with that goes the massive fortune, influence and power.
Google will still have a lot of juice but going forward from today you better believe it’s never going to be what it was.
The only way Google will disprove my opinion is by doing things from the highest energy, most truly helpful, borderline altruistic approach which is virtually impossible in a world run by greed as you work your way higher up the food chain.
The more you build your blog into a beacon of a resource in your niche, the more organic traffic and passive blogging income will flow to you.
Focus on that and consider putting Google a bit more in your rear view window.