Google's Supposed "Filter", Yahoo Dumping Google results
I have read many forums and newsletters regarding the new Google "algo" and the search results becoming almost hostile against commercial web sites. Google's short denials and hush-hush attitude only lead me and many others to believe that they are "manipulating" or "filtering" search results so as to force commercial sites to advertise. So many vast keywords for commonly searched and popular topics are filled with results to directories or informational sites only. Hence, the commercial sites better fork out the big $ for an adwords campaign or be forced to write off Google almost completely or indefinitely as a source for customers/traffic. Although google's adwords are not extremely expensive for my keywords which is "phone sex", there are at least 20 other sites advertising and many of the sites never had to pay for adwords before because they were top of the results for years and I have to admit their sites deserved to be (mine never was in the top 30) because they are professional and have excellent reputations and their sites are geared for the surfer. However, there are many extremely popular keywords where commercial sites are having to pay Google a pretty penny to get traffic whereas that was not the case before. Just take a lot at keywords such as "porn" or "mature porn" and you will see sites are paying out of the wazoo (meaning tons of cash LOL). Even mainstream sites are extremely hurt such as real estate and poor mom and pop sites that are honest and are being considered as collateral damage I suppose. My personal conclusion is that I agree with the manipulation theory and "filtering", and because I used to use google to find sites to purchase items from on their search engine in the past, I couldn't find what I needed anymore and now I refuse to use Google.
Now the even bigger news, and perhaps good news at least for now. Yahoo must have picked up on the negative response to the new Google results and decided to dump Google's search and use their own indexing bot and gather a truly Yahoo search engine. Their results are the way Google "used to be", showing relevant commercial results as well as throwing in informational web sites in the top 50 or so results. That is much more convenient for the surfer, considering I purchase as well as run a web site I can tell you that in the past week I've used Yahoo to find what I needed and found it easily and purchased what I needed. On Google, it would be scrolling through the first 400 results before finding a site to purchase what I needed. As far as my own personal web site, traffic from Yahoo has almost tripled since they dropped Google's results.
And from Google? I get a few visits but much less than previous and for strange 4 or 5 word combinations only.
My advice? Optimize for Yahoo! After doing so my traffic has increased substantially and it has also won my loyal "start page" for internet explorer as the place to go to find what you need! As for Google, perhaps they will see the malicious error of their ways and fix it before consumers as well as web site operators take their business to Yahoo simply because it's a FAIR search engine for all. For Google, I would recommend just waiting around to see if things change but I wouldn't hold my breath and if you feel compelled, Adwords is the only thing that works but that's like feeding their ego and giving them what they want. Go for Yahoo optimization now! They are impartial and fair, no "FORCING" commercial sites to purchase directory listing. Although, now that they have taken a stand against Google's highly questionable search tactics and are showing both commercial AND informational sites the way it should be, I will probably be purchasing a Yahoo directory listing from them because they are earning business the honest way.
Has my web site/business been hurt by the Google search change? Somewhat. I'm still getting customers and conversions just not as many inquiries but my profit margin somehow miraculously is still about the same. Perhaps it's due to the increase in traffic from Yahoo, or faithful customers who bookmark or directly type-in my site and visit over and over again, or it could be because I recently revamped my site and designed it to be easy to navigate for the surfers as well as some "eye candy" (i.e. sexy pictures and animated graphics that are pleasing to the eye *WINK*) and have it looking better than ever.
Whatever conclusion one comes to about whether google is filtering commercial results are not, one thing is for sure. Whether intended or unintended (leaning toward the intended), it is no longer the place to go to find what you are looking for unless what you are looking for is informational resources. It's almost got a Northernlight circa 1999 feel to it. For example, I was running a search for "real estate Austin" and the results were so strange and not helpful considering I was contemplating getting a place out there and I was not interested in real estate laws and lingo. Same search on yahoo, you find what you need. Period.
Good luck everyone and perhaps the Google switch is not a permanent thing however it is looking that way. Perhaps directory submissions and
link list submissions are the way to go for now to get traffic from Google considering they seem to be atop the results for most adult-oriented keywords. Run a search for your keywords and if there are directories and link lists atop the results, submit submit submit!
The adult industry is highly competitive and there are MILLIONS of competitors out there. Keep your site as spam-free and gimmick-free as possible and despite what the search engines are doing I can bet your surfers will keep coming back.
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