Google Is An Advertising Company

The title pretty much says it all. Google is an advertising company. But do people believe it? The difference between Google’s public image (engineers providing free services) and its true business focus (advertising) represents a significant challenge for SEO professionals. It sets up the perception that we’re trying to “game” a noncommercial service when the truth is that we’re trying to put our clients’ best foot forward in a relationship that’s business-driven on both sides – but where one side (webmasters and content providers) generate the value that gives the other (Google) a viable business model at all. So how can a white-hat SEO professional make this clear?

Finding Common Ground with Google . . .

White hat search engine optimization firms and Google have one thing in common: the desire to add value with content. Google’s revenue model is based on piggybacking on content – the better the content, the better Google’s Adwords and Adsense ads convert. If a search term or site turns up spam, users abandon it.

Strategic SEO efforts rely on content too. We want it to be novel, well-written, attractive and clear, all with the agenda of driving visitors to our clients’ goals – sales, information capture, etc. Content-focused SEO doesn’t need to be the enemy of search quality and when it’s done well, it isn’t. Explaining this to clients – and creating content to back it up – is a great way to position SEO professionals as fair players.

. . . and Begging to Differ

Unfortunately, clashes occur when Google and SEO develop different definitions of quality content.  For all of its innovation, Google’s perfect world seems to be rooted in the mid-90s Web: a host of mostly noncommercial, hobby-driven sites where nobody has a profit motive . . . except for Google, who would presumably lace every hobbyhorse site with contextual ads that lead to otherwise-invisible commercial destinations. Google has no interest in anyone seeing your e-commerce store or lead form through organic search, except through them.

Even then, some people might get behind this since it sounds like a user-centric policy – but it isn’t. The Web is a commercial destination by organic intent. Shopping and doing business are core parts of the user experience for everyone. That means commercial content is quality content because people are looking for it. That’s good news for Web-based businesses because it makes them organic search targets . . . which doesn’t make Google as much money as if you got to the same destination by clicking through an ad.

Google can’t directly monkey with commercial sites – that would cause people to lose faith in its search engine – but at times, it goes out of its way to make gaining ground on organic search especially perilous for businesses. This is a double edged sword for SEO. On one hand, it’s one reason why companies need our help, but on the other, it brings out Google’s ugly side.

Google is Not the Internet Police
Consider paid blogging. Google doesn’t want you sell links unless you use the Nofollow tag (which ensures the link passes on no authority or “link juice” to the linked site). Sounds sensible, right? But what if I send free samples to a blogger who likes it and links without “sterilizing” the link? Don’t assume deception – let’s say he comes right out and says he got free stuff. Google may kick that blogger’s search ranking to the curb not because he didn’t follow ethical advertising guidelines (he did) but out of an appeal to some nebulous notion of “quality” – and remember, product reviews are what people really do look for, millions of times a day. Google’s policy doesn’t enforce an ethical stance, doesn’t add value for the user.

It does however close a tactic that works a heck of a lot like Google’s own ads. Google has no interest in promoting that. Why? Google is an advertising company.