Jonathan Leger – SEO And Internet Marketing Blog Internet Marketing Blog

Google is god (and other nonsense)

I apologize in advance if you find the title of this post offensive, but I can't think of a better way to describe the way some folks seem to view Google these days. This post is to dispel the sheer nonsense of what these people are posting all over the web and to give you a more realistic view of the number one search engine in the world.

First, some background: when I launched The Best Spinner February 1st, I got a few people at the forum who were not customers posting nonsensical drivel that read (basically) like this:

"Spinning your content to make it unique won't work because Google knows everything, sees everything and has prepared for everything. They are smarter than you. You can't possible make a living online by writing and spinning articles because they are too brilliant for you to ever do that."

(Okay, so I exaggerated it a little -- but not as much as you might be thinking I did!)

Now, after posting this hogwash, the posters did not offer some alternative method for succeeding in driving traffic to their own sites. They didn't post any information about their own success with any other method, and certainly gave zero evidence that anything they were saying was true or factual.

In fact, many of my Best Spinner customers and active forum members are very successful article marketers. Clearly what they are doing with spinning and article marketing works well.

I see this all the time.

Internet Marketing forums are littered with worthless drivel from failures and wannabes who for some reason are determined to try and drag everyone else down. They assume that because they have failed at some endeavor, no one else could possibly succeed, and so they go around bashing everyone who offers any information in regards to anything that's working for them.

Now for a more realistic view of Google.

1. Google is run by human beings, not divine entities.

This will come as a shock to the above-mentioned wannabes, but Google is just a piece of software written by lowly human beings. Smart and skilled lowly human beings, but human beings just the same.

That means it has flaws. The fact that it is an incredibly complex piece of software means it contains a very large number of flaws.

Is it good at what it does? Absolutely! Can it read the minds of the people who created the content which it indexes? Um, no.

2. Google boils down to simple equation: content + links = traffic

To rank well in Google, you need two things: Content for it to index and links to make Google think your content is more important than everybody else's. The more links you have to your content, the more important Google thinks your content is and the higher it will rank your content over the competition.

That's a simplistic way of putting it, but that's the basic gist of how Google works. It has always worked that way, and at least for the foreseeable future will continue to work that way.

That's because links are the only external factor that really gives a good indication of the popularity of a web page for any given set of keywords. It's not perfect, and so Google's results are not perfect, but it works generally well most of the time.

3. "If you work to get links to your site you're a fraud and a scammer." (Wrong!)

I've read this a lot. Folks who claim that the only "white hat" (pure) method for getting links is to let other people find your content and link to it on their own.

Okay, here's a question: if you never actively recruit links to your site, how is anyone else ever going to see it in order to add their own links to it? Um, they won't, and your site full of top-notch wonderful "white hat" content will never get indexed or ranked in Google.

Meanwhile, those of us who actively get links to our sites from other sites will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Is it somehow deceptive or wrong to build links in order to rank well? Think about it this way:

Let's say a businessperson creates a stellar product (we'll call it The Perfect Widget). They set up shop down a dirt road off a major highway and never do one ounce of advertising.

Let's say another businessperson creates a pretty good product (we'll call it The Good Widget). The Good Widget is not even close to being as awesome as The Perfect Widget, but the creators of The Good Widget set up shop right off the major highway and put up a massive sign to draw in customers who are traveling down the highway.

The Perfect Widget goes bankrupt and closes down, crying foul at The Good Widget and saying that The Good Widget somehow did something underhanded or wrong because it dared to take active steps to advertise its inferior product -- whereas The Perfect Widget did nothing.

Would you agree with the owners of The Perfect Widget? Of course not. You'd say, "Get off your backside and do some advertising if you want to succeed!"

So to all of the nay-sayers who think that acquiring links to get traffic from the major highway that is Google, I say, "Get off your backside and do some advertising if you want to succeed!"

In Conclusion

Don't listen to the nay-sayers. Don't let losers and wannabes drag you down. Work at your business, work hard, and when you find a little bit of success, explore that method and improve on it. In time you will get where you need to be.

Good rule of thumb: if somebody bashes some method of traffic generation or business building but offers you no alternative, they're a loser or a wannabe. Ignore them.

However, if somebody speaks against one method while offering proof of their point of view and proof that an alternative method works better, pay attention.

Please post your thoughts and questions in a comment below.