Last week I shared items one through five of The Ten Ways That Google Is Like God (see it here). Contrary to my fears, I did not receive a single death threat – not even a tongue-lashing from my parish priest! Not taking my free speech for granted, here are the next five ways that Google appears and acts God-like in the Internet cosmos.
You shall have no other search engines before me.
This could also be titled “You cannot serve two masters” – and why would you? Google delivers around 55 percent of all the search results in the US. The next closest competitor cannot even boast 10 percent (that’s Yahoo! with around 9 percent). Based on the numbers, there is no reason to seek the favor of any other search engine. Even if you could “game” another search engine and get top ranking with them, it’s inevitable that the search engine would eventually plug the hole and you’ll find yourself with no organic search traffic having spurned Google for a fleeting moment in the favor of another search engine.
Google’s ways are above our ways.
We already touched on the near-omniscience of Google in my last post. This item is more about how Google’s ways are above our ways in the benefit Google desires to bestow on everyone – not just you. While you may want your website to reach the top, Google wants the most useful website to reach the top. So the message here is to quit looking out only for your own interests and start looking out for the interests of others. In other words, lighten up on the sales pitch and start being useful. Google loves the joyful giver!
Thou shall not steal (even from yourself).
We’re not just talking about copyright infringement here (which is an obvious no-no) we’re also talking about the often misunderstood issue of duplicate content. While Google doesn’t seem to penalize duplicate content, it certainly doesn’t reward those pages overloaded with duplicate or near-duplicate content. Sometimes “stealing” content from another web page is unavoidable (Google has built an empire doing just that!). The more you can mix it up on your website, the more you’ll keep the face of Google smiling down upon you.
Google is merciful to the repentant.
Okay, you’ve messed up – we all make mistakes. You now realize that your website is nowhere to be found in the book of Internet life, Google. What do you do? I think you know. It’s time to own up to your wayward past and come clean. To explain the process, a messenger from Google named Maria (really?) points the way to getting right with Google in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntJhrM7CU5I
Google is Google.
A good rule of thumb for happiness in this world and the next is to interact with everything according to its nature. Don’t use your iPhone as a hockey puck and don’t forget that Google is a business (not a divine entity) that relies on revenues generated by delivering content according to the user’s expectation. So put aside the idea that Google is your personal Mount Everest and start treating Google as your partner in delivering great content to people who will gladly partner with you if you provide the best content regarding your field of interest.
As you continue down the pathway of search engine optimization, I hope you keep these ten points in mind. They are a sure way to attain your final destination of heavenly rankings and peace with Google.
