Does Google really hate SEO’s

I have read a couple of articles recently, some directly saying that Google hates SEO’s others being more stealthy. However during a recent post by John Andrews (www.johnon.com), called ‘Can Google kill off SEO’. In the article John Andrews states

“We all know Google hates SEO. They used to express it openly, before they were a BigPublicCompany. Then they branded it, with the ‘black hat’ references. Now they are quiet about openly opposing SEO, although with each new “advance” of the Google ‘algorithm’ they try and kill off what is commonly understood to be Search Engine Optimization (SEO). They do it by trying to make it irrelevant, or at least trying to make it appear that way. They do it by taking away the signals that suggest a need for SEO, one at a time.”

John does go on to make a good point for why change within Google is good for SEO’s in particular, and how in particular only a complete change in direction would significantly affect SEO activity.

However the question he raises regarding Google hating SEO’s is a good one. Surely not …

Well in my humble opinion, no. What is the point behind Google hating SEO’s. Sure make life difficult for people trying to manipulate the search engine results, but in terms of hating an industry, I would have to draw a line short of that (although perhaps some of our less industrious spam-friendly friends may need their wings clipping somewhat).

To be brutally honest, I can see no reason for Google to hate SEO’s. SEO’s I would suggest are one of the reasons, search engines are as effective are. Us Search Engine marketeers at the end of the day, want our campaigns to work, and may marketeers such as E-Gain, rely heavily on ROI focussed service. For this reason, all aspects of the marketing mix have to be working in synergy, and thus relevance and targeting are fundamental aspects of all our campaigns. Essentially, this is what Google wants - good quality, relevant results.

Google have also provided a wealth of tools, aimed at providing marketeers and potential marketeers with sufficient information to promote their sites - whether it be guidelines, webmaster tools, API access or blogs. Surely such activity is not a case of trying to minimise the effect of would be search engine marketeers.

Above all, most search engine marketing agencies don’t just offer SEO, they offer paid search as well. If you annoy the agencies but attacking SEO, surely you run the risk of affecting paid search spend as well. Google and Yahoo work very closely with agencies as regards their paid search campaigns, and as such any more to alienate the SEO industry, would surely have an effect from a paid search as well. Too much of a risk I would have thought from a company like Google.

At the end of the day, I think it comes down to one thing. What commercial benefits would there be to doing so? If Google was seen to be impartial at the end of the day, I would suggest it would go the same way as Altavista and Yahoo before it

1 comment August 8th, 2007