Is Google Ready To Implode?
While everyone is talking about the threat that Facebook could be to Google, one article caught my attention that has analyzed whether or not Google could be its own undoing. This is not a new theory, of course. Every time Google makes a major change to its search results, people (many of them from the SEO field) start to make noises about how they are slowly killing off their own golden egg.
The trouble is, people have been making that claim since day one. In the meantime, Google has just grown bigger and bigger. I do agree with the article’s point of view when it comes to changes. Google has made a lot of changes lately, and it seems that Google is really placing its faith in local search. That’s fine at this time of year. Everyone is in the process of preparing for the Christmas – New Year season. This means food, parties and of course Christmas gifts.
What about after the holiday season? Will local search still be as necessary? If you do a search for almost anything at present, the results are often dominated by local search and images – too bad if you are doing a research assignment. Where Google has made improvements that may help is in its Google Instant and relevant search areas. Whether a user’s history will be sufficient to help fine tune search results is yet to be fully tested.
It is hard to imagine the Internet without a dominant Google, yet to many people, that is exactly where we are headed. I have my doubts. Google has weathered many storms over the years and only continued to grow. They are making it harder for SEOs to do their job, but search engine optimization is still delivering results despite the changes being made. Is Google ready to implode? Not yet – there’s still plenty of kick in the old girl.
Stop The Google Local Hijacking
There is a florist in New Zealand performing community penance for hijacking the Google Local listings of her competitors. I rather think she should get jail time, but that’s an aside.
If you have a local small business and you want to start marketing your business online but don’t know where to start, Google Local is the perfect place. You don’t even need a website. But if you don’t claim your business on Google Local then someone else just may do it for you and take any traffic or business that you might have received had you done it.
While this is considered criminal, consider that it could happen from someone in another country hijacking your business listing. If that happens then you may never see justice.
It’s best to prevent it from happening before you see your business in a compromised situation. Claim your business on Google Local, Yahoo!, Bing and Ask.com. It’s free and it will save you a ton of headaches.
The Ultimate Competitive Intelligence
Here’s a woman who clearly has a competitive advantage.
What should you do if you find yourself in this man’s position, where your ex-spouse is now your business competitor and knows the inner workings of your business? I think fake reviews is the least of this guy’s problems. He needs to combat her built-in competitive intelligence advantage.
With Google Local’s recent changes in how it will allow local businesses to list themselves, this man may not have much of a choice, but if possible he could realign his business so that his ex-wife doesn’t have inside knowledge on his operations. Otherwise, he may lose the competitive intelligence war.