If you’ve had your ear to the Internet Marketing ground for the past month or so, you’ve probably heard all about Google’s ranking system change-up, which has come to be known as “Mayday.”
Why “Mayday?” Because it happened in May. And probably also because Internet Marketers by the thousands watched in horror as their thin, janky, horrible sites fell completely out of the Search Engine Results (SERPs), thus costing them untold millions.
Google Cracks Down On Crappy Sites
It seems as though the math wizards at the Google corporate offices finally grew tired of people trying to game the system for their own personal (usually monetary) advantage. Previously, it was almost so simple to land in premium SERP spots that many of the actual quality sites were being squeezed out by these little micro sites that really didn’t provide any information other than half-assed, rewritten spam.
I can’t say as I blame the company at all. Google is, after all, a business. And its business model relies entirely on people using its search engine. If that engine doesn’t provide the searcher what he or she wants, that person could go somewhere else, such as Yahoo or MSN (Bing). And if that happens, the advertisers will bail too, as there’s no point in throwing ads in front of a small, insignificant audience.
And as a person who uses the Net for things other than making money, I’m stoked that I can actually start getting real information again, not a bunch of spun PLR articles or autoblog crap.
Internet Marketers = Crybabies
If there’s one thing I’m sick of reading about in the forums and even on some of the big name SEO blogs it’s the complaining. These folks are upset because the dungeon master decided not to allow cheating any more. Okay, perhaps “Cheating” is a bit harsh, but the point is that the little tips and tricks that allowed Internet Marketers to sidestep the natural SEO process stopped working.
And they’re sad.
My advice: Don’t cry about it, go out there and figure something out! I’ve always been a big advocate of authority sites over the little Adsense sites (though admittedly, I had a handful of the latter that did bring in a decent amount of change every month), and it seems that Mayday proves that Google is, too.
So instead of bawling about how the system isn’t working for them anymore, they should be out trying to figure out what does work. Test different ideas, try new strategies… but for God’s sake either learn to roll with the punches or get out of the ring.
Holy cow, I’m getting a bit worked up. Breath… Breath… All better!
Collateral Damage
Anytime a search engine institutes a major change, as was the case with Mayday, there’s bound to be some innocent bystander sites that get the raw end of the deal. I’ve had a couple of those. Granted they’re not booted entirely out of the SERPs (deindexed), but they did take a big hit. And these are sites that have lots and lots of quality, well-written original pages/posts.
And I’ve got some that actually improved in the rankings.
When you drop an atomic bomb on the SEO system, you’re bound to get a bunch of innocent bystanders caught up in the action, too. Like some of my sites. But I’m pretty convinced that as long as I keep working on them, they’ll re-emerge as the Big G realizes the error. Hopefully. But if not, I suppose it was a small price to pay for a much more effective Internet experience.
What Do You Think?
Has Mayday affected your bottom line? Are you stoked/upset about the recent changes? You’ve heard my take, but I’d love to hear how you feel.
Tags: Mayday
Reply