People have been losing their mind over changes in Google’s SERPs lately.
And Google has sort of caved and is testing alternative designs.
Where it gets interesting is that people are suggesting we move away from Google and onto other search engines.
I saw a suggestion for DuckDuckGo, Ecosia and Startpage as alternatives.
But I did a search and found that they’re no better (or worse) than Google in blurring the lines between paid and organic listings.
Here’s my tweet:
A lot of fuss lately about Google’s SERP design change to pretty much blur the lines between paid and organic listings.
But here’s screenshots from DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Startpage and Google for the same query.
Decide for yourself if it’s just Google that’s messing with us. pic.twitter.com/FlfStSKfa8
— Jaaved Khatree (@jaaved) January 25, 2020
You can make up your mind about what this looks like to you.
My take is this: Google is all about the money and always has been.
This is them fully utilising their status to turn the screws even more.
And because Google has led the way for so long, everyone else has just been following suit.
I mean, look at these other search engines. They’re practically copies of Google.
You can’t tell me they’re any different.
Oh you don’t track me? You respect my privacy? Big whoop. People care a lot less about this than we want to admit.
If people genuinely cared, no one would use Facebook anymore.
So here’s the long and the short: Google doesn’t care about any of us as long as we give them enough money.
These changes to SERPs are only geared towards making more money for Google.
And the best thing you can do is forget about it.
Continue working on your website, making sure it loads fast and works well on any device.
And keep making sure your website is answering questions, helping people out and being the best source of information anywhere on the internet.
I’ve done about 10 website audits this past week and here’s what each site had in common:
1. all were very slow to load
2. most had terrible meta data that wasn’t doing anything productive
3. most had content that lacked context, relevance and a call to action – it was just fluff
If your site has any of the above, tell me: is Google’s SERP change going to make a difference to your bottom line?
No.
So stop worrying about how Google is making money.
Worry about how YOU are going to make more money.
Fix your website up and make it the best thing ever.
Ignore your distractions.
Focus on you.
Stack your bars.
Let’s get it!
