Lay Off the SEO Google Juice – Or Get an Ear Full of Cider

Its Time to Lay Off the SEO Google Juice

The next time you’re thinking of trying to out-smart Google remember the words of the great Sky Masterson:

“My daddy told me, ‘Son, someday a guy is going to walk up to you with a deck of cards on which the seal has not yet been broken. And he is going to offer to wager you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this deck and squirt cider in your ear. But son, you will not take this bet, for as sure as you do, you will wind up with an ear full of cider.’”

This quote came to mind when I was thinking about Google’s search results, of all things. Thanks to Google’s reputation and its clean, spare design those results always appear so objective. The pages are populated with organic rankings which live side-by-side with paid advertising, magically separated by invisible layers of technology. It is vital for Google to preserve the appearance and reality of this separation. If the integrity of organic search as the pure function of its objective search algorithm ever has reason to be questioned then the company is sunk.

In order to keep the search results “pure” the company has initiated broad changes that have effected many results. One of those results called into question the rankings achieved by JC Penney. They were so suspect that some expected Google to drop the hammer. However, if Google were to penalize Penney for actions taken to achieve these results, it would have to do so manually. Basically, Google would just decide where Penney will appear in search results.

Unfortunately doing this would invite regulations and fines from EU regulators. They will ask – quite reasonably – if Google’s rankings are objective and driven by an algorithm, then why do high-visibility penalties have to be assigned by a manual process? What other business choices are being made invisibly by hand. Google will now move heaven and earth to automatically assign Penney, and other corporate “SEO leaders”, to whatever page it deserves to be on?

Prepare for screams from many more businesses that rely on organic search and have tried to do improve their rankings with various tricks. However, screaming is about all they can do: There is no higher court of appeal when Google reorganiz

Its Time to Lay Off the SEO Google Juice

The next time you’re thinking of trying to out-smart Google remember the words of the great Sky Masterson:

“My daddy told me, ‘Son, someday a guy is going to walk up to you with a deck of cards on which the seal has not yet been broken. And he is going to offer to wager you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this deck and squirt cider in your ear. But son, you will not take this bet, for as sure as you do, you will wind up with an ear full of cider.’”

This quote came to mind when I was thinking about Google’s search results, of all things. Thanks to Google’s reputation and its clean, spare design those results always appear so objective. The pages are populated with organic rankings which live side-by-side with paid advertising, magically separated by invisible layers of technology. It is vital for Google to preserve the appearance and reality of this separation. If the integrity of organic search as the pure function of its objective search algorithm ever has reason to be questioned then the company is sunk.

In order to keep the search results “pure” the company has initiated broad changes  that have effected many results. One of those results called into question the rankings achieved by JC Penney. They were so suspect that some expected Google to drop the hammer. However, if Google were to penalize Penney for actions taken to achieve these results, it would have to do so manually. Basically, Google would just decide where Penney will appear in search results.

Unfortunately doing this would invite regulations and fines from EU regulators. They will ask – quite reasonably – if Google’s rankings are objective and driven by an algorithm,  then why do high-visibility penalties have to be assigned by a manual process? What other business choices are being made invisibly by hand. Google will now move heaven and earth to automatically assign Penney, and other corporate “SEO leaders”, to whatever page it deserves to be on?

Prepare for screams from many more businesses that rely on organic search and have tried to do improve their rankings with various tricks. However, screaming is about all they can do: There is no higher court of appeal when Google reorganizes. No amount of lawyers or PR gets one back from the 6^th page of search results hell. (All is not lost, though. Based on my personal experience, I can tell you that time and a good relationship with a Google rep can work wonders.)

So, its time for firms to lay off tricks that generate SEO Google Juice . JC Penney took a risk that paid off for a time, and now it as a reputational bill to pay with Google.  This should be a surprise.

Other firms would now do well to learn from this lesson and stay away from the people who make promises about the jack of spades squirting cider. When all is said and done, they are never the ones who have to clean up the wet ears, or pay reputational debts.

es. No amount of lawyers or PR gets one back from the 6^th page of search results hell. (All is not lost, though. Based on my personal experience, I can tell you that time and a good relationship with a Google rep can work wonders.)

So, its time for firms to lay off tricks that generate SEO Google Juice . JC Penney took a risk that paid off for a time, and now it as a reputational bill to pay with Google. This should be a surprise.

Other firms would now do well to learn from this lesson and stay away from the people who make promises about the jack of spades squirting cider. When all is said and done, they are never the ones who have to clean up the wet ears, or pay reputational debts.