Google Rules! No, This Isn't Another Glowing Report of the Search Engine Giant

Visit any forum or web page dedicated to the discussion of SEO (search engine optimization) and you will find scads of webmasters and SEO specialists obsessed with improving their Google placement and/or page rank. Why is that? Because Google is the most popular search engine, it’s the one that everyone uses to find what they are looking for.

My question is why? Does the public know that Google has a “sandbox”? The existence of the sandbox has never been verified by Google, but it’s widely believed to exist.

The sandbox is like a penalty box for new web sites. Most say that a new web site will have to do it’s time in the sandbox for about 6 months before ever having a hope of ranking well in Google. In effect, when you search for “widgets” in Google, there is little chance that you are going to find a new widget company, or even a 50 year old widget company that has just produced a web site for the first time.

What I want to know is; is that fair? Is it what the masses want? Do the masses care how old a site is or how many people link to it? Not likely. As a consumer, if I’m looking for a widget I want a good quality inexpensive widget and I want one that I can order online maybe or one that is local to me so that I can go get it. I could give a rat’s behind how long the website has been up or how many other websites link to it… I just want my widget!

I recently created a web site for my company which offers web design and logo design services. There are a gazillion companies offering that ok, well Google says 170 million but close enough! My chances of getting a top 10, or even to the top 50 are minimal, I have to rely on some more obscure keywords and other advertising methods to get anywhere. I can also rely on Msn search because in a matter of a month I’m now in the top 10 to 30 on three of my keyword phrases.

So what’s the difference? Msn doesn’t have a penalty box? They don’t care how long the site existed? They don’t care how many back links you have? My personal theory is that what they do care about is fresh content and a new website has fresh content.

So… what does this all mean? Not much really other than to point out that Google is a snob and Msn isn’t? That if you are looking for the latest on a topic, perhaps msn should be your search engine of choice? To point out that the average consumer doesn’t really care that there are 170 million websites found for their search term, what they want is relevance in the top 10 – 30 (most won’t go further than 3 pages before they try changing their search term or select a site within the top 30)

This has been mostly a frustration rant and perhaps a challenge to Google. What gives Google the power to decide what we as consumers want to find when we search? Who are they to decide that a new site is less worthy than an older established site? Isn’t the content what is important to us when we search? Is there a better way for Google, and the others to provide better more relevant results?

Perhaps Google should consider offering an option to its faithful followers. An option to search without their penalty filter, an option to search on new content, an option to search on the age of the website – giving us the choice to decide what’s important to us – giving us credit for knowing what we want. It would rock the world of the SEO and force us webmasters and designers to go back to working on unique content and service for our customers instead of obsessing on keywords and backlinks. I think that would be good for everyone.

Lisa Campbell is a participant in the currently running Ambatchdotcom Seocontest - you can see her entry at http://ambatch-dotcom-seocontest.com