Bewarned, this is my little ramble and rant moment! Yes, about the Google God and its many devout followers. (Yes I think I still have my own tattered devotee robe languishing somewhere).
This is not a technical help tip nor useful SEO advice. Not much. This is a call for common sense.
Not in the line of “listen to me because look how financially successful I am online”, but rather in the line of “Life ain’t meant to be this hard!”
Google God is Everywhere
I was just reading the article by Jill Whalen over at High Rankings “16 SEO Tactics That Will NOT Bring Targeted Google Visitors“.
(NO, in case you are wondering, I didn’t find that article because I had donned on my Google God devotee robe – I was just reading up on an email that came in and caught my eye.)
Now this rant is not about the article. The article was fine; good in fact (which is what you would expect given Jill’s good reputation). The article was however the catalyst for my rant against The Madness of Google God.
The Madness of Google God
I know millions of devotees will not agree with me – not necessarily that Google God is mad (though I guess some would say that is debatable) but it is the madness that GG invokes in people desperate for its favours.
You may say I am hypocritical since, when you read my postings, I do talk about Google a lot and I use a lot of Google products and I do advocate doing some things to appease the google god. However like all things in life, I think we need to find a balance. Common sense is a good place to start.
Many internet publishers and SEO advisors, seriously and desperately, analyse, dissect, and vocalise on what Google may want from us – keywords here, how many, what keyword density, long-tails, header tags, backlinks, out-bound links, inbound links, YouTube, social media, comments, audience, meta-tags, Panda, Penguin. Insanity – when taken to the extreme. Worse, if you ever started writing something on the net, what started out as fun soon becomes a hellish bore filled with dangerous, unknowable potholes that Google might just designate as “no good”. Living under the fear of being penalised by the google god is so sad. Madness.
What happened to common sense? Living one’s (blogging) life trying to appease the google god whose ways are “mysterious” (their secret algorithms), who is at times seemingly erratic (but devotees will trying to drag meaning from it anyway), may at times seem to bring (online) success. But even the successful are never truly secure. They will shake and yell to their followers “Changes! Changes! Google God has new rules! Learn or suffer damnation!” when Google’s pets (Penguin, Panda) are set forth amongst the multitude.
Yes, Google has an impact. Yes, they have power (as much as we give them). But surely at the end of the day, paying heed when you need to, one should be ruled by common-sense. When you write – do you not write so that Real Living Breathing Humans can understand what you say? Do you not write because you enjoy the pouring out of the things you want to share? Should you not write the way you want to write? Should we just submit and let the google god be our Big Brother online? Can we just not take Google not as a god, but as a guide?
Yes, do read and listen to some of the things that Google wants – because many of it makes good common sense. See them as guidelines so that in this big internet marketplace, your consumers (readers) can be assisted in finding you. Do write something that is useful to you and/or others. DO ENJOY. But please – it is madness for all of us to quake, analyse, pray, and accept as unchanging truth each fart that google god emits.
Common sense please. Namaste. And may you have a non-fear-quaking online life.
That’s my rant. It’s just a rant. No need to take it too seriously.
What’s your rant?
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