Google Playing Dumb
I noticed today that someone came to my site recently via a Google search for [how to seo my site]. I’ve never checked that one before (and I sincerely doubt it’s ever brought me any business), so I ran the search myself, and found that my site is in fact number one, showing up before a couple of pages from Webmaster Guidelines. Pretty cool, apart from the fact that it’s a search just about nobody ever runs, and I’m not likely to ever earn a penny from any traffic it brings me.
Then I noticed something else about the SERP. Have a look:
Did you mean: how to use my site
Who do they think they’re fooling? Suddenly Google’s forgotten that “SEO” is a word? Sure, the acronym isn’t usually used as a verb, but I’ll bet more people are curious about how to seo a site than how to use one. After all, sites can be used in lots of different ways. The question is terribly unclear. You’d think that a search on [how to use my site] would bring up Did you mean: how to seo my site. It doesn’t.
I for one find this a bit insulting. I know Google doesn’t have the utmost respect for people in my line of work, but to pretend we don’t exist? That’s cold, Google.
Let’s look at Google’s competition. Maybe one or two of them will be more respectful.
- Ask has no problem with the query. In fact, they put a couple of videos about SEO in the right column, and a link to “Seo Tips” in the left.
- MSN doesn’t seem to be having any difficulty figuring out what the user is looking for.
- Yahoo has the gall to ask, “Did you mean: how to see my site.” Duh. People really ask that? You’re looking at a browser right now, genius.
Worst of all, my site doesn’t show up on any of the SERPs apart from nasty, disrespectful Google. So am I better off with an engine that ignores me, or one that recommends me while pretending I’m a typographical error?
Tags: Google, Search, SEO, Web
Category: Search, Web
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Comments (7)
uGuX SEO Blog (1 comments) on 16 Dec 2007 at 7:34 pm #
Maybe instead of optimizing for “SEO”, you should be optimizing for “use”. :)
qwerty (63 comments) on 16 Dec 2007 at 7:46 pm #
That may be worth a try:)
I actually didn’t add “SEO” to the page’s title until a few months ago. It used to be just “Website Optimization for Targeted Traffic.”
Seo Design Solutions (1 comments) on 17 Dec 2007 at 2:30 pm #
That is Cold, but essentially we are their competition for ad words and PPC. As far as they are concerned, if it wasn’t for SEO, then they could have absolute market share instead of people like use figuring out ways to reverse engineer their algorithm (at least enough to know how to attain favorable rankings).
SEO Canada (1 comments) on 17 Dec 2007 at 6:26 pm #
Thats just classic :) Thats right up there with “she invents”, which strangely Google has fixed….
theGypsy (1 comments) on 17 Dec 2007 at 6:35 pm #
HA! That was a hoot… thanks. They certainly didn’t miss the mark far enough that G didn’t show up #2. Man, and I just took my tin foil hat off today… he he
Fun post… tnx
Dave
Gab Goldenberg (1 comments) on 17 Dec 2007 at 8:13 pm #
Tells you something about relevance and semantics, doesn’t it?
On a related note, I was doing KW research on the word “sante,” which is French for health (the last e has an accent, but my keyboard doesn’t let me type them). Both Yahoo and Google’s KW research tools gave me keyword suggestions relating to Santa Fe and other “Santa City” locations. With relevance like that, i’m just surprised they didn’t also suggest “Santa Claus” or “North Pole” as possible KWs… Ironically, they don’t ask, did you mean “Santa,” when I type “Sante”
Brendan Picha (1 comments) on 07 Jan 2008 at 12:50 am #
Either search is flawed or Google’s a snarky warlord. I’d like to think it’s a bit of both.