19 replies to this topic

[Scottie]

OK Google- I'll be the first to admit I don't know what your plan is. I'm willing to ride it out and see where things are headed- after all, as an SEO not a single site I've worked with has taken a hit. From a professional standpoint, I'm cool with the changes.

As a searcher, let me tell you a thing or two...

Over the past two days, I've been trying to finish Christmas shopping. (I know it's Dec 19, I know I'll have to pay extra for shipping, yes I should have planned ahead, get off my back already!! )

I started out looking for "specific phrase" wanting to send a little something local to friends in faraway places. I got totally crappy results for directory sites like gift-basket-store.com/and gift-basket-super-store.com/. (Not exact result domains- just examples) I'm not saying these directories couldn't have been useful, but they weren't. Shell pages with no content or generic content. Blech. Useless.

Whatever- I don't mind paid listings so I check the right side of the screen. Nothing looks related. Obviously people bidding on "gifts".

So I refine my search a little more, adding a word. Results a little better but still not what I want. Refine the search a little more because I'm looking for the glazed pecans they sell in Charleston, but might send some SC mustard-based bbq sauce or something else unique. The search phrase is a little broad, but still very qualified.

I get SCIWAY as the #1 result- a local directory. That's ok, I guess. But there are only 2 listings in SCIWAY. The rest of the results are more empty directories.

I'm annoyed and wasting my time. I've tried 3 search queries and clicked on 7 resulting listings without finding a relevant result. I give up. I head to EBay to see what I can find there.

A couple of issues:

• Utilizing directories as "top sites" means the user has to search twice. Search Google, then search the directory.
  
• Most e-commerce directories are not up for the job. Most of the directories I see are shell sites, with categories but very little content.
  
• The directories themselves are e-commerce sites, selling listings. Why are commercial directories more relevant than the actual sites? Buying a listing in a directory does not give it any recommendation over any other site. They merely paid the fee. IMO, very similar to buying links on high PR sites.
  
• When I search Google, I want real sites with the topic I am searching for, not a site containing possibly relevant sites.
  
• Whatever is tagging these sites as hub sites is not able to separate the truly useful directories from the spammy link-networked ones.
  
• I hate the idea (as an SEO) of encouraging people to buy listings in these crappy directories based on their rankings, but it only makes sense to do so.

Addendum- I went back and repeated my search with negative keywords. Got 3 relevant sites right off the bat. Found what I wanted. *The average searcher would not do this!

[Jill]

Now try the same thing over at Teoma, or some other engine and see what you come up with...

[SEO-Richard]

It sounds like a bad experience ....

Those directories are crippling. Now everyone wants to add a directory to their site, but like you say, they're just one more level to work through, and those flower-gift.com (made up name, seen the type of spam directory you're referring to) are SOOO irritating.


But still - you SHOULD have done your Christmas shopping earlier :halo:

[OldWelshGuy]

I have to say that I am beginning to wonder what on earth G is up to?

It used to be that no matter thos bizarre or way out the search phrase, you would get a workable Serp (I do not use the word relevant for fear of starting of THAT discussion)

Now it seems we just get a set of pages where we can go and search some more, it is grinding me a bit. If google is not careful then just as it grew where it was via word of mouth, a lot of damage is going to be done by the very same word of mouth that put it up there.

[qwerty]

Scottie, did you try your search on Froogle? I may not be happy with the results I've been seeing on G, but it looks like Froogle's got what Google dumped.

[OldWelshGuy]

So you think maybe this was all a ruse to force retailers to submit to froogle?

Maybe G decided that as this is the most important time of year sellers would flock to froogle in droves giving it the kickstart it needed.

[qwerty]

Not necessarily a ruse... If you read what G's saying about Froogle these days the message seems to be that if you're researching a topic, you should go to Google, but if you're planning on buying something, go to Froogle.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if maybe a few months from now, any site that's listed in a retail category on the ODP is gone from Google and only available on Froogle. Personally, I think that would be a problem, since plenty of commercial sites (such as the ones I work on) both sell merchandise and provide useful information. So I'd rather see them do this on a page by page basis, but if (big if) it's all going to be based on directory categories, that's only going to happen for the few sites that have multiple directory listings.

[Scottie]

Well, I did have my exact search terms in my post but I removed them- I knew a bunch of helpful search professionals would start telling me how I should have searched to find what I wanted. The post is not about helping me find gifts... it's about the average surfer's efforts to find information using Google.

Qwerty, if I was aware of Froogle (as a shopper) I still wouldn't have used it. I didn't want a specific product- I wanted a site selling a range of products so I could shop around a little. I was researching with intent to buy. If I knew exactly what I wanted, I might have used Froogle to comparison shop.

Again, as an average surfer I'm probably not aware of Teoma. Ask Jeeves had had a low profile (very little marketing) for a few years. I might remember the Lycos commercials and type that in. More than likely, I'd go to Yahoo (which will basically give me the same results) or MSN by default.

[SearchRank]

I was searching Google today for "air duct cleaning Arizona" as well as "asbestos removal Arizona" as I was trying to add some more company sites to our Arizona Builders' Zone directory and I had one heck of a time trying to find any actual companies. All I got was directories or sites like ServiceMagic or worse - a variety of educational papers from university sites on the subject.

Yeah Google really sucks right now. Sometimes you can find what you want but it seems more often as of late you get crappy results like I got. I think I am going to start using Teoma. I have always liked them as a SEO - have always had great success positioning sites there. Maybe I'll have a great experience as a searcher as well.

Google get your act together or goodbye!

[BrianR]

If google is not careful then just as it grew where it was via word of mouth, a lot of damage is going to be done by the very same word of mouth that put it up there.

Sorry to be a smart arse, but I've been bleating on about this very thing for several weeks now. Bottom line: If Google are not returning reasonably relevant SERPs by the time the world opens for business again on Monday 5th January, then they are on the long slippery slope...

Brian

[Jill]

Google really is (in a word) BAD.

Really, really bad. Worse than the other engines were before Google came around.

For fun, I did a search for Kelly Clarkson CD and the results were pathetic. No place hardly to actually buy the CD except Amazon and an Amazon affiliate. If I wanted to buy at Amazon, I would have gone to Amazon. We really don't need Amazon coming up in the results, because we all know how to type Amazon.com into our browsers. (I actually already bought the CD at Amazon last week, but wanted to search for something real world.)

Most of the sites were just lyrics, or had a little bit of info on Kelly Clarkson.

It doesn't seem like a huge stretch to assume that if someone searches for Kelly Clarkson CD they are interested in buying it, and that they would like to be presented with a number of different sites/companies that sell it so they can compare prices, etc.

Or perhaps Google figures that we can compare prices at Yahoo and shopping.com, etc.?

Is Google's strategy really to send people to Amazon, Shopping.com and Yahoo? If so, why?

Jill

[Added: FWIW, Teoma was no better. Mostly fan sites, etc. Pretty much none of the engines were better. Lycos looked better at first glance, but had a ton of dupes, and dead sites.]

[Jill]

aha! Now Froogle, had exactly what I wanted. So at least that is good. (Have to admit, I didn't notice the link for it at the bottom, and I wonder how many who don't know about it will.)

[qwerty]

This is one of those examples where a link to the search in Froogle at the top of the SERP would have made a lot of sense. I wonder why they're not doing that all the time.

[daniel]

Not necessarily a ruse... If you read what G's saying about Froogle these days the message seems to be that if you're researching a topic, you should go to Google, but if you're planning on buying something, go to Froogle.

The other thing to remember is that this only covers consumer products.

If you're after a service or looking for a B2B product Froogle is useless.

[Jill]

Yes, it would have. Because I do see how they might not know if I want to buy the CD or just learn more about it, or whatever. Froogle should be right at the top. I guess they're still working out the kinks with that.