How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by my_username_is_ on Sunday December 29, 2013 @12:57AM (#6978596)

While I agree that it is necessarily difficult to create a search engine ranking algorithm that isn't gamed, customer service isn't something that should be lumped in with the 'difficult problems'. Google has been notoriously terrible at customer service for years and it's amazing that they've been so successful despite this.

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Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by camillomiller on Sunday December 29, 2013 @03:59AM (#6978941)

This. What I despise the most is their hypocrisy and the clean face their Head Hypocrite Matt Cutts always wears when answering those SEO questions. So you have the biggest search engine in the world and all the transparency you can think of consists on putting a man in front of a camera like a country preacher, always saying things that leave open spaces of interpretation?

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Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by Shog9 on Sunday December 29, 2013 @04:52AM (#6979046)

Because, what? You expect Cutts to be on the phone handling calls from irate webmasters instead?

If Google sells me ad-space - or a Nexus - and then doesn't respond when I have a problem, that's bad. But if your pages drop in the search result rankings, suck it up and maybe pay a bit more attention to the spirit of that preaching - Google owes you ZERO customer support if all you're paying for is snake-oil from some 3rd-party SEO "expert".

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Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by cases on Sunday December 29, 2013 @06:47AM (#6979299)

It's odd that you talk about snake-oil in a thread where it's already mentioned that Google will just as easily ban you even if you follow their rules. Expedia and RapGenius are the two latest examples of how easy it is to cheat the system.

Meanwhile the world commerce is moving towards the Internet and Google controls 70% of that. But you don't want to come off as "spammy" so better to risk your company and follow the rules of an unresponsive search company that might or might not punish you for it.

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Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by jessaustin on Sunday December 29, 2013 @11:01AM (#6979940)

...it's already mentioned that Google will just as easily ban you even if you follow their rules.

Are there examples of sites that have done no SEO, and can still point to a banning-type event in their search result ranking history? Obviously this wouldn't be a big site; it might just be a random business the marketing of which is mostly offline.

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Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by Shog9 on Sunday December 29, 2013 @11:16AM (#6980003)

Meanwhile the world commerce is moving towards the Internet and Google controls 70% of that.

...so you gotta do what it takes to get ahead, even if that means abusing the system and everyone else who depends on it? That's been the spammer's argument from Day 1, and it's just as crap now as it was twenty years ago.

No one owes you a successful business. If the only way you can find to make money involves dumping on others, then you shouldn't be surprised when there are consequences - even if you're following the "letter of the law" while doing so.

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Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by gress on Sunday December 29, 2013 @12:13PM (#6980243)

What exact system are people 'abusing'?

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Re:How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google by camillomiller on Monday December 30, 2013 @03:34AM (#6983707)

Google is already a cultural monopoly. They get to decide what people see and how and when they see it. That is why this One Man Show is bullshit. It looks hypocrite or at least it shows that they take their incredible responsibility very lightly. You choose.

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