Google's effect on online small businesses?

[Anonoptimization]

What do you think of small online businesses and Google now?

Do you think algorithms like penguin hurt small businesses more than big corporations? Since they can spend tons of money on advertising for example that smaller businesses might not have.*

On the flip side now smaller sites can compete with big corporations in industries they may not have had much of a chance in years ago compared to some of the big companies.

Also at the moment Google is owning online search so they do have kind of a monopoly on the search engines. I think it could take someone like Apple who has the money and resources to compete with them. It also is debatable if Google gives search preference to some big sites or rather the algorithm benefits them for user behavior on their sites and links, etc. Like with Amazon and staples topping tons of rankings.

 

[Zwielicht]

Google's algorithm is meant to favour the "highest quality relevant websites", which large companies usually have in their niche (either because they were already big before or because of their large branding & advertising campaign budgets). Because of this, these authority sites appear more often in the SERPs for popular keywords than the smaller online businesses, which are usually at a disadvantage from the start due to budget, lack of domain authority, young domains, lack of resources, etcetera.

In addition to that, since the authority corporate websites usually rank for the popular keywords, this can leave the smaller online businesses to fight for the lesser keywords that the authority websites didn't bother with. While this seems like a cruel fate, a small online business that knows what they're doing can actually gain some authority by initially dominating those lesser keywords and working their way up from there (the snowball effect). Of course, that's just one method as there are other tactics that a small business can use as well.

Something interesting to note is that unlike small online businesses, local offline businesses with or without websites can actually be at an advantage in the SERPs since, assuming they do local SEO (e.g., build citations), they have a chance to outrank other sites in the local SERPs for keywords that they normally wouldn't be able to compete for.

 

[Anonoptimization]

Isn't Google screwing over online businesses though with algorithms like penguin that could ruin a websites rankings and also populating search results with adwords?

It certainly is questionable at least. Since Penguin Google adwords seems to have grown significantly.

 

[Capo Dei Capi]

Unless a website was using shady practices they are mostly not going to be affected by updates like penguin.

 

[Zwielicht]

Unless a website was using shady practices they are mostly not going to be affected by updates like penguin.

That's right, the Penguin update was focused on algorithmically penalising sites that were purchasing links. Of course, there were some false positives and I'm sure some small online businesses were "caught", so these small online businesses were screwed over.

As for the Adwords growth, Google Adwords does quite a bit of promotion, so that could explain it. For example, last year I received a $150 voucher in the mail from Google Adwords right after I verified my local business on Google+.

 

[IMpossible]

That's right, the Penguin update was focused on algorithmically penalising sites that were purchasing links. Of course, there were some false positives and I'm sure some small online businesses were "caught", so these small online businesses were screwed over.

As for the Adwords growth, Google Adwords does quite a bit of promotion, so that could explain it. For example, last year I received a $150 voucher in the mail from Google Adwords right after I verified my local business on Google+.

Same goes to me hahah. They try to force us to use Google Adwords. :angryfire

 

[Anonoptimization]

What about were the lines are blurred between black and quite hat seo? For example helping a site rank with PBN links?

To rank with just white hat seems like a pipe dream for most sties. I'm not sure how exactly penguin works though. Maybe it hits sites that do this bad and come off as spammy.

 

[Zwielicht]

What about were the lines are blurred between black and quite hat seo? For example helping a site rank with PBN links?

To rank with just white hat seems like a pipe dream for most sties. I'm not sure how exactly penguin works though. Maybe it hits sites that do this bad and come off as spammy.

I think most of the confusion about white hat and black hat SEO (I prefer to think of it as a spectrum of grey rather than in absolutes) revolves around links, or more specifically link schemes. Just read this excerpt from the Google Webmaster Guidelines:

Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.

After reading that paragraph, you're bound to wonder exactly what a link scheme is, especially if you know the definition of scheme.

• Is doing on-page SEO to get links considered link scheming?
• Is sharing your link on social media in hopes of getting do-follow links considered link scheming?
• Is writing great content in hopes of getting a do-follow link considered link scheming?

Ranking a site with "white hat only" tactics is possible, it just takes much longer since the "white hat" way of "building backlinks" would be to use the method in my Website ranking guide, which is to rank a website using on-page SEO first and procure backlinks, although again, this might be "link scheming" (albeit a more difficult-to-prove link scheme).

 

[archon10]

Some will win
Some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues

 

[Capo Dei Capi]

Even speeding up white hat by replicating it with black hat should in theory get great results and be immune from any google update.The issue is spending some time making the sites branded. Google would have no way to know if a bunch of branded sites offering something of value are part of scheme unless the person was bragging about it and mentioned one of their sites.

 

[Sako94]

Working with small b's I feel that it has helped them have a higher online presence

 

[elizarob]

Small Biz online or offline, shouldn't rely on one source, namely google. Always have a backup.

 

[goodperson]

I think Google's effect on online small businesses is very much. Nowaday we can start up business at the bottom with google easier. You can find your customers easier and you can make money online easier. If we have good knowledge about online business such as marketing, search engine... we can earn lots of money easier. Google is great.