Not Another Google Thread! 
I see many posts here every time Google slaps some new penalty or algo update which wipes out thousands of sites and ruins small businesses and there are always calls for things like dropping google and moving to bing etc but of course the problem is that makes no difference because it doesn't matter if you dont use or target google in any way, what matters is the general surfing public still uses google so as long as you depend on SEO you are still screwed.
It strikes me that the problem here is one of education. I have met many people who I thought were reasonably computer savvy yet it turned out they dont know the difference between a browser and the google search box. These people will always use google because that is all they know. I'd hazard a guess and say the majority of internet users are similar - this needs to be changed. :amish:
Now probably this is a dumb idea or an old idea and everyone here will likely ignore it or find various reasons why it is a bad idea but anyway.. between all the BHW members you all must control an enormous amount of traffic - millions of eyeballs pass through your sites every day I would think. So you have an opportunity there to educate the unwashed masses, let them know there are alternatives to google. Even something simple like a small link box containing links to things like duckduckgo, startpage, some niche search engines perhaps, and even bing! Use some catchy text to get their attention - play on their privacy/big brother fears for example..
Now of course you may be losing some traffic through those links in the short term (but you could always show them after a visitor opted in for example or even just not include links (let them google for duckduckgo )) but in the long term you are dragging people away from google and freeing them (and you) from google tyranny.. and word of mouth will spread the effect beyond those who pass through your sites. Such a grassroots campaign will eventually hurt google and it can only benefit us.
Anyway, that is all.. back to crying over my lost ranks.
I see many posts here every time Google slaps some new penalty or algo update which wipes out thousands of sites and ruins small businesses and there are always calls for things like dropping google and moving to bing etc but of course the problem is that makes no difference because it doesn't matter if you dont use or target google in any way, what matters is the general surfing public still uses google so as long as you depend on SEO you are still screwed.
It strikes me that the problem here is one of education. I have met many people who I thought were reasonably computer savvy yet it turned out they dont know the difference between a browser and the google search box. These people will always use google because that is all they know. I'd hazard a guess and say the majority of internet users are similar - this needs to be changed. :amish:
Now probably this is a dumb idea or an old idea and everyone here will likely ignore it or find various reasons why it is a bad idea but anyway.. between all the BHW members you all must control an enormous amount of traffic - millions of eyeballs pass through your sites every day I would think. So you have an opportunity there to educate the unwashed masses, let them know there are alternatives to google. Even something simple like a small link box containing links to things like duckduckgo, startpage, some niche search engines perhaps, and even bing! Use some catchy text to get their attention - play on their privacy/big brother fears for example..
Now of course you may be losing some traffic through those links in the short term (but you could always show them after a visitor opted in for example or even just not include links (let them google for duckduckgo
)) but in the long term you are dragging people away from google and freeing them (and you) from google tyranny.. and word of mouth will spread the effect beyond those who pass through your sites. Such a grassroots campaign will eventually hurt google and it can only benefit us.Anyway, that is all.. back to crying over my lost ranks.
