(*PITA = Pain in the A$$)

What? Google makes SEO a pain in the a$$? Nah…say it ain’t so! Why would they do that?

I mean, Google is this huge, monstrous entity that looks to serve the world, and give its users the ultimate search engine experience, right? They like to make things simple (hence the white screen, over-simplified graphics, and lack of other doodads, bells & whistles). So why would they make something like SEO a pain in the hind-end?

Simple, really – because Google isn’t a search engine company.

See, most people think that Google is out to help them and make searching the intranetz an easy thing to do, giving them the ultimate in useful and user-friend internet experience.

Too bad that’s not (necessarily) the truth.

Google isn’t a ‘search the intranetz’ company – they are an advertising company. You know – all those little PPC ads, banners, and other stuff they put pretty much everywhere they want? That’s companies advertising to you, and Google getting paid.

And there’s huge cashola in it for Google, too. I recently got a WSO on PPC, and it was said that the insurance company Geico spends some $300,000 on advertising with Google…

…PER DAY.

Wowzerz. That’s a lot of insurance policies.

But, it must be cost-effective for Geico to do this kinda advertising, right? I mean, if it wasn’t, I’m sure they could find better ways to spend $300k/day (like more gecko or caveman commercials).

Now, if I’m sure Geico wants to save a buck just like you and I do. Sure, they spend $300k/day on advertising with Google, but if they could somehow get that same amount of advertising for $299k/day, you think they wouldn’t do it? Sure they would – they’d be downright stupid not to.

So, doesn’t it stand to reason that if Geico could hire some internet marketing SEO whiz-kids and a whole team of foreign outsourcers (for a lot less than $300k/day I might add) and get enough free results for every imaginable keyword in Google’s organic listings that would match their paid results, that they’d do it?

Yup. Sure as hell would. But they don’t. Why? Because SEO is a royal pain in the ass, it’s unpredictable, and the quality of traffic (according to many people) isn’t nearly as good or reliable as paid traffic.

Think about it – it actually BEHOOVES Google to make SEO a pain in the butt. Because if they made it relatively simple (regardless of how much work it took) and everybody could figure out just what it took to get the #1 result for your given keyword, then would there really be any reason for anybody to ever buy advertising?

Not really. And that doesn’t do a whole lotta good for Google bottom line.

You know?

I’m not saying there aren’t certain principles in place (age, on-page optimization factors, backlinks, etc) that Google’s rankings are based on. But if you think there’s some sorta definitive formula that all sites are ranked on, I think you’re naive. I know from my own personal experience with pages ranked on the first page of Google. Hell, I’ve currently got two separate pages for one of my sites ranked for a particular keyword.

One page is currently #1 for this keyword. The other page is at the top of the 2nd page of Google.

(Which is a funny story in and of itself, considering that the page on the 2nd page was actually #2 overall until just a few days ago…when I decided to give it a SEO bump by posting a few articles and submitting to a blog directory with anchor text-specific links back to said page…only to watch it plummet to the 2nd page.

Thanks Google.

face palm)

But here’s the kicker – the page that’s currently on the 2nd page of Google? I’ve done literally (no exaggeration) probably 15-20x the amount of SEO work (on page factors, backlinks, etc) than the page I have in spot #1.

So…the page I’ve actually done LESS work on…has FEWER backlinks…and isn’t even optimized for that keyword…is the page that ranks #1.

Yup…makes sense to me.

That’s the kinda thing I’m talking about. I know I’m not the only one who this kinda thing has happened to before, and I sure as hell ain’t the last. It’s just part of the game. And it’s what ends up driving people to do PPC.

So the next time you’re pulling your hair out wondering exactly just what you should be doing in your SEO efforts, you can take comfort in knowing you’re not the only one who doesn’t know…because Google probably doesn’t even know either.