‘Don’t be evil’, Google!2
Posted In Banc News,Slider | Tags: Google, Load times
The news that dominated the first page of worldwide media publications recently, was about Google breaking the ‘net neutrality’ principle. It spread across the internet so fast that the very next day over 100 people gathered outside of Google’s California offices to protest against the company’s actions.
It appears that Google and Verizon (a US telecom titan) were planning a fast lane, essentially a higher tier, for premium content. Therefore, a ‘two-tier internet’ would be created and made available to companies willing to ‘pay to play’ under the 21st century rules. This means that they would benefit from a prioritised ranking and reduced page load time.
However, protesters claim that this process is against the net neutrality principle, according to which all data is treated equally, no matter the content. They fear that the Internet may no longer be free and open whilst the decision of what goes online is left in the hands of corporate giants.
This is a revolutionary prospect from a SEO perspective, transforming an organic search into a paid one. Page rankings would not be decided upon quality, but on the agreed fee paid to Google. The same applies with website page load time which will not solely depend on the hosting and website design.
Luckily, the FCC is on it and the ‘two-tier internet’ has very small chances of becoming a reality. For the time being, companies should seek to improve their SEO campaigns using the traditional procedures including the likes of Banc Media, who recommend letting SEO specialists take charge of their SEO campaigns. By doing this, companies will benefit from their level of expertise, ability to improve upon existing results, up to date information and constant availability.
I think that it is likely just going to be a matter of time before Google implement something along these lines. There some degree of a two tiered system operating at the moment with only businesses that are able to afford a relatively significant monthly budget for links and their management being able to feature highly on Organic searches. The question could be asked, “is there any such thing as Unpaid Search?”
I hope it never happens as it takes away best practice and will stifle competition, but with Google’s online dominance, who is going to stop them?
Good pint you make Chris. The difference with this latest news is that it would be Google making money through natural listings where as at the moment they do not make anything from it.
There are companies out there who may be “paying” in some way for links but this goes against Google guidelines and is not best practice.
I do agree that it would be a sad day if this ever did happen. Let’s get delivered the most relevant, natural results and leave it at that!