Over the past year we have seen Google update its algorithm many times. There have been several Panda updates, and now more recently a Penguin update. In a few years, Google may run out of names from the animal kingdom if it continues to push out so many updates. The one thing that I do notice after each update is the amount of backlash from webmasters that were affected.
So far I haven’t been really affected by the Google algorithm updates, at least not to such an extent where it is noticeable on my traffic numbers. If you have been following my traffic stats for this year, you will notice that my numbers have dropped off since the end of last year. While it is frustrating, I won’t get mad at Google for the drop in traffic, and here is why.
I am Owed Nothing
I admit that I do get frustrated when I see a drop in traffic. It is human nature to always expect to improve over time, so a decrease in traffic is always hard to swallow. Seeing my search engine traffic – the bread and butter of my traffic over the past few years – drop is always disappointing.
While I could yell and scream, and swear off Google, I realize that I am owed nothing from the search giant. Any traffic that is sent my way from Google really doesn’t belong to me, that traffic belongs to Google.
It was Google that attracts visitors, and through their searches they send the visitors my way. Google developed an algorithm that can catalog and rank billions upon billions of pages and then display those pages in a list to their visitors.
If I publish good, unique content that people will find interesting, and people happen to link to such content, then Google will acknowledge that and rank my content higher. I have had pages that rank well, and other pages that rank poorly. I realize that I can’t rank well for all pages, but I can still try.
I don’t pay Google for any ranking, nor have I performed a service for Google that makes me think that Google should rank my pages high. Google provides their traffic for free, as with many of their services that I use. I find complaining about such services to be ridiculous.
Relying on One Income Source
The one area that I have been trying to expand is that of diversifying my income. As with investing you hard-earned cash, it is also important to expand your sources of income online. This way if one of your income sources has a bad month, you may be able to offset that source with another income source.
Right now most of my income comes from Google’s AdSense.
I have heard many people complain about their AdSense tanking once they stop receiving favourable rankings in the search results pages (SERP). This is understandable as lower rankings in search results equals less traffic, which equals less income.
The problem with complaining about AdSense income: Google is paying you to display ads on your site for free.
So far I have been lucky. While my traffic dropped at the beginning of this year, by AdSense earnings have been going up. Earnings were slow at the beginning of the year, as I was expecting, but I also realize that displaying and making any amount of money from AdSense cost me nothing. That means 100% pure profit regardless of what I made.
Sure I had to pay for hosting fees and a domain name, but I consider that the cost of going online rather than the cost associated with using AdSense.
I also know that if my traffic was to completely disappear, my main source of income would obviously suffer. Is that Google’s fault?
No it’s mine because I didn’t diversify my income.
While my traffic hasn’t recovered to the end-2011 levels, I am still plugging away at my blog to try and increase my traffic. Whether Google continues to send me good traffic each month or not remains to be seen as I have no control over that aspect.
If something were to happen to my traffic or AdSense income, I can’t really get mad at Google. I am owed nothing, as any success I achieve online can only be gained through my own hardwork.
13 Comments
Critically, this highlights the need to diversify. I think that at least 50-60% of traffic should come from referring sites. In my experience, this is a lot more stable than having it come from organic search. A business that relies on just G traffic will always be at its mercy – that’s not a nice feeling.
A very objective article to which I feel agitated. At least there is someone who does not blame on Google and who is happy about what he has. Grumbling isn’t good thing and the author of this post is right to look at things from a bit different way. Thanks for this great post!
Indeed very responsible of you. Relying on one source is a really bad idea but it requires a lot of effort to secure a second (solid) stream. Once you get it up and running, it all falls into place
By the way, well put on the “I am owed nothing”, people often think they DESERVE things without doing anything for it. Work at it and you shall receive!
It seems we live in a society where some people seem to think that they are owed something – especially if they were provided with that something in the past. For example, sites that received good traffic from Google.
The hardest part is obtaining and earning a good income from second source, but as you said once you are able to do that, everything starts to fall into place.
Exactly, but people really underestimate the time that often takes, again, talking about SUSTAINABLE incomes. Sure you can make a few hundred here and there but building something solid and long-lasting, something that provides value, takes time. And that’s where most people quit – they don’t want to put in the effort. Shame really
What I like about you Paul is that you are a responsible person! Of course that Google is not to blame that I lose some traffic, I am the only one to blame because I don’t have quality content on my pages.
I am amazed at how many people blame Google for their traffic woes. In reality, Google is providing them traffic from their site, so in reality they are using Google’s traffic. Google owns their algorithm, so they should have full control over how and when they make changes. Regardless of who is affected by the changes.
Relying on one source of income is certainly a bad idea, as once your source get hit you won’t make any money. So it’s better to diversify your income source so that you can keep earning money even after your one or two source get hit.
I couldn’t agree more. Diversifying income sources is really important when trying to make money online.
Yes – I do agree on a couple of points – well, actually rather tips- with you. And one thing that Ive learned is that it doesn’t help to vent your frustration out on Google, There are valid reason to why Google want to update their Algorithms, and Along with the people complaining about the likes of Penguin and Panda there are people who praise these updates – because they were able to climb in SERP rank. Overall Google is making the web a lot harder to spam with the likes of Penguin and offer good quality content with the likes of panda. (Among many others)
I have found people that have gained traffic and rankings in Google after each update. The ones that are usually just writing content without worrying too much about going crazy with SEO seem to be benefiting with the changes.
One of Google’s main goals was to reduce the spam content that has shown up in its results. So far they have been doing a good job, and many that product sub-par content are starting to change their tune.
You have a great thinking Paul. The thing is, even we freak out because of Google changes, we don’t have a choice but to cope with it and start trying new things to avoid losing traffic and audience. Good to know that your AdSense is not affected, i know that when traffic decreases, the chance would be, the AdSense would be affected. It’s amazing you still got a high income there.
Google algorithm changes are just part of the territory of doing business online. It is their algorithm, and as you said, we have to cope with the changes. As for AdSense, I have been surprised with how well it has been going. I was afraid that when my traffic dropped I would see a decrease in earnings. So far it hasn’t turned out that way, which is a good thing.