🔍 google killed my business

Since I’ve started this newsletter, I’ve done a fair amount of complaining about Google.

It’s very hip in the SEO world to dunk on Google. They’re the ones making the rules, so it’s easy to point the finger at them when things go wrong.

Back in the day, I worked with hundreds of different online publishers. They all had their gripes with Google. Phone calls would mostly be complaining about how Google was ruining their business.

The same goes for colleagues I’ve worked with in digital marketing over the years. When they weren’t getting the results they wanted from an ad or SEO campaign, they’d hit the blame Google button (break in case of emergency).

It’s a lot easier to blame a giant corporation that no one likes rather than to blame yourself.

However, after reading Retro Dodo’s post about Google ruining their website (above), I can’t help but be sympathetic to the independent, niche publisher these days.

And for once, they are right to blame Google.

Google’s business model has been rather simple for years: they want you to find good stuff on the Internet.

If you’re using the “Internet”, then there’s a good chance Google is making money off of you.

Do you need an email service so you can get quality newsletters? I bet most of you reading this use the “free” Gmail (where Google sells ad space).

Do you need to find an Instapot recipe for tonight’s dinner? I bet the website you found it on is using AdSense ads.

Do you need to figure out how to jumpstart a car battery? I bet the video you’re watching on YouTube has ads too.

Google wants you to be on the Internet reading and watching cool stuff, you see, because it’s good for their business.

Now, that’s not the case these days. Other platforms have found a way to serve you Internet content within their ecosystems. There’s Instagram for pictures, TikTok for short videos, and Spotify for music.

Google has (smartly) decided to go all in on YouTube to capture the audience for long-form videos. It’s where publishers are typically paid the best these days.

That’s quickly becoming the bread and butter to their business, while search (what I’m most concerned with today) flounders. And then ChatGPT came along and made it even harder for Google search to keep anyone’s eyeballs.

So what does Google do to combat this new competition? Apparently, they’ll start kicking the tires with having you pay for a “premium search”…essentially just jacking ChatGPT’s business model.

Access to certain search features would be behind a paywall in this new Google.

Do that mean the quality content of the Internet will be locked behind Google’s gates unless you pay? Absolutely not.

We’re a wily bunch.

We will find other platforms that unlock the quality content for us…whether it be TikTok or another search engine. The only reason anyone would pay for premium Google features is to get a premium service, which Google AI’s has proven to NOT be so far.

So while Google has been busy killing the business of niche publishers, Google has also been killing their own business in the process.

Nice work.