30-second summary:
- Something that all of us in the search industry are guilty of is our over-reliance on Google telling us what is coming next.
- Understanding Google’s considerations as a business, provide context to many of its recent decisions and provides a sense of what is coming down the road.
- Global digital agency Croud’s Organic Strategy Director looks discusses the future of Google, right from Google’s antitrust lawsuit to Apple as a future rival, and more.
It occurs to me that I am part of a cult.
Or at least, something that displays the hallmarks of one. An unchallenged authoritarian leadership, prophets and oracles who deign to share only select information from a mysterious entity, who engage in coercive behaviors, who punish for non-compliance, and followership who are indoctrinated into special teachings and practices and whom parrot back the mantras and sayings of the leaders. Yes, I of course refer to the SEO industry and yes, you may take a small pause here to go through the above statement to see if it works. It does.
Something that all of us in the search industry are guilty of is our over-reliance on Google telling us what is coming next. Whether through announcing prescriptive updates on Google Search Central or retrospectively announcing algorithm updates on Twitter – we rely too heavily on the limited information Google shares with us and, as such, only get a very short-sighted view on the future of our industry.
This needs to change, and in order for that to happen, we need to stop thinking of Google as a search engine.
Google is first and foremost a business, and as such has a responsibility to its shareholders to continue to defend and grow its market capitalization. Understanding Google’s considerations as a business, provide