I've exhaustively covered the Google Panda changes since February through the eyes of the webmaster.
99% of the time, I echo the feelings demonstrated in the forums and as you can imagine, the fault always is on Google and not the webmaster. They blame Google for their site being downgraded in Google. They blame Google for their money issues. They blame Google for their family issues.
The truth is, Google is that dominant where it can make or break businesses and people.
But is Google to blame for striving to make their search results better?
A WebmasterWorld thread tells a sad but strong story of one 10+ year old webmaster who made his living off of free Google results and then all of a sudden, lost most of it because of the Panda update.
Who does he blame? Himself.
He ends his story saying:
I watch people complaining that they have families to feed and a mortgage to pay so how could this happen to me? Well, ya know what? You have nobody to blame but yourself. It was FREE money and it ended. You allowed it to begin and to end just as I did.I apologize if this seems harsh, but sometimes a smack in the face is more helpful then a sympathetic pat on the back.
Our next business will not depend on any search engines to be successful. It'll be our hard work that either makes or breaks the business, not some damn algorithm. So goodbye Google and like Douglas Adams, said - So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish, or in this case, money.
You may disagree with him but it is important for me to not just rant at Google for the "issues" Panda has caused them. I need and should highlight threads, no matter how rare they are, of the opposing view.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Image from Zelfit/Shutterstock.
