2 Ways Google is Killing Online Booksellers & How You Can Help
(1) Google Uses its Dominance in Search to Hijack Traffic from Websites
Google does this by placing content, it has collected from other websites, ahead of their search engine results, to sell its own products and services. Google engages in this practice in a wide variety of areas from restaurant ratings to travel directions.
However, Google has had a particularly devastating impact on online booksellers—Google has literally embedded its own online bookstore prominently in their search engine results. Rather than directing visitors to other websites, which should be the purpose of a search engine, Google is abusing their virtual monopoly in search by standing in bookseller’s virtual doorways and grabbing visitors before they can enter.
I’ve been tracking, and participating in, online book sales for 20 years. My niche is Black literature and the impact on this group of sites has been particularly devastating.
Despite websites being less expensive and easier to create than ever before, there are far fewer websites dedicated to black literature today than there were 10 years ago. Those that remain are struggling to grow because they are unable to attract enough visitors to generate the revenue needed to maintain their websites.
The video below demonstrates how Google does this:
(2) Google’s Virtual Monopoly in Search Allows Them to Control Which Sites are Visited
I would argue that Google’s search engine is one of the the most significant developments on the web. In fact, I use Google’s search engine on this site, because it is an excellent service (Google is discontinuing this service in 2018).
Unfortunately, Google does make mistakes, and these mistakes and be very costly if not catastrophic for the affected business. Consider the following graph from Semrush’s website, which shows their estimate of this site’s traffic.
While Semrush’s data is not prefect, they estimate a site’s traffic based upon how frequently it shows up in Google’s search results (big data stuff), they did correctly identify a significant drop in traffic to AALBC.com, back in 2011. The drop in traffic was a direct result in a reduction of traffic from organic search from Google.
Now Google never provided, or even made themselves available for, an explanation of this dramatic, overnight, drop in traffic from search. Many, less sophisticated, web site owners never knew what hit them. The drop in our traffic was apparently the result of a change in the code Google used to rank websites. Affected businesses were left to speculate on the specific underlying reasons for their site being penalized in search engine results.
This lack of transparency from Google has fostered a industry of people touting services to help you understand and improve (or game) your site’s search engine rankings.
This has also fostered a level of paranoia, which has led to an unwillingness of websites to link to each other for fear they could hurt their own site’s ranking in search. This behavior actually puts more power into Google’s hands, as websites are no longer a good way to discover other sites. AALBC.com has never stopped linking to other good sites. Part of the value the site our site provides is helping visitors discover other websites they will enjoy.
From my experience, the best way to address Google’s search engine rankings is to follow all of Google’s recommendations and guidelines. No matter how you feel about it, if you want your site to rank on the only search engine that matters, you must follow Google’s rules.
AALBC.com’s traffic has completely recovered 2011. 2017 is on track to be a record year for page views. Visitor quality is also better; visitors look at more pages and stay on the site longer.
AALBC.com is a higher quality site because of my adherence to Google’s mandates, but I invest a significant portion of my time addressing “Google Issues.” This time and energy comes at the expense of creating valuable content for the site.
The environment created by Google also discourages the creation of new sites because it is not enough to produce quality content, you must also be well versed in Google search engine optimization.
Google Makes the World Wide Web a Less Rich Place
Because of these practices and more, Google makes the World Wide Web a much less rich place. We are rapidly reaching a point where only the most massive corporate sites have a chance at survival.
Google has argued that they are trying to create the best possible experience for their visitors. In reality, what they have done is help make the web less accommodating to diversity and creativity, by making it an environment hostile to independence and where only the wealthiest companies have a chance to maintain a profitable platform.
Many who would have operated their own website, just 5 years ago, are now using Facebook as their primary web presence, because they believe their chances for discovery and survival are better on Facebook. As a result, visitors need a Facebook account to engage with this content. Once on Facebook visitors are treated to the same cookie cutter style and presentation. This situation contributes to concentrating of wealth into the hands of a few massive corporations. The rich get richer and wealth inequality continues to rises…
What Can You Do?
Support independent bookseller websites by;
- Visiting their websites (here are more than 50);
- Purchasing the products they sell;
- Sharing their content by utilizing word of mouth, social media, anyway that makes sense;
- Linking to bookseller websites from your website or blog;
- Engaging with their content by leaving comments and participating in their discussion forums; and
- Buying advertising on their platforms if available;
Sure, buying from an indie bookseller, might cost you a bit more on the price and you may need to wait a little longer to receive the product, but will we be better if the only place we can buy a book is from Google and Amazon?
Join our conversation about the importance of independent booksellers (both online and physical stores).
Support Independent websites, including this one, especially if you want them to thrive rather than merely survive.