Comments on: Denver Mortgage: Can SEO Keep Google Honest?

by: denvermortgagelender

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:09:19 +0000

Google’s motto is, “Do no evil” Well, corruption is evil, isn’t it? Google is greed squared. At some point the mfa diectory sites that dominate and trash the local listings will have to be eradicated by Google. But by this time Google’s reputation will be destroyed which is already happening. First the SEO’s and webmasters noticed it. Now the business owners are beginning to see it and they can’t ignore it any longer. Most of the internet savvy already know how to spot the “junk” and avoid it by going further down the organics on the page. It won’t be long before Google will take the hit to their reputation as a corupt and dishonest enteprise. I have nothing against them for making money. I applaud that. But the organic listings should be sacred. If a legitimate Denver Mortgage Company ranks higher in Yahoo and MSN than it does in Google becuase there are 20-30 directory sites with adsense on the google organic results, then the results are corrupt. Period.

If you are looking for a local business, use Yahoo search. Their search for local business is way better. More business’s and less directories with adsense. I have owned a mortgage company in Denver for 15 years. I would like to rank for that. Evidently, my options are to place competitors ads on my website using adwords or hire SEO firms that charge thousands to put links, blogs, and extra pages of keywords on my site so that Google will recognize me as a “important and relevant” Denver Mortgage Company. To me, the worst option is Google PPC ads. They have so many fraud clicks, and they will usually say that the minimum bid is $10 because I’m not “relevant” for “Denver Mortgage”, which of course is not true. But to them it’s the mathematics of money. Countrywide will pay them millions and I won’t. Why in the world would they not sign agreements with Countrywide to push me down.

Everything about Google is secret, vague and ambiguous. Some people read that differently than I do. Some people think that Google is run by god-like geniuses that are keeping a “remarkable” trade secret from us. Guys like Matt Cutts are worshipped publicly by webmasters. I don’t buy it for a second. Their secrecy makes makes me suspicious of them and is a dead giveaway to their real intentions. And I have seen time and again that dynamically generated “city,state” directories with adsense rank better than everbody else for no apparent reason other than enriching Google. The glimmer of hope is that it is getting worse and that tells me that something is about to give.

Lawsuits, anti-trust, or better competition. It will be something because Google is corrupt. And time exposes all truths, especially evil ones.

by: » Google Content Widgets, by Family Guy Guy - John Andrews - johnon.com

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:24:16 +0000

[…] Cloak it any way you like, but the message was less fraudulent clicks, more lock-in of users about which we know more than ever. So even if stalwart historical journalsitic sources generated reams of spam pages deep within their domains, it was “quality” and it ranked because it was good for “economic expansion”. An advertiser branded with the idea that The Denver Post was a quality advertising avenue back in the day, would not object to a large presence of ads on the online Denver Post, even if they were mostly spam pages. […]

by: Dave Larson

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:37:01 +0000

While Google encourages businesses to use AdWords so they can be found in search results, it’s not just difficult, it’s COMPLEX for a company to be found for competitive terms, even in localized phrases including those terms.

By premiering Cherry Creek Mortgage Company on The Denver Channel spam page and having it rank at the top of the organics in Google, that company (phone number without backlink though it is) can be found in some form via search. (I couldn’t otherwise find Cherry Creek in ad or organic results, even for phrases targeting them somewhat more specifically.)

But notice in the subresult for thedenverchannel.com, the resulting spam page shows Clarity National Mortgage (listing as Mortgage Colorado) with a phone number AND a link to their home page.

So what if a competitor sees that and says to their SEO “How can we get a listing like that?” And the SEO sees Acxiom–>Denver Channel–>Google, one company with main result, phone only, another with subresult, phone link, and thinks “So this is why they say SEO is easy!”

by: Alex Goad

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:41:50 +0000

Until Google adjusts the overpowering influence of domain trust in it’s algorithm, i think it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing more and more of these types of results.

@Stuart: Can that even be a question with results like these, the NY Times story, WMM and BMW? There is a clear bias…

by: Stuart

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:53:40 +0000

Clearly just a huge MFA site, which again brings up the topic of “Do the big boys / premium publishers get special treatment?”