Why you shouldn’t listen to Aaron Wall

Believe it or not, this is not an article bashing the creator of SEO Book. I regularly read his blog posts and hold both his knowledge and insight with high regard.

Still, something about the way he chooses to deliver his assertions just rubs me the wrong way, and I think I can put my finger on it by sampling some of his most recent bylines:

Google is Wikipedia, but Worse

The Real Problem With Half Truths & Hand Editing (same post as previous headline)

How Relevancy is Defined
·    Money to Google = relevant, good user experience

Is it just me, or does it seem like Mr. Wall goes out of his way to paint a bleak and ominous image of the world’s largest search engine? These headlines are just a small sampling, but SEO Book is filled with similarly inflammatory assertions.

Granted, Aaron will occasionally give credit to the mega search engine, like on one of his latest posts stating that, “Google makes communication faster and cheaper, advertising more relevant and trackable, and audience aggregation more efficient. They also create a lot of cool tools that evolve the web which allow publishers to layer value over the top of them.” Unfortunately, his monologue almost always turns into a Google conspiracy/bashing session.

To his credit, SEO Book has maintained that angle since day one, but as Wall’s popularity has grown, so has his influence over less experienced and discerning webmasters. Therefore, in my opinion, he is helping to mislead many SEO newbies into the false impression that Google is out to purposely screw them.

The reality is that, like all corporations, Google is out to make a profit. Therefore, they will take any steps that they deem necessary to maintain their position as the world’s most effective means of finding information on the internet. That’s why other search engines like MSN and Ask have spent countless dollars on television ad campaigns, Google chooses to dump the vast majority of their resources into further developing their internal infrastructure. They know that if their search engine continues to be the cream of the crop, the average user will continue to use them, and they in term will continue to make boatloads of cash.

Sadly, Wall misinterprets that motivation, thinking that Google, which is a multi-level organization with a complex set of goals and strategies, is singularly focused on the fortunes and misfortunes of individual SEOs.

Frankly, Google could care less about the fortunes and misfortunes of SEO folks. They just care about having the best search engine. Yes, they have serious issues to content with, like the surprising amount of redirect/affiliate spam infiltrating search results, their Vietnam-like losing battle against paid links, and other assorted issues, but when one takes a moment to step back and appreciate the shear size and reach of Google’s search engine it becomes strikingly apparent that the search engine giant will always face an uphill battle in this regard.

Again, I’m not advocating that you stop reading Aaron Wall’s posts. He actually provides some of the most data-rich and insightful SEO (and general business) insights on the net, and some of his criticisms of Google are just. I’m just cautioning the burgeoning SEO webmaster from “listening” to his anti-Google rhetoric and taking it to heart, because I’ve found that bitterness seldom lends itself to success.

P.S. Just for kicks, I wanted to point out that I love hanging out at the Hudson Hotel. It's the one of the best New York Hotels out there.

Comments

[Multiple Income Streams]

Excellent article and commentary!