Let's talk about Google

Vol 155: Missing the days when we didn't have a WWW TBH.

May 22, 2024

HelloZ

Memorial Day is on Monday and I’m over here feeling like we just watched the ball drop. I mean the actual New Year’s Eve ball drop, not all the proverbial balls you’re dropping for all your clients because it’s May and there are 1,000,000 school, after-school, and sports activities.

Today we’re going to talk a little bit about the Googs, Googel, or Google as you probably know them. As you may or may not be aware, over the last few weeks, Google has implemented a "site reputation abuse" policy, which has stirred the pot across the digital marketing landscape, and some folks are crying foul. We’re going to break down what this policy entails, its intended goals, and why it's causing such drama.

But first: NewZ and ShowZ + last: FunnieZ.

NewZ and ShowZ

Skeet, Skeet. No more Tweets. The rebrand of the social media platform from Twitter to X is complete, with the URL name changed to X.com. “All core systems are now on X.com,” posted CEO Elon Musk. “We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same,” says a message on the home page.
Drake landed the most nominations for the BET Awards, with seven, followed by Niki Minaj with six. Performers for the ceremony, airing Sunday, June 30 at 8p on BET, include GloRilla, Latto, Muni Long, Sexyy Red, Shaboozey, and Victoria Monét. I’m not joking when I tell you I only know the names “Drake” and “Niki Minaj.” Who are these other people?
Paramount Network hit “Yellowstone” has started production on the second half of its fifth season in Montana. The series is slated to return in November. Kevin Costner, who exited “Yellowstone” in part due to scheduling conflicts with his film “Horizon: An American Saga,” told GQ he offered to return for a death scene but “the scripts never came.” Paramount responded with the statement, "Kevin has been a big part of ‘Yellowstone’s’ success. While we had hoped that we would continue working with him, unfortunately, we could not find a window that worked for him, all the other talent, and our production needs in order to move forward together. We respect that Kevin has prioritized his new film series and we wish him the best." I had absolutely no idea that he’s not coming back. I wonder how the storyline will go now!
Apple TV+ comedy “Bad Monkey,” from executive producer Bill and starring Vince Vaughn, who also serves as an executive producer, will premiere Wednesday, August 14 with two episodes. The 10-parter is based on Carl Hiaasen's bestselling novel. I will watch anything - I repeat anything - with Vince Vaughn!
Step by step, oooh baby! Restoration expert Jonathan Knight takes on a lifelong dream renovation project in the new HGTV series “Farmhouse Fixer: Camp Revamp,” premiering Tuesday, June 18 at 9p. Knight, best known as a member of the band New Kids on the Block, buys an abandoned 12-acre campground situated on a rural lakefront, determined to transform it into a New England vacation destination.
“Am I OK,” a film starring Dakota Johnson that premiered at the 2022 Sundance film Festival, arrives on Max on Thursday, June 6.
It sure doesn’t pay to be a Verizon customer. Check out this deal: Comcast bundle StreamSaver, including AppleTV+, Netflix Standard with ads, and Peacock Premium, will be priced at $15/month and launch next week to Xfinity customers. “StreamSaver is a homerun for consumers who want top-tier entertainment and live sports.
The 67th Annual Grammy Awards have been set for Sunday, February 2 at 8p on CBS. Nominees will be announced November 8.

Google: Site Reputation Abuse

Let’s spill the tea, shall we?

Google’s New “Site Reputation Abuse” Policy

Google's new policy targets what it considers manipulative content practices that exploit its search algorithm. The main aim is to prevent websites from using their strong reputations to boost unrelated or low-quality, spammy content and white-label advertisements.

Basically, Google is saying that publishers that earned their reputations doing one kind of content cannot use their reputation authority to hawk a different kind. This is impacting everyone from large-scale news sites to lifestyle portals. Word on the street is it includes subdomains rented by major websites like CNN, USA Today, and the LA Times. And the general consensus is that it’s going to reach any pub that hosts a mix of original editorial content and third-party affiliate content, including coupon codes or promotional deals.

Google’s position is that these affiliate sections leverage the site's strong SEO from its main content to attract traffic and that that isn’t a consumer-friendly way to run a search algo. It’s all about the integrity of the search, says Google. You know, the same noble Google that collaborated with the military to spy on citizens and promised an incognito search feature that was in fact not just regular cognito but actually so cognito it recorded our data. Ah yes, that Google.

Anyway. A bunch of pubs are finding themselves in much lower rankings under the new guidelines for not being directly related to the pub’s main editorial focus. Which brings us to …

What Pubs And Affiliates Are Saying

On the whole, pubs are saying wtf. And worried. And they have a good point. Well, several points actually. First of all, let’s read the room. Just last week, Google announced that it’s incorporating AI into search results to directly answer user queries at the top of results pages. In other words: no click required! The problem here is that AI is learning from PUBLISHED CONTENT from said content publishers. So Google is cutting users off without ever sending them on to content-land on publishers’ sites — all the while using the content they’ve already published to build results. Super sus. We talked about this last August when I wistfully, naively hoped there might be a meeting of the minds between the search engineers and the content engineers and their pub masters. But I was thinking of Imagineers and fiction because that shit ain’t happening my friends. At least not yet. ““This will be catastrophic to our traffic,” is the phrasing one publishing exec used.

So, ON THE HEELS OF THAT, now Google is also laying down the hammer on some of these so-called “white label” advertisements.

These are the 3 biggest arguments against this policy:

It’s bad for revenue: It’s already a tough industry, and this will only make things harder financially. To pay a staff of quality journalists, pubs need revenue. As Martech Record put it bluntly, “Google is taking away one of the few revenue sources that drives margin.” It’s totally screwing with a key element of their business models.
It’s conveniently very good for Google: Critics also argue that the policy disproportionately benefits Google itself, which continues to enjoy considerable control over online ad revenues. With Google, Meta, and Amazon already dominating the digital ad space (over 60%!), further restrictions on content sharing and monetization will make the challenges even worse for smaller publishers.
Is it REALLY about abuse? There is a lot of grumbling that this is nothing more than a ploy to squash coupons. Again from Martech: “This feels much more like Google going after the coupon market than trying to prevent abuse.
Consumer Value: Marketers argue that curated, high-quality deals and coupons do indeed provide substantial consumer benefits and contribute positively to the user experience.

I Have Zlata Thoughts:

While I don’t buy the argument that Google is just doing the Lord’s work on behalf of the consumer, I do think there is some case to be made about deprioritizing crap content. Shitty, AI-generated content isn’t a value-add for any consumer. But, that doesn’t mean that coupons and affiliate pages should be villainized or ostracized. Hell, we’ve had coupons in print for eternity! It’s not all junk, and it’s important revenue.

At the risk of letting my hope blind me yet again, in the end, I think this will probably be a lesson in quality content. And as long as pubs are focused on producing quality content, they’ll find a way to stay in compliance.