ISEdb.COM

If you own or work with a search engine optimization company, or even
if you’re just hoping to better your search engine placement, then you
are probably aware of the recent acquisition frenzy that took hold
among the major search engines. Google paid $3.1 billion for
DoubleClick, Microsoft paid $6 billion for Aquantive, and Yahoo paid
$680 million for the 80 percent of Right Media that it did not already
own and another $300 million for BlueLithium. The companies purchased
are all intended to help widen the advertising range of each of the
engines in question, and to take advantage of increasingly
sophisticated behavioral-based ad-serving technologies that the
acquired companies owned.

What many people failed to realize was that when Google purchased
DoubleClick, it now was also the owner of a very large search engine
optimization company called Performics, which is a wholly owned
subsidiary of DoubleClick.

This fact is of course raising some eyebrows in the industry. Google
has consistently maintained that there is no way that people can pay
for better search engine placement in the organic index, a stance that
the company still claims applies despite this recent purchase. In fact,
a portion of Google’s published guidelines about SEO says, “While
Google doesn’t have relationships with any SEOs and doesn’t offer
recommendations…” In another portion, Google says “While Google never
sells better ranking in our search results…” However, anyone who
hires search engine optimization company Performics is of course now
paying Google for better search engine placement. It seems like a
pretty black and white issue, but Google would obviously prefer that it
was kept delightfully blurry.

A Serious Conflict of Interest

One would think that Google, aware of the controversy that would come
from the fact that it now owned a search engine optimization company,
would be eager to spin Performics off quickly in order to avoid the
appearance of impropriety and of selling search engine placement. Not
so, says the official Google/Doubleclick acquisition FAQ:

Q. What will Google do with Performics?

A. Performics is part of DoubleClick, and we are acquiring it as part
of the transaction. We have no plans to dispose of it at this time (1).

All right, so Google owns a search engine optimization company and
seems prepared to hold onto it for a little while at least. Yes, there
seems to be a huge conflict of interest. Yes, there appears to be a
large double standard. Yes, Google appears to have abandoned its
long-standing principles regarding organic search engine placement in
the interests of profit. But surely, the search engine optimization
company that it bought will quickly be forced to follow the guidelines
that Google has published for companies that are looking for a search
engine optimization company. Right? Well, no.

Here is a verbatim quote from the guidelines that Google provides to
people thinking about hiring a search engine optimization company:

• Make sure you’re protected legally.
  For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional
  money-back guarantee. Don’t be afraid to request a refund if you’re
  unsatisfied for any reason (2)…

On the surface, this advice seems solid enough, but as an owner of a
search engine optimization company, I can tell you how impractical it
is. What would prevent a company that achieved fantastic search engine
placement using my service from asking for its money back, claiming
that it is unsatisfied? “For any reason” is a very slippery slope, and
apparently Google agrees – Performics does not offer a guarantee of any
kind. How do I know? Simple — one of my employees called and asked. We
also have it in writing from an email we received from one of their
sales reps.

What Are Google’s Options?

Let’s be charitable and assume that in the heat of the acquisition
Google has forgotten to update the page of advice that it has created
for website owners. This leaves only four things that can happen:

1. Status Quo: Google keeps this advice up on
   the page and Performics continues to offer no guarantee regarding
   search engine placement. We’ll call this the “hypocritical” scenario.

2. Performics gets in line: Google leaves
   the advice up as is and forces Performics to offer an unconditional
   money-back guarantee. We’ll call this the “free SEO from Performics”
   scenario.

3. Guidelines change: Performics maintains
   zero guarantees for search engine placement but Google modifies the
   advice to remove the inconsistencies pointed out in this article from
   its advice section. We’ll call this the “shareholder’s delight
   moneygrubber special” scenario.

4. Google spins off Performics and removes
   itself from the search engine optimization industry. We’ll call this
   the “sanity over dollars” scenario.

I’m not betting on which of these scenarios is most likely. Some time back I would have picked #4, but as I pointed out in a recent article,
Google has already crossed an invisible line by offering free advice
about organic search engine placement to its biggest pay-per-click
spenders.

Google owning a search engine optimization company — a slippery slope,
indeed. What does this mean for those hiring other companies and
looking for great search engine placement? We will just have to wait
and see.