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A Slippery Slope: Google Owns a Search Engine Optimization Company
By Scott Buresh (c) 2007 Medium Blue
(http://www.mediumblue.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.

References:

[1] http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
what-will-google-do-with-performics/4720/

[2] http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/
answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
================================================================
Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, which was recently named
the number one search engine optimization company
(http://www.mediumblue.com/) in the world by PromotionWorld.
Scott has contributed content to many publications including
Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004),
MarketingProfs, ZDNet, Organic Rankings, WebProNews, DarwinMag,
SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue
serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific,
DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Download Medium Blue's latest exclusive whitepaper
(http://www.mediumblue.com/free-whitepaper.php), "Adding Search
to Your Marketing Mix," for more insight.
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