How Google is Defining Business Ethics

In order to get a high rank, Google forces us to comply with the old “you get what you give” adage. The more valuable information you share, the more people Google will put you in front of. Give nothing, and you get the same in return.

This was a topic of uproar when in the early days of the web, especially among those who were already published authors or who were already being well paid for their opinions. Wouldn’t giving away their words sink their enterprise?

Those that horded their information found out quickly that hording yielded isolation and customer contempt. On the other hand, those who shared their information earned not only traffic, but dedicated interest as well.

The phenomenon is nothing more than the embodiment of the philosophy that the more you give, the more you receive. As humans, we’re not necessarily inherently inclined to give freely in hopes that we will get something back by way of some invisible “force.”

Enter Google, the physical embodiment of this age old rule of balance. Like the citizens of Bikini Bottom while under the control of Plankton, individuals and businesses are producing content left right and center in hopes of achieving the rewards of Google traffic.

All of this has generated a lot of great content on the web. It’s also produced a lot of crap. There is so much garbage out there that was never intended for human eyes or interest – pages of content so loaded with keywords that they are barely comprehensible by a human reader. Believe me, I have been hired to produce this stuff and it’s depressing. While I would have taken these projects in the beginning of my writing career, I choose to stay away from them now as they are just mentally draining and unfulfilling.

I even met someone who built a random content generator to produce keyword rich content with enough “diversity” to pass as “natural” language. Luckily, though he invested a good sum on this software, Google kept the pages out of view. Even if he had pulled the wool over Google’s eyes and gotten traffic, real visitors would have shunned the antics immediately.

Again, you get what you give. If you put out half-assed, half-witted content, you’re just asking for that type of customer. If you really put yourself out there with honest quality content, people will notice and you will earn quality customers.