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OK, I really got fed up and one day I banned Google on this blog.
You will believe what happened next!
In sheer numbers I got far less “traffic” of course.
Often traffic from Google is not desirable though.
Google often sends the wrong people to your blog.
Let’s be positive here though. What were the benefits of blogging beyond Google search?
How did blogging just for my other audiences feel?
What are the actual advantages of Google-free blogging?
Most people assume that Google is a must.
Many business blogs are just made for Google search visitors.
Yet I will show you today how many advantages Google-free blogging has.
So what are the benefits of blogging as if Google does not exist?
- less harmful traffic (spammers, complainers, bots)
- real people who are really interested in my writing arriving
- more engagement with like-minded individuals, fewer complaints
- increased focus on subscribers and regular readers
- better incentive to write new posts more frequently
- more freedom when writing and crafting headlines
- no duplicate content issues anymore, no such thing existed before Google
- more time to write, less time wasted on adapting to Google’s ongoing changes
These are just the most obvious advantages I noticed already after a few weeks.
I don’t have to spend so much time deleting manual spam comments, especially on the weekends.
Are you wasting your time?
No more time wasters like debating with grumpy people who are not willing to understand!
When you rank on Google all you get is strangers visiting you for the first time in most cases.
So these strangers do not care about you and prefer to be right in many cases! So whatever you write about people will complain!
So for years I ranked with a lot of negative keyphrases like [google sucks]!
Thus searchers arriving here would argue how awful Google is!
- Or they would tell me how wrong I am
- or that I am guilty of ruining Google as an SEO
- or how the article was written years ago and invalid etc.
It was depressing to say the least. It was my most popular post!
It’s not that I make money off being a “Google critic” or something.
It’s a matter of effort spent without any reward.
Although you could argue that I baited a lot of people.
Yet that wasn’t my objective with that post.
It’s much healthier to write for a regular audience of subscribers!
Or at least followers who know you and follow you on social media. They are less likely to write angry comments.
Btw. I have not enabled comment in my latest theme.
At first it was just a test as it does not support them by default. Then I got fond of that!
Do bloggers really need Google?
To be honest most blogs do not sell to search visitors.
Many blogging business models require a stable audience of “1000 true fans”.
These aren’t random Google searchers. They often come via recommendations.
True, these people might have initially arrived here via Google in the past.
Yet as far as I see it most people who stayed the longest with me were other active online publishers and social media users.
Most searchers will drop in, find what they seek and vanish forever.
Also, in retrospective most of my best and longstanding clients have known me before approaching me or have followed a recommendation by others.
I don’t think bloggers need Google. The contrary is the case. You can thrive without Google! Why?
Google forces you to change your writing style so drastically that you mess it up writing keyword stuffed headlines etc.
Many, especially female bloggers, rather rely on social media for traffic.
It’s not just Facebook, it’s rather Pinterest as Instagram barely allows you to link to your site.
* Creative Commons image by danorbit.