Barry Schwartz conducted a poll to assess the sentiments of SEOs towards Google. According to the survey, 70% of SEOs have developed a negative opinion of Google. Only 7% of SEOs have developed a favorable opinion of Google, while 26% of SEOs remain neutral.
This shift in sentiment can be attributed to the increased scrutiny of Google's recent actions, which have caused frustration for SEOs. These issues include spam, ranking volatility, and search bugs. Many SEOs have expressed dissatisfaction with Google's recent actions, leading to speculations about the future of the SERPs.
Here is what SEOs are saying on X:
Currently, Google is under scrutiny for prioritizing big companies with thing content in the SERPs. A few weeks ago, HouseFresh, an independent publication focused on air quality, was recently outranked by Reddit when they posted an article about how larger sites consistently outrank smaller sites.
The same article, posted on Reddit with links to the original article, was seen to have outranked the original article for weeks. On February 26, 2024, Ben Miller of Coach Ranks posed this question to Lilly Ray, asking:
“If Reddit continues to outrank individual sites, will we start to see SEOs publish ‘sister’ versions of their articles as new Reddit posts? Is this already happening?”
Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, promised that the search engine wants to improve, but SEOs have not seen any significant changes. However, Lilly Ray posted on February 28, 2024, that she is seeing fewer Reddit results:
Overall, the poll conducted by Barry Schwartz highlights the growing frustration among SEOs towards Google. Despite Google's promises to improve, many SEOs are skeptical and are closely watching the future of the SERPs. Only time will tell if Google can regain the trust of SEOs and deliver better results for all.
