Google vs SEO - What?????

I recently blogged in response to a action Google took taking down one of my blogs for "SPAM." Their response was that this was a common occurrence, hackers create thousands of fake blogs, steal content from real blogs, all in a attempt to create new pages with affiliate campaigns. In responses, Google takes down all of the blogs, legitimate and otherwise. My blog was entitled "Why Google can be bad for small business," and is no longer visible on any of my blogs. The blog suggested that Google wielded their muscle in excess, also in rash response, and cause detrimental effects to bloggers relying on their blogs to communicate with their audience. Not only does the temporary suspension cripple SEO effects of the blog, it also eliminates a businesses ability to maintain two way conversation with their customers. Believe me, I am in no way anti-Google, they have done a lot for entrepreneurs to be able to create businesses and generate exposure without the budget of giant competitors. But, when business owners rely on this relationship, and Google breaks up, even temporarily, it can cause serious side effects to the small business.

First of all, my blog complaining about Google's actions and intricately, painful customer service process magically disappeared. On top of that, today I read an article that SEO companies will no longer be allowed to advertise in Google's local business directory (Web Pro News article "Google Ditches Local Listings for SEO and Designers" by Chris Crum). This is a complete outrage. The very businesses that work hard to appease Google and ensure quality listings from millions of websites will no longer be available to consumers via Google. Google should be working with these companies to improve search results, not against them. And for business owners looking for companies to assist with SEO and web design, now they have to look a lot harder - or maybe just on Yahoo.

Google is responding by saying this move is necessary to meet the wants of their consumers. They are suggesting that for some reason, searches who are looking for "website design Houston," that the people are not interested in web designers in the Houston area. Is this ignorance, idiocy, or some kind of genius well beyond the common sense of anyone that possesses the quality? I personally don't get it.

Perhaps they are launching their own SEO business and are doing a preliminary extermination of the competition. Maybe they just don't want people and businesses to get help from professional web designers and consultancy with search engine optimization. Whatever the reason, I am curios to no end to hear any other possible scenarios which could make sense. Should anybody have input on the subject, I'd love to hear it.

- Mark Rogers
Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc