it was (theoretically) possible for you to “nuke” all of your competitors and remove them from Google’s index. For all of you who thought that your site was awesome and the other guys’ site was crap. You had your chance. Hat tip to the folks at Search Engine Land.
The time has now passed and the security breach has now been fixed. Grin. And NO I did not harm ANY websites’ standing in Google in the making of this post. Nor do I encourage it. It may be illegal and is certainly immoral.
That said, I defy anyone to truthfully say that my job is not interesting. (grin) I was on a coaching call with an SEO client when I read the post. Very hard to keep my mind focused. grin.
But this begs the question…if you could vaporize your competitors from Google would you? and why?
ryan hartman says:
no f’ing way… the competition is all the fun… (do some people actually do this stuff for money? )
July 19, 2011 — 2:16 pm
Wayne says:
I agree… I wouldn’t want to nuke them because I enjoy the competition! 🙂
July 19, 2011 — 2:24 pm
Eric Blackwell says:
@Ryan and Wayne – I could not agree more. I just found it thoroughly compelling that this guy put this up as his first blog post on his blog with the subtitle ‘Online, Marketing and General Rubbish’…too funny
July 19, 2011 — 2:37 pm
jay seville says:
Well….here was my tweet/update this morning:
Realtor.com nows ranks #6,7,8 google for great falls virginia real estate. Damn #NAR & realtor.com 4 stealing my business! #realestate
I think R.com deserves to be nuked by all of us for betraying our interests $$$. It’s bitterly ironic.
And google, I”m very disappointed in you removing me from #9 for my great falls virginia tag to replace me with a bunch of individual realtor.com listings. How pathetic and a betrayal of your mission to provide the most helpful / beneficial search results to your customers.
July 19, 2011 — 3:46 pm
minerva says:
I think competition is fun, just a healthy one. 🙂 And aside from that, we can just be friendly with everyone and get and give strategies from them to garner more traffic to our sites.
July 19, 2011 — 10:17 pm
Jessica Horton says:
Competition? No. It’s all good. Competition is a great thing. It’s what makes us strive harder. To learn. To improvise. To innovate. To grow. To make it better for the consumer. Love it! I really do.
Spiteful real estate agents posing as customers/clients with their fake little online reviews? Agents who want to destroy you, just because you do things differently? Just because you think outside the box? Just because you give the consumer OPTIONS?
Heck Yeah! Darn skippy I would!
These sites that allow people to spill their hate and vituperation–that put people on trial without any rules of evidence…without having all the facts? Yeah! I’d remove them. Gladly.
Competition is one thing, but malice is another. So, yeah, maybe I’m a bit off topic, but I’d gladly nuke a few sites. 🙂
July 20, 2011 — 3:16 am
Eric Blackwell says:
@jay and jessica – interesting points on both counts. And not off topic. I didn’t put this out there as a right or wrong sort of thing…just that I have seen a lot of realtor on realtor violence during my days and since G! gave me the opportunity to discuss what people would ACTUALLY do if they saw an opening like this.
Would they actually switch to live rounds and pull the trigger?
My guess is that most would not. I would not. I enjoy competing too much. Even against folks who are way bigger than me or who are just plain evil.
The ultimate unfairness to a realtor was what Carolyn Capalbo went through and even then, she was strengthened in the end by doing things the old fashioned way and grinding it out. (inlookers: Google her name and you will see what I am referring to.)
@Jay – yeah it appears that R.com has been doing some testing. 😉 In your area too? I am seeing 2 and 3 results pop up in the lower half of the front page in several areas.
July 20, 2011 — 3:28 am
Jessica Horton says:
>I would not. I enjoy competing too much. Even against folks who are way bigger than me or who are just plain evil.
That’s an easy statement to make from the ivory towers of academic theory, but not so easy when you actually have to live it–you have to fight it every single day of your life. We’re not talking about some sweet little kid with a plastic water pistol. It’s not a friendly game of laser tag with pals…
No, it’s a criminal/cyber-terrorist with an AK-47 trying to gun you down. Trying to destroy you, but only after he/she has inflicted the most pain possible…
So, I don’t think it’s fair to say what you’d do…you don’t really know. You’d like to hope you would…
And that’s very noble. But so is feeding your family.
When your sellers get anonymous letters with this junk…it isn’t about the truth. I can refute it all day long; I can share testimonial after testimonial with them, I can shed some light on the missing facts/circumstances, BUT…the damage is done. The truth no longer matters.
And, even if they believe me and have pity for the situation…they don’t want to deal with my very own personal crazy person. They just want to sell their house. And, you know what? I don’t blame them.
I don’t know who Carolyn Capalbo is…I won’t even bother looking her up–whatever she’s endured will probably just tick me off (not her, but what was done to her).
However, I am very aware of the damage that’s been done to me and my family. I have some clue of the price we’ve paid–and it’s been pretty heavy. But, adversity isn’t about making me stronger–not to me–it’s about me learning to be weak…depending on God to meet my needs.
So, what others meant for evil, it has been used for good. I’ve seen God meet our needs every day…when no human solution was available. When I couldn’t rely on me and my (very) limited abilities…He provided. He was faithful. He showed love. He showed mercy. He showed His integrity…despite what others try and do.
But if I had my choice? I’d nuke it all–right off the planet! But that’s me talking. I have to remember: His grace is sufficient for my needs and what He doesn’t remove…I must endure. It’s for my betterment. It’s to make me depend less and less on me and more and more on Him.
However, it ain’t always so easy to think that way. I’d nuke it.
P.S. Greg, this is me being who I am. This is my faith. It’s all I have left…after all the awards and production milestones have faded away. But don’t worry, I won’t be passing a collection plate or giving an altar call! 🙂
July 20, 2011 — 4:58 am
Greg Swann says:
> P.S. Greg, this is me being who I am. This is my faith. It’s all I have left…after all the awards and production milestones have faded away. But don’t worry, I won’t be passing a collection plate or giving an altar call!
I like people who have the guts to be who they are. Every evil begins as a betrayal of the self.
July 20, 2011 — 7:43 am
Dylan Darling says:
I just wonder how long this option was available for webmasters. Have you always been able to do this? If so, how in the heck did it go this long without anyone noticing? Crazy! Can’t believe that was his first blog post. He’ll have some readers now!
I too believe competition is good for the soul. Without it, we’d be lost… nothing to strive for. I’ve recently looked at all my real estate competitors, both on the web and in hands-on activities. I’m now making a new game plan. Trying things I’ve never tried, meeting people I never would have met, and now I’m rejuvenated to make my site the best out there. A lot of work ahead. Fair and square, I plan on being number 1 in the serps again.
July 20, 2011 — 8:08 am
Dan S. says:
I’ve got very mixed feelings on this one. I’ve done some SEO work in the past, so if one could just “nuke” a competitor site, I’d be out of a job. On the other hand, being the one to drop the nuke would be extremely satisfying. The jury’s still out on this one.
July 20, 2011 — 9:15 am
Vin says:
I know of a few other ways to cause some damage to competitors, but this is by far the coolest/easiest. I definitely think what goes around will come around, so any type of unethical practice like this is definitely a no-go for me.
July 20, 2011 — 10:33 am
Jo Amick says:
I certainly appreciate the question Eric but I don’t think I would. The reason is that competition makes us better.
July 20, 2011 — 5:40 pm
Robert Worthington says:
I would not, but this is South Florida, hello, everybody would try to evaporate everybody.
July 22, 2011 — 4:17 pm