Google arrived with very good intentions, don’t be evil and all the rest and we swallowed it. It was a matter of going public and all those intentions dissolved like a sugar cube. Since then, we have lived at the mercy of Core Updates like someone watching a roller coaster, hoping that Google will finally do its job properly and genuinely prioritize quality. In the end, this never happens.
A major media group like Condé Nast has made the wisest and most drastic decision, which is to ignore Google traffic and actually traffic from all the big tech companies. If they have their roadmap and sometimes it includes not sending traffic to the open web, the open web and media outlets can perfectly well have our own roadmap, which is to ignore them and start building brand, community and operating more offline.
After all, the parachutists sent to us by social media, Google and company arrive on our websites and return to those technology platforms many times without even knowing which website they visited. In addition, the revenue these users generate approaches zero almost as quickly as referred traffic does (zero click search).
In this sense, Condé Nast’s proposed plot twist should be applauded, as it means planning the business «as if search were zero». This is the best thing the media and the open web in general can do after seeing their traffic reduced while their content is stolen. Almost the most interesting thing about this is that if you expect nothing, then you also do not spend your budget on those platforms. In reality, those platforms want to cut “free” traffic so that we start spending on advertising, which is the last straw.
This drastic decision by Condé Nast comes after years of trying to estimate Google traffic downward and finding that final referred traffic was always far below forecasts. In other words, Google is indeed keeping more and more traffic and business.
This is compounded by the fact that you now have to scroll a lot to see the first organic result on Google, so ranking well now has much less value.
“Today, you need to really hit the bullseye on a specific niche where you have a loyal audience willing to pay and… If you have a brand where you invest in journalism, if you have to make significant investments in journalism, sustaining that through advertising alone is a tough proposition.”, says Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast, in an interview reported by Search Engine Land.
Therefore, the strategy now is not to count on Google traffic and to focus on human made content for a solid audience that is willing to pay for quality content and to create clear and sharp authority in the niche in which they operate.
The old model of turning search and social media traffic into profitable media businesses simply no longer works. Digital newspapers, brands and the open web in general must work on gaining a loyal audience and a strong brand.
* Original article written in Spanish, translated with AI and reviewed in English by Jorge Mediavilla.
