Google Search Squashes Small Businesses 

5 months ago · < 1 minute read

Wondering why your startup’s new website isn’t getting a lot of traffic? Even if you follow all of the SEO rules perfectly, it may not be on you. It turns out that Google, the most popular search engine, favors big businesses over smaller or newer ones. Not surprising, right? But it’s more insidious than you think.

Since the 2016 election, Google has started interfering more and more with search results, ostensibly to prevent the rampant spread of potentially dangerous misinformation. It’s more than just adding more and more Sponsored results at the top of the results page. Changes to its algorithm favor large businesses like eBay and Amazon even underneath the Sponsored section, leaving less and less page real estate for new entrepreneurs.

Google also takes sweeping measures to supposedly protect its users, which can have dire consequences for small businesses. For example, Google claims that its worry over scams are why independent tech repair companies are forbidden from buying ads. Google effectively banned large swathes of companies from advertising. 

Even when Google isn’t directly interfering, the sheer costs of competing for coveted ad space are often not possible (or not sustainable) for small businesses. Google ads work (for those not in the know) through a bidding system. Companies that can only bid $1 on a keyword simply can’t compete with companies that can afford $10 or $20 for the same keyword. This makes it hard for businesses to get a foot in the door.