Today’s links You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly: Any election where you vote with your wallet will be won by the people with the thickest wallets. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Podcasts, events and more. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly (permalink) If you’re running a business, you can either invest at being good at your business, or good at Google SEO. Choose the former and your customers will love you – but they won’t be able to find you, thanks to the people who choose the latter. And if you’re going to invest in top-notch SEO, why bother investing in quality at all? For more than a decade, Google has promised that it would do something about “lead gens” – services that spoof Google into thinking that they are local businesses, pushing down legit firms on both regular search and Google Maps (these downranked businesses invested in quality, not SEO, remember). Search for a roofer, a plumber, an electrician, or a locksmith (especially a locksmith), and most or all of the results will be lead-gens. They’ll take your call, pretend to be a local business, and then call up some half-qualified bozo to come out and charge you four times the going rate…Pluralistic: You can't shop your way out of a monopoly (05 Mar 2024)