While we're going through a very hot summer down here in Australia it seems that you guys in the northern hemisphere are having the exact opposite. From the reports that we're seeing down here there's plenty of snow and plenty of ice and that's creating havoc for people who are trying to travel this winter.

It's also causing a few cold shivers for people who may not be intending to travel this year. A friend of ours is heavily into motor vehicle technology and he says that the cold snap that is hit the northern hemisphere is sending shivers down the spines the engineers who are working on various electric car projects.

It seems that the intense cold has severely restricted the storage capacity of the batteries in electric cars and that's reduced their range. Electric cars don't have much range and with reduced range just aren't going to sell. And unless those engineers can fix the problem that's going to put a real crimp in the future plans for many car makers.

Early in December Google did something that should be sending shivers down the spines of any webmaster that relies on Google for their income too. There are many small businesses both here in adult and over in mainstream that rely almost totally on good search engine rankings for their income and if you're one of them then it's time to be very worried.

For years ... right back to the time that Google first appeared ... it hasn't been all that hard to get a good ranking on Google for many of the keywords and keyword phrases that have been important to your business. And Google even made it easier for mainstream businesses to get good rankings by introducing new places where people could search and businesses could rank.

Of course for some terms ... especially single keywords ... the competition for those good rankings has been intense but if you've been working at it for years then you've had a fairly good chance of succeeding simply because you've understood the ranking factors and Google has never indulged in any form of discrimination when it comes to what industries, subjects and businesses it lists.

But early in December that began to change. You may not have noticed the change over here in adult because, so far, it only affects people in the search engine optimization business, web designers and advertising agencies and it's only affecting local listings in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom so far.

In Google's local listings for various industries it has usually displayed what has become known as the 7-pack (although there have been times when it's been a 10-pack) – a block of listings of the top seven (or 10) businesses that rank for the term and the locality that someone has searched for.

So if you searched for SEO in Las Vegas back in November you would have got the usual search engine results page but at the top would have been a block of seven of the top ranking SEO businesses in Las Vegas along with a map that showed where each of them was located. The same situation applied for web designers and advertising agencies.

However from sometime in December that block of the top seven SEO businesses and the map disappeared for people searching in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. But if you searched for those businesses in Australia, Russia and other parts of the world the 7-pack continues to appear and if you searched for any other type of business than SEO, web designers or advertising agencies the 7-pack continues to appear.

At first Google did what it usually does when people ask tricky questions such as "Why?" and ignored requests for further information. Then a Google spokesperson announced that it was a glitch and they were investigating it and then came the announcement that should have started those cold shivers.

This is the heart of that announcement:

"Today, we're intentionally showing less local results for web design / SEO queries. For example, [web design Sacramento] doesn't display local listings today. We believe this is an accurate representation of user intent."

So people who search for web design/city in the United States don't really want to see what they're looking for ... instead, according to Google, they want to see something else. However, people in Australia who search for web design/city do want to see listings that are pertinent to the search term they used.

I'm sure there's a logical explanation for that but right now I can't see it ... and nor can any other sane person either.

Of course it's Google's search engine and they can show whatever they want but if you've been relying on Google for the major part of your income you should be just a little worried.

What will happen to your business and your income if Google decides that people don't really want to see information about your particular industry and business even though that's exactly what they're searching for?

If you are relying on Google for your income and you're not thinking about diversifying your income streams then you better start hoping you never get frozen out of Google.

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01/23/2012 - Getting Inside Their Heads

01/17/2012 - Planning to Survive

01/09/2012 - Headlines and Creeping Jobs

01/02/2012 - What Are You Planning for 2012?

12/27/2011 - Thinking About Marketing - Less is More

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