Why Google Sucks: Enshitification and What You Can Do About It

Google sucks. So now what do we do?

I’m writing this article in Google Docs, to post to our website and hopefully rank on Google. A large portion of my career has been built on understanding Google’s algorithm and working within it to help clients and companies I’ve worked for to generate business. I enjoy this work.

So I take no joy in saying what a lot of people have started to notice: Google is worse than it used to be. And in more ways than you may realize.

This article takes a look at why I (and others) believe this is the case, occasionally posits how Google could return to form (but probably won’t), and offers some solutions for companies or individuals looking to navigate Google’s systems.

This isn’t the most optimistic article I’ve written, but it’s not without positive takeaways. Ready to tackle the Google behemoth together? Let’s get started.

What Is Enshitification?

The term enshitification has been making the rounds online in recent years. Coined by Cory Doctorow, there are more comprehensive summaries of it elsewhere, but you’ll need to know the basics of it to understand much of what’s discussed below in regard to Google.

Enshitification refers to a service that captures a large portion of the available audience by having an outstanding product or service. Then, once they have an enormous audience, they begin making changes that make the product or service more expensive. This results in a worse experience.

Examples? Streaming services that used to have one monthly fee, now charging extras to avoid ads or to get movies in HD. The change with many of these services only occurred after they’d gained a large audience, at which point features that used to be automatic now cost extra.

Or rideshare services (Uber, Lyft) undercutting prices for cabs to take their business, then once they dominate a market, making prices higher (even adjusting for inflation) because there are no other alternatives, making it more expensive than a regular cab used to be.

Google is one of the chief perpetrators, and this article is rife with examples of how they’re now making more money off of objectively worse services for businesses, and it’s in making the services worse that they further monetize it for themselves. But their audience is so large that there’s often little alternative.

How Google Came to Dominate

Google’s dominance is due to how they were the first to really solve for the search engine environment. People will sort of mock Bing in the modern day (although it actually has a healthy percentage of all internet search volume). But even though this will age me a bit, I remember when some were using Altavista, or Yahoo, or Ask Jeeves, a lot more regularly than Google.

Google was a curiosity in those days. But then it started to take over the market share, and became a verb that’s synonymous with searching. But how?

Well, it got very good at figuring out what people were actually searching for and feeding them the most relevant results. That’s it. That’s all they did. They just did it better than anyone else.

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So what changed? A variety of factors. But a lot of them relate to greed. Look, we’re in the business of making money for clients via digital marketing efforts, so we can’t entirely fault Google for doing the same. But it’s also true to say that in the desire to increasingly monetize the audience they’d gotten from being the best search engine, they reduced the quality of their search engine in the process, and also a lot of other services they offer.

We don’t begrudge companies making money, but we believe it should be by providing value and then enhancing that value however possible. This is how you build trust, not by holding businesses hostage who fear ignoring your services for fear of missing out on customers.

Even Google’s founders knew this, stating in their early days, "Advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of consumers."

Modern Google is proving this thesis to be true.

Google Search

When’s the last time you navigated a Google search effortlessly, without a bunch of ads, or AI summaries, or sidebar materials, or “People Also Asked” boxes cluttering your view? Hard to remember, isn’t it?

Also, ever wonder why Reddit results are higher in Google these days? 10 years ago people were saying Reddit was slowly dying. Now it’s everywhere online. It’s because the two brokered a deal to scrape Reddit data for AI training usage. This is now included in the Reddit terms of service. You’re actively training AI with every post on the platform. And in return, higher ranks for Reddit. I can’t prove this, mind you, but the timing and prevalence makes it somewhat obvious, no?

Reddit can actually be a useful website for certain questions, but the point is that it’s not ranking higher because it’s been deemed the most useful site for every search. It’s because they’re besties with Google.

This is a clear signal that delivering the most relevant results is no longer the primary or only goal.

Anecdotally, even amidst Google’s supposed crackdown on AI content, there seems to be exceptions for major media corporations that are using AI to scrape content from non-AI writing on smaller blogs.

This also puts marketers and businesses in a tough spot. You could make a Reddit post with your keywords and link to your business, and it’ll probably have a higher chance of a page 1 Google result as producing the same content on your actual website.

Which is a bit sad, right? It’s having to game the system in some ways that just create even more content clutter. Nobody wants to be sneakily marketed to while casually discussing issues on Reddit.

We’ll talk a bit more about search clutter below, but we also need to look at Google’s paid platforms.

Google Ads

Take Google Ads. The UI - to my eye - is noticeably less usable than when I was first training in the platform, back around 2019 and 2020. This is subjective, though. Let’s talk specifics.

The defaults for Google Ad campaigns will opt you into various things that you may not want. Each will display your ad in more places, but oftentimes not to those who would be likely to use your products or services. And so it’s more clicks for Google without significant revenue for you.

These can be things like opting into partner networks, display ads, or showing ads to those “interested” in the area you target. If you install concrete driveways in Chicago, your ad might be showing to someone who’s simply interested in visiting Chicago.

These can be turned off, but the fact that it’s opt-out instead of opt-in is a sneaky, subtle, and frankly slimy way that Google makes more money from advertisers who don’t know any better.

Additionally, if I told you that an ad was set up with the keyword “coffee beans dublin oh” and that it was only supposed to show on exact keyword matches, you’d assume that someone would have to type in that exact phrase for the ad to show up, right? Or perhaps since it knows “oh” stands for Ohio that there would be a few minor variants it could show up for.

Nope. “Exact match” keywords are more like suggestions to Google’s system, and so “coffee near me” may show your ad. Again, it’s more potential clicks, but without the targeting you’d expect. It gets even worse with broad match keywords in the Ads system, which is the default recommendation from Google. Why? I may sound like a broken record, but it’s because broad match will result in the most revenue for Google, but won’t necessarily return the best results for your business.

If you speak to a Google Ads “expert” (in quotes because my experience with them has convinced me they’re just sales reps), their recommendations will look something like this:

Use broad match keywords for best results
Increase your budget to compete with your biggest competition
Turn on all AI enhancements to deliver new and different variants to your audience

The first two are literally just ways to give Google more money. There’s no guarantee your ROI on the ads will improve. The third there is trickier, because AI ad automation can be good in some instances, but still needs to be closely monitored to ensure you aren’t throwing money into a useless void.

You can account for some of the issues mentioned above, but often through dogged manual cataloguing of search terms you don’t want to show up for (i.e. negative keywords).

It’s exhausting, because it feels like you’re fighting against the Ads system for the clicks you actually want. And it wasn’t always like this. It’s Google squeezing more money out of the system by making it worse for users.

Google Local Search Ads

Local search ads (LSA or GLSA) are separate from regular Google Ads. If you’ve ever seen the “Google Guarantee” label, that’s part of GLSA.

These show up for local inquiries. “Heating and cooling near me” or “pest control in Cleveland” will likely return some local search ads.

For a long time, these were excellent ads for local businesses. And we still recommend that our local-business clients use them. However, they’re not the slam dunk they used to be.

For one, these ads will now show up on branded searches. What does that mean? It means if someone types in “Moore & Douglas Law Firm” they might be given an ad for Moore & Douglas.

Why is this a problem for Moore & Douglas? Because the user wasn’t looking for any old law firm, they knew exactly who they were looking for. But if they click on the LSA instead of another listing on the page, Moore & Douglas could be charged as much as $50-$100 (usually more like $30-$50).

ANY amount of money is too much to spend on someone who was already going to contact you and use your services. If that happens even once per week (it can happen a lot more than this), it’s a significant drain on your budget.

But businesses can’t opt out of this. It’s simply Google making more money for itself on clicks that aren’t actually increasing business revenue. Their LSA system was not always like this, but they discovered they could make more money this way, thus making the system worse for businesses.

Google also changed and hid the process through which you can dispute leads through the LSA system. If a robo-caller spams your LSA, you shouldn’t be charged thousands of dollars for it. The way to dispute these charges and get them reversed used to be obvious and simple. Now, it’s not.

Fortunately, this is one area where there are still tactics for reducing costs (more on that below), but it’s another example of Google making things harder for businesses and easier for themselves to make money despite providing a worse service.

Disputing GLSA Leads

I honestly expect this trick to disappear eventually, and will update this article once I have new information. There’s still a way to get charges reversed in the GLSA system, but it’s less obvious than it used to be.

Currently, you can click on individual, charged leads in the LSA system. You can then “Rate” the lead on a 1-5 scale. If it’s a non-lead (listen to the call to confirm), rate it a 1. The system will ask you for a reason, and several of the responses (including the generic ‘not a lead’ option) will punt it into Google’s review system to have the charge credited to your account.

We’ve gotten a lot of money back for clients this way, but didn’t know it existed for a while since Google doesn’t advertise it and got rid of the more obvious dispute channels several months ago.

AI Summaries

I’ve used AI summaries. I’m guessing you have too. They’re not bad by default. But there are still some significant issues with them.

For one, they’re often wrong. The internet loves making fun of the worst instances, but more structured analyses have discovered significant inaccuracies in AI summaries. I’ve seen enough of these personally on Google that I struggle to trust them. So now it’s just something I have to scroll past.

Yet, people are using these and other AI tools. Learning how to effectively navigate the new AI landscape is a necessity for companies.

Search results themselves are also under increasing pressure from AI-generated content. While we’ve talked about how AI tools can be used in effective ways in content marketing, a lot of so-called content farms who are producing large quantities of AI content are unconcerned about quality. Only rankings matter to them. Which makes the job of the search algorithm a lot harder, and your results a lot murkier.

Fortunately, we still see strong content perform well on Google. It can still be done, and you can still build a business with organic search as the backbone of your strategy. But it’s not the only strategy you need anymore, whereas 15 years ago a company might have survived on excellent content and organic search results alone.

SERPs and the Reduced Usefulness of Searches

AI summaries are one example among many of what’s known as SERPs, or Search Engine Results Pages.

This is more-or-less a fancy way of labeling anything that isn’t an organic search result.

Some examples of SERPs:

Google Ads
Google Local Services Ads
Local Map Pack
“People Also Asked” Accordion Dropdown Box
Shopping Results
AI Summary
Business Listing
Image Results
Video Results

That list isn’t comprehensive, but it gives you a good idea of what we mean by a SERP.

And SERPs can be useful…or they can horribly clutter search results until they’re nigh-unusable. I don’t actually hate a lot of SERPs and think they show up in some useful places. But that also isn’t always the case.

The #1 organic result for some searches is now actually more like the 10th or 12th result. The click results follow. A #1 listing where there are no SERPs can result in as many as 30% of the clicks this page of results will see.

But if you’re the 12th thing people see? You’ll be lucky to get 5% of the clicks, and it’ll probably be more like 1-3%. This can be an enormous hit to your traffic, leads and revenue.

SERPs are often paid channels, and so it’s worse for the visitor but better for the businesses. Or really, given everything we talked about above in regard to paid ads, it’s better for Google, ok for businesses, and terrible for someone just looking for a decent organic result with the information they want!

Getting into as many relevant SERPs as possible is now also a viable strategy for businesses who are still driving business through online channels. And it can be effective! The problem, though, is that “viable” isn’t the same as “good.” All else being equal, the more convoluted search environment is more time, effort, confusion and frustration for marketers, businesses, and often for end-users as well.

Reclaiming the Internet

So what can we do? Sometimes, the answer is “not much.” None of us can go head-to-head with Google and win. And as a digital marketing group, we at Leadflask still have to figure out how to make Google platforms lucrative for our clients. We do this, but our job has been made a lot harder in recent years.

However, that doesn’t mean we haven’t pivoted. Below are some of the solutions businesses can consider:

Dispute LSA Ads Aggressively. It can still be lucrative for local businesses, you just have to fight for your ROI.
Use other search platforms. Some value privacy more than others and eschew AI summaries. DuckDuckGo is an example along these lines. We're not at the point where we can recommend using AI tools as search engines, but it's also true to say that many are making this switch.
Closely monitor ROI on all ad channels. Not just clicks, not just leads. Actual revenue. If something’s not worth it, and you’ve done your due diligence with the platform, pull the plug. We still run Google Ads for clients, but it’s with a tight leash.
Consider alternative platforms. Paid ad platforms are everywhere. They’re not all good, but many can be good for specific businesses. Yelp, BBB, Angi, Meta, Bing and Microsoft ads…we don’t use or recommend all of those, but companies have had success with each. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Understand how AI chatbots prioritize content and recommend individual businesses. More people are using AI tools as their search engine (for good or ill). You need to be showing up in them.
AdBlockers and User Settings. For your personal search results, most browsers now have plugins that will remove AI overview for you, and some adblocker plugins will block ads and various SERPs that aren’t regular, organic results. This isn’t a cure-all, but it’s something. And yes, there’s some irony in a digital marketing company advocating for adblockers, but here we are.
Focus on User Retention and Building Trust. Authenticity still sells. Customer service still sells. Sometimes the best thing you can do is tune out the digital noise and focus on aspects of your company that will help it survive the ebbs and flows of the digital landscape that you have no control over.

Rising Above the Muck

Doctorow’s enshitification theory posits that this process eventually causes companies to die off. This could be good news, because it could open the door to competitors.

Whether or not Google is too big to fail or not remains to be seen. There’s a long way it could fall while still remaining relevant to the digital landscape. But cracks in the armor are showing, with other services and platforms chipping into Google’s dominance. This is true both on the paid ads side and for organic results.

The problem is the cycle continuing. A new platform is likely to be a better alternative, but only for the initial period of time where it’s gathering market share. The switch to monetization - and thus the degradation of the platform - is the next step.

It’s a dumb, vicious cycle, one we’ve seen enough times for it to form a pattern. Awareness and recognition can help combat it, can help us hold companies accountable, and it can also signal when it’s time to move on to other digital ventures.

At Leadflask, we believe in adapting to the environment, not sticking to what’s always worked in the past. We still need to pay attention to Google, but it’s likely not the be-all, end-all of lead generation for your company. Or at least it doesn’t have to be.

If a conversation about those other methods would be useful, reach out to us to schedule a free consultation. We’d love to discuss the changing digital environment and how best to succeed within it.