More Paid Links Double Talk
October 3rd, 2007 by Michael Gray in GoogleIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Hey Matt if you said this:
Users don’t want to see results sorted by who has the biggest pocketbook.
Then why does adwords have premium placement above organic SERP’s?
Sphere It
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
That is probably the best question I have seen on this entire topic..
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Michael, there are plenty of instances where we could promote right-side ads up (and make more money in the short term), but we don’t because our relevance criteria.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 pm
How many times have you clicked Adwords “premium placement above organic SERP’s” when Googling something?
Not really a strong argument but yeah, Adwords pushing down organic search results makes it a bit harder for good folks to sell product and services. Again though, most smart people bypass paid content pretty quick for the protected area known as organic search.
“Users don’t want to see results sorted by who has the biggest pocketbook” IN ORGANIC SEARCH, 100% agreed with Matt there.
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:04 pm
@matt agreed but you ducked the real issue, you can’t say it’s not about buying your way to the top when sometimes it is.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:59 am
@matt
True, but what about “buy links”. looks like you have featured vendors there. relevant enough for the ads at least, right?
October 4th, 2007 at 1:20 am
@matt - Busted!
October 4th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Black-Hat SEOs Are Worthless, Shady Criminals…
Black hat, white hat, blue hat, new hat… why should anyone care which color hat any search engine optimization (SEO) professional labels him- or herself? This was a question presented to me by one of my colleagues, Bill Slawski at SEO by the Sea at …
October 4th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Great Q Michael…
I think Matts answer is a bit grey.. .
Matt..Michael asked you about the ads placement right above the top results on SERPs , not about right side ads. We know about right side ads and how much money you make on them.
I think you can’t give a satisfactory answer to this Q. Can you?
Best,
Mani
October 4th, 2007 at 10:08 am
by matt’s reasoning above, the answer is “because sometimes the ads only get premium placement to the right of organic results”
this doesn’t explain why the user is still getting results sorted by the dollar.
you can’t wrap the highest bidder in quality score jargon and call it only relevant.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Interesting point of view. While I’m all for Google having a PPC system, if the #1 reason is to provide the most relevant results on a Google page, they should keep the Adwords results on the side.
Granted, the box around the top does make it obvious that it is Adwords and not the organic listings.
Very interesting.
Brandon
October 6th, 2007 at 8:36 am
>Granted, the box around the top does make it obvious that it is Adwords and not the organic listings.
That all depends on the quality of your monitor and monitor size, with the background color being a light yellow and the words “sponsored links” being way off to the right of the page, nowhere near the actual sponsored links.
October 8th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I am not one to always agree with Michael or Aaron Wall BUT I can tell from a firsthand perspective that ever since universal search, Adwords and the link that says “Products” (directing people into Google) ABOVE organic search, I have been really struggling to make sales for the product I sell.
I also have to admit to being a little upset at Google for squeezing “mom and pop” down further on the page!!
It gives you the feeling of how quick Google can end it all just by adding more of their “widgets” in more places, forcing all the people to sell product via Google stores or other places where you will find, Target, Walmart and the rest!
Note: I tried selling stuff from Google Base and didn’t make a single sale, the end of organic search is the end of it all for many of us who make custom crafts and have relied on Google for years to make a few sales.
This is more of a serious negative trend than many are aware of.
You want a good reason for preserving organic search? I can list one?
Loss of trust in all that is Google!
I feel like I did just before I deleted AOL off my computer and never looked back.
This post really pisses me off, even if it is total linkbaiting of Matt there is a real conversation that needs to go on here before Google loses it’s biggest supporters.