'click fraud' Category

• AdWords Search Query Reports

  Quite a few people have written about using the fairly new Search Query Reports, and the sometimes surprising ways in which Google can extend Broad Match. Here’s another insight into AdWords. Look at the first two clips of screenshots, and notice that the impression volume reported is radically differently on keyword search. This first screen [...]

  January 14th, 2008

• Google Bowling And Identity

  Reducing the search engine ranking of competitors, known as “Google Bowling”, is getting some air time. A brief summary article “8 Ways a Competitor Can Sabotage Your Site” describes some techniques that can damage rank and steal or reduce traffic to a site. Of the eight techniques described, seven depend on weak identity online, and [...]

  September 17th, 2007

• Google, Trust, Content Match, Placement Reports

  [Google now offer on/off control over domain parks, error pages, 404 pages, and more - this article is kept for historical purposes, only] A respected peer, Richard Ball, often writes about distribution fraud, and the waste of advertising funds on Google’s domain parking. I have some evidence to back up his claim that advertising on [...]

  August 17th, 2007

• Click Fraud, Google AdWords and gclid

  A tardy response to Matt Cutts posting and Shuman Ghosemajumder‘s joining in the debate… I don’t see some important stuff in Google’s approach to this issue. Maybe I’m selectively vision impaired. Or maybe I read too many other reports about naughtiness on the net. Update 2009-09 – you can now use Google’s Webmaster Console (Settings) [...]

  July 16th, 2007

• Rev B: SEO, Game Theory and Intrinsically Corruptible Systems

  This is the other article on the End Of Life As We Know It. See also “Rev A“, published previously. A recent posting by Matt Cutts to invite reporting of paid links to Google set me thinking. One thought train lead to a fairly predictable (for me) posting. The other has lead into some stranger [...]

  April 24th, 2007

• Google, Disintermediation and Agencies

  Google probably wants to disintermediate advertising agencies. That is, it probably should offer services directly to the advertiser, allowing the advertiser and the channel to interact directly. Disintermediation was the big buzz of the dot.boom-and-bust era of the late 90′s. For years, my secret guide to Google has been Evans and Wurster’s Blown To Bits. [...]

  April 13th, 2007

• Click Fraud Buzz Will Grind On

  What is click fraud? Is it right that the search engines really define the industry meaning of click fraud? What if the search engines are complicit in reducing advertising ROI? What oversight exists? Could an advertiser or agency tell, or do anything about it?

  January 26th, 2007

• Twelve ways, plus a bit, less a few.

  Interesting click fraud chorus starting up here. This thought provoking piece, The 12 Ways of Click Fraud by Mike O’Krongli, is a response to the Andy Beal/Shuman Ghosemajumder articles. See also Andrew Goodman’s piece and his other one. I’m not entirely convinced by all of Mikes’ arguments. In the interests of trying to refine the [...]

  December 15th, 2006

• Google Writes About Click Fraud

  Interesting article, Google, Click Fraud and Invalid Clicks about Google and click fraud, by Matt Cutt’s colleague Shuman Ghosemajumder. There’s at least two categories that I don’t see addressed in the article. Maybe I read it too quickly. Twice. Identifiable robots. Some spiders identify themselves not just by behaviour but in the user agent and [...]

  December 14th, 2006

• Google indirectly promotes click fraud

  Oh, this is witty. Here’s your invite to join Google’s Orkut without needing to be invited by a member. I’m interested in social networking software, so I gleefully joined up. I went looking for communities about AdWords and AdSense. What do you think I’ll find? Something that equals the quality of the Google AdWords Help [...]

  November 18th, 2006