'google' Category

• 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

• Affiliates and Top Position

  I was uncertain what effect the new algorithm changes would have on affiliates. I think I’ve now uncovered what is happening. If you aren’t an affiliate, or don’t run affiliates, this may appear to be of little interest. Bear with me, as I think this article illuminates some important principles with AdWords.
  Ignoring affiliates, for the […]

  August 28th, 2007

• Top Position - Bidders Beware

  Whew! My accounts are mostly set to UK time (inherited from previous account administration). So I have US spend that is now two hours after my midnight, and can clearly see the effects of the new Top Position pricing model. It means that *Phrase* match costs are going through the roof. Now that is not […]

  August 23rd, 2007

• Google, Trust, Content Match, Placement Reports

  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 domain parks simply wastes advertiser funds.

  This is a portion of a screenshot from an account with a content match targeted campaign. It […]

  August 17th, 2007

• Top Position: Higher CTR, Higher MinCPC.

  An article on Search Engine Land adds more information to the flimsy FAQ. So the top position is supposed to have a higher (unpublished and incomparable) CTR as a criterion, and a different (unpublished and incomparable) MinCPC as the qualification to appear.
  The auction still seems to be built on the generalised second price model. […]

  August 10th, 2007

• Google Top Position Pricing Motivational Analysis

  Google announced yesterday (2007/08/08) that the pricing system for placing adverts above organic search results is to change. What effect will this have on advertisers and other Google stakeholders, and what reasons might Google have for doing so?
  As you might expect, a first pass analysis suggests that Google is using this to increase revenue streams. […]

  August 9th, 2007

• Google is destroying the web!

  Adam Lasnik, Google’s missionary to the heathens, fired up to convince webmasters to use links only if they fit the citation model, wrote a few months ago that he and Matt joked that people are often bragging they have an undetectable technique to raise rank. The interview (second link in this paragraph, to Stone Temple) […]

  July 30th, 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.
  New (2008-03)! Google Blog article on click fraud forensics.
  And newer! Richard […]

  July 16th, 2007

• Trademarks and Google AdWords

  Brand owners can use their trademarked names in several ways with Google’s AdWords paid search, for competitive advantage. Control over trademarked names is offered at two levels.

  Worldwide, by country, a brand owner can protect their brand name in AdWords adverts.
  Outside North America (US and Canada), trademark holders can also control which AdWords accounts […]

  May 25th, 2007

• Link Spam, Google Analytics and Content Match

  What concepts join link spam, Google’s web analytics program and AdWords/AdSense Contextual Match? It feels like the challenge the Flying Karamazov Brothers offered. Bring any three items to the show and they’d juggle them. I liked the sticky-slippery combination of bread dough, water melon and whole fish…
  The answer is, of course, Matt Cutts. Specifically […]

  April 30th, 2007