As inevitable as the pigeon dropping a little white present onto your shoulder on your new suit’s first outing, the Google Adwords algorithm and quality score system has been updated…again. I’ve got a feeling this may happen a lot more frequently.
To be fair to The Big G, they appear to be trying to do something to improve the quality of adverters which its customers click on every split second of every day. Their latest attempt is to reduce the amount of “arbitrage” …which we all see a lot of. Put simply, we should see less spammy websites advertising on the Adwords system.
These guys throw together a domain and hosting package with barely any content and zero added value. They simply place some high paying Googe, Yahoo and Miva ads onto their pages with the assumption that people leaving their site will make them more money than the cost to bring them in. A simple technique which has been going on for years now, but the market is slowly catching up. This firstly begs the question, why has it taken until now to cut out these spammers. And secondly, we all want to know how this algorithm works! No doubt, the first has a lot to do with the bottom line…money.
Now that this measure has been introduced, it will be interesting to see what happens to various sites. No doubt forums and blogs around the world will be talking about it. We’d expect (and like) to see these sorts of spammers hit hard by the new update. But what about some of the bigger spammers (!) like MoneySupermarket? Here’s an example of their Adwords landing page. Now, they’re showing customers their comparison tool and enough content which relates to the search term. However, they also blast plenty of advertising in your face. How will they be affected? In line with this then, what about OMG and Tradedoubler ads? They’re used to the same degree as the paid for text ads but it may be difficult for an algorithm to distinguish between a legitimate advertising deal and a spammer. Will it simply work on the amount of content surrounding the ads? A simple fix for the spammers. I’d be interested to see how these sites change in their attempts to out smart the algorithm update.
Here’s one final thought…this update is coming from Google. Some spammy advertisers carry Google’s ads – for which Google gets revenue. Will the Google algorithm punish those arbitrage artists showing Yahoo and Miva ads more than those showing Adwords ads? It would seem to make sense. What do you think?
The Insurance IndustryAn Entrepreneur's Perspective
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Talking of arbitrage spammers…this guy is even listing himself as a product on FleaBay to get the traffic through his Tradedoubler tags!
Do you have any idea what you are talking about?
@Gaz – care to clarify what you don’t agree with? I presume you don’t work for shopsdirect.com?!
No I don’t. What I am questioning is the fact that you have in essence above labeled any website which has advertising as a spam site. You use the money supermarket website as an example. I agree that perhaps that site has too much advertising but I wouldn’t consider it spamming.
Personally I tend to see sites with 3+ Google Adsence blocks on them as spam. Any sites that use trade doubler or commission junction etc tend to have to go through some sort of editorial or review before potential advertisers will let them use their adverts.
One other thing is that most spam sites hardly make any money and so don’t advertise on Google or Yahoo etc…
I think you need to revisit how you have put the post above and just look at it again, the post is good in highlighting the quality score issue but it could have some more in depth detail and analysis.
Sorry about my “Do you have any idea what you are talking about?” message, I tend to get a bit over zealous in my criticisms. I guess we all live and learn.
@Gaz – no problems with the over zelaous approach. You can probably tell that my posts are written more from an emotional stance than anything else
My comment about Moneysupermarket was intended to highlight that there must be a grey area. Technically, advertising revenue is being earned, regardless of weather it is PPC to PPC or PPC to affiliate links/advertising deals. If anti-arbitrage measures are intended to prevent PPC to PPC where’s the line drawn after that? Open ended question really as there isn’t really a black or white solution.
I can see how my post looks like an attack on Moneysupermarket. My (!) was intended to show a drier sense of non-existent humour in that Moneysupermarket are purely bigger – whether they’re different or indeed spammers depends on the grey line.
As all good exam questions like to end – discuss…
With most commercial website you can understand why the adverts are there, in the case of Moneysupermarket’s website I guess they are there to provide another source of whatever the user is looking for if they cant find what they want. The fact there is a commission attached is somewhat irrelevant and any good business would make money in such a way.
The concern for me comes from MFA sites with no content, nothing useful and piles of advertising. If the site has relevant information, a tool, or a comparison engine like the Money Supermarket site then I don’t see how it can be classed as spam.
I have personally used the website and have got my motor insurance from it so you could call me a little biased.
I would name some sites that are spammy but I don’t like to name names.
One point I would like to make, and what I would consider spam, is domain squatters with some directory structure type site where there is no content and every link is a revenue generating one. Sites that like should be banned, they are really quite annoying.
That’s exactly my point though Gaz. You’ve pointed out the extreme case where a site’s entire content is advertising …which it would seem The Big is on to.
But who decides where the line is draw after that? You obviously have an affiliation towards Moneysupermarket (judging by your original emotional reponse). However, I would tend to agree that a commercial site such as that can benefit from advertising when customers are looking for the quickest exit as they can’t find what they want!
The problem is, how much advertising is too much – as a measurable entity. There are plenty of pitfalls for search engines here – they’ve got to define and recognise the advertising content before they decide on the parameters and judgements.
Care to name some of the spammy sites you make reference to? What are your borderline examples and extreme cases in your opinion?
Ill have a look and see what I can find. I don’t tend to write them down I just close the window instantly