The webmaster tools area at google is their way to communicate with webmasters, but they have failed in that. It's a one-way communication where webmasters needs support in many different areas still we don't get our questions answered. Google believes their webmaster tool area is everything we need, but it's not! What do you think about the google webmaster tools area?
I think they are good. PPC - Analytics (organics as well) - Website Optimizer - Campaign Optimizer - Conversion Optimizer To mention a few. There is something to be said about your statement though. These tools are focused on building your confidence in spending MORE MONEY in AdWords. If you use these tools right you can absolutely increase ROI. What is rarely discussed is the upwards of 30% click fraud in AdWords. Over-all Google's "connect the dots" suite of tools for webmasters sets them apart from all other SEs. Do I think they are doing this because they really care about my success? Nope . H
They are good at their part .. If goolge starts communication with the webmasters then they will need a lot of customer representatives and indirectly a lot of budget for all this .. which is not feasible solution for google I think ...
I pulled all my sites out of webmasters tools and analytics a few weeks ago. Deleted my gmail account and am in the process of phasing out adsense on my sites in favor of direct advertising. I don't like being spied on and certainly don't want my web visitors tracked by Google. It's a privacy issue.
That is exactly the trade off. Who owns the data? When Google compiles all the conversion data along with analytic data together they will be able to tell you what you are thinking before you think it . Make no mistake, these great tools come at a very steep price. Most folks don't care but you should, because when Google gets all this data you are the last thing on their mind. It is important to remember they are running a business and no lunch is free. There are major privacy issues with ALL Google tools. In a sense, you are working for Google, free! Agree with Bryce and thanks for the Greens microbrain ! Cheers, H
Homer, I'd like to mention that statistic on a blog post, what is your source for that particular percentage? I searched for adwords fraud and I found some stuff from 2004/2005 and other not so recent material, but not 30% or any numbers to tell you the truth. In fact, 30% fraud in adwords also translated to some fraud against us publishers....doesn't it?
Very interesting action from your side, btw which analytics prorgram do you use instead of google's ?
Hi jmafonseca. I actually work as a PPC Manager/Analytics for an internet marketing firm. I am very busy with BS like this. Server logs constantly show repeatetive clicks from single IP's. Some of our clients spend over 50k/mnth. They are the ones that seem to get hit the worst. Google does take action and has never questioned it. They have always given full refunds. The refunds I see are more than most people make in a year. Google is good about it but I can't help wondering about the people that don't check their own server logs. Source The figure of 30% is one that I keep seeing. Admittedly Google's fraud detection seems good but why do I have to keep submitting server logs and why isn't their fraud detection software picking this up? That said, nothing touches the results you can get from Google AdWords. Combine other PPC engines... Yahoo, MSN, Facebook all together and it's not even close. Don't get me wrong I am not really Google bashing, I just don't like the time I have to spend on this. Here's a good read on this. From my perspective it's a time waster when we have so many clients to manage in our MCC. Here's me chasing click fraud because a client complains. I have other PPC tasks I'd certainly rather be doing Cheers, H
Homer, You're absolutely right and while we're on opposite sides of the story - advertiser & publisher, you as a PPC manager and myself as a publisher, it makes no sense that Google just doesn't do simple auditing and weed out duplicate IP's, etc.. I'm a programmer/DBA/sysadmin by trade (obviously you understand that us "IT" workers generally wear many hats even if we don't get compensated for it). I've worked with huge databases such as the full $1mil per month licensed Experian data set and had to de-dupe and bounce them against the state and federal DNC lists for tele-marketing. Massive data on Cray or DEC systems (un*x of course running Oracle) - but Google supposedly has all this technology - so WHY can't they simply audit, de-dupe and handle it??? I'm not Google bashing either. I'd love to see Google regress to what they initially introduced themselves as... The "do no evil" company, however, the past is past and no matter how hard we cry, our tears evaporate before they hit the "Google" ground. We all live in hope that someone might listen but let's face facts, there's a reason Google doesn't audit clicks or de-dupe IP's.... Simple as that, de-dupe IP's and you solve click-fraud because all they can get is "just one click". I'm sure 99% of Adwords customers would agree and 100% of legit publishers would love it if we could click (minus earnings) on the ads running on our sites to see what our visitors are getting pitched to them. Simple... Like A - B - C but it's not a profitable model...
Previously there has been a lot of issues using the webmasters tools. Most common which I encounter myself is the sitemap submission error and then after that, the disappearance of all my external links. But all that has been solved for now. I think you are right to mention it's one-way communication because back then none of my queries to them regarding the problem was ever answered.