Okay. Google says, "Give us good content and we shall rank you higher" and simultaneously it says, "Pay us and and we shall rank you higher than the ones ranked on good content"! How in the world can these two strategies co-exist in ethical circumstances?
Google doesn't care about website owners. It cares about its users so that its search engine remains relevant and so that it increases revenues in the current quarter in comparison to the previous year.
Tell me... how is a brand, which is ranked higher just because it paid, better for the users than a brand who provides better products / services, but did not pay?
It is not a question of what is better. It's about what users would expect to find for certain searches. Google wants to deliver a diverse range of search results for its queries, and for some keywords, a user would expect to find brands, especially for product/service related searches. I read a SEO article recently which hit the nail on the head. Google doesn't want to make websites popular. It wants to rank popular websites, such as brands/authorities in a niche.
Yes, I understand that. But my question is, Why are the paid ads positioned higher (and thus with more prominence) than the links that reached there on merit?
Because it's profitable for them to position it like that since the top results get more clicks. It's their website and they do what they want the same way you do what makes sense on your own websites. The PPC/organic results are different, you shouldn't be categorizing them as the same thing.
Then why the hullabaloo about quality content, ethics, etc. etc.? On one hand it is supporting good content (because that is actually beneficial to the users) and on the other it is showing the way to escape that. How can these two hands belong to the same body (under ethical conditions)?
How is contextual advertising dissimilar to banner advertising? It simply has integrated its advertising product in a more efficient/natural way into its content.
Efficient - Yes (for the brand that paid). Natural - No. Please explain how is it a natural inclusion? And my problem is not that they are included. My problem is not that are given higher spots than the organic searches either. My problem is, either you say, "pay & stay higher" (which will eventually become "pay more & stay higher") or you say, good content is all you need. You cannot claim both of them simultaneously as they are essentially opposite in functioning.
Agree, sometime you see the ads with product selling and zero information. User search a tax doubt will see quickbooks ads. Whats the purpose of that?
I think you make a fair point. But ultimately Google is a business not a search engine. The more you pay the better you'll rank, but it doesn't do this avertly, but rather through givening more weighting to those using PPC