SEO Chat Article: Google Cracks Down on Arbitragers (2006-07-25) I think this means that some Adsense publishers may see higher cents per click. On the other hand it'll mean more ads for MFA at the top of the ads, but Google are hoping that this will price them out of the game. Cryo.
The article says, "Cracks Down", like they are stopping drug smugglers. Click arbitrage shouldn't be associated with terms like "crack down" and other negative connotations. Arbitrage happens all over the world, nearly everything you buy you are buying from a middle man who is making money. What industry do you actually buy direct from the manufacturer?
Its true, I don't think arbitrage should be looked down on as something dodgy or anything like that because I feel its is being creative on the part of those who are good at it. However, I do think it puts downward pressure on the bidding process. Also, it leads to a lot more MFA's, which in turn could lead to snart pricing as a result of a lack of conversion. So, I don't blame if Google tries to come down hard on the arbitrage process.
"Google" is an uncountable noun. Shouldn't it be "Google is", not "Google are"? Nah, I'm just kidding. Just trying to spark a UK vs USA English debate.
From the posting at the Google blog that I read, it sounded like Google is trying to weed out AdWords advertisers who do not have much in the way of content on their sites. The algorithm now favors sites with strong content profiles over MFA type sites or those which only offer a sales pitch on the landing page. That type of advertiser will need to pay more to rank equal with a lower paying advertiser with great content. IMHO this is a needed change not only in the AdWords links but in the general search results. I know of a lot of people -- especially university students -- who do not believe Google searches return relevent results. In fact, some think MSN returns better results. The problem is sites which are keyword rich, but content poor advertising bulletin boards. They were polluting the top page of search results and the accompanying AdWords ads with zero-content sites. The problem is people search for content not sites where every link is an ad of one sort or another. To retain mind-share, Google needs to keep making it harder for such sites to appear high in the results.
I wrote a detailed article on the new landing page algo and how it works at Search Engine Watch. And I did a piece on how this could affect arbitragers as well. It is an interesting issue, and the new algo is targeting more than simply those who have a lot of AdSense on their landing pages.
I've noticed that some of my niche specific sites are receiving a higher CPC. Not a huge difference but enough for me to notice.