Agreed, one of my main keywords that i target shows a yahoo group as a number one spot, not really relevant if you ask me, and there are plenty more examples of irrelevancy. And i do run Adwords.
Ditto, I think that G has moved away from the idea of providing the most relevant information to the consumer to the idea that "we need to make sure that we are different than our competitors and all these SEO's are not able to work us to their liking". This is just my personal opinion...
They have traffic and they want to be paid (it is a profit center). Google is a media company (they sell advertising) with the search engine being a tool used to sell advertising, more and more folks will come to realize this and will understand that you must pay to play in the advertising business Sure if you have something that is noteworthy (content) you will get editorial listings in the SERP's, but if you want to come up in every keyword you target you are going to have to buy ADWORDS if you want action, it is as simple as that.
Well that is what Google is, M$, Yahoo and Google are getting ready for the convergence of the internet with television and folks better get ready for full blown Digital Video websites and much different content being presented on websites, sort of like online TV stations down the road. Remember television is all advertising supported and that is where the WWW is going, no stopping it, money talks in business, those that can not make a PROFIT will not survive. Remember the DOT COM BUST, those that could not make profit on their sales are no longer here, so websites that can not turn a profit can not survive long. If your ADWORDS investments are profitable that means you can buy more ADWORDS and duplicate the success in different keywords. It is all science and testing just like a mail order campaign test different kinds of mailing lists to see if that list is profitable to mail to. They will test a few thousand names on the list and if the test is successful they will mail to a larger percentage of the list. You can do the same thing with online advertising, run small tests and if they make money increase the ads on a larger scale. The way we remember is fading away, it will be a different ballgame 5 years from now.
Anthony, there will still be some organic serch for a while yet.. If digital video websites get there before organics are entirely removed then how will seo for them be. Also, I don't believe Google will go for advertising only for a long time yet.. 5 Years ago was the millenium bug. Consumers are slow to move, even if the cutting edge is already there. Google has lots of markets to take first, before it needs to run advertising only, especially mobile and public areas. I think all available channels will be truly milked first, as the idea of Google originally was to list every piece of info available in the world..
Rounde, what I am saying is that the advertising industry has always given much more editorial content to major advertisers and Google will be no different down the road, there are always conflicts of interest where money is involved. You may watch the major news networks and there are always bias stories in the form of "news items" that focus on a major advertisers products. Microsoft invested in a joint venture with NBC = MSNBC General Electric owns CNBC, so they get all kinds of "free editorial content" and publicity from this, would you call this conflict of interest?
moral conflict of interest but good business model Although, the situation is a little better here in the UK.. Its the 12,000 schools where kids have to watch advertising over there that worries me What I am really trying to work out is websites with no links or text (pure interactive dynamic video) how would you sort out the serps with that? Theres no content to begin with.
Do a search on "Google Video Search", "Yahoo Video Search", MSN Video Search" and you will see how they are all rushing into this because of convergence of TV and the WWW
Yeah, but that isnt a real solution.. that only deals with the prerecorded.. so that will become just an archive search..
Television shows have text integrated so folks that are deaf can still watch and understand what folks are saying, don't you think that video files will have the same (CC)
yeah, but I am not talking about something that is prerecorded, the use of AI, Avatars, video etc.. all of this will mean that there is nothing to close caption.. does that make sense ?
Has anyone come up with a minimun budget plan to stay in the game if it comes down to no pay no play? Are there some guidelines I may have missed about advertising on a tight budget?
I have one site that holds 1's, 2's, and 3's in Google, Yahoo and MSN. I have another that rocks in Yahoo and MSN but not in Google. It's just a matter of time for Google to give you the credit you think you deseve, if you have a quality site and don't give up.
All depends on your industry and ROI.. If you spend a dollar on advertising you need to get more than that in sales obviously
I'm not even selling yet really. My only measure so far has been to say that using a PPC system I'm paying about $1.00 per member on our forums. I'm creating a static html motorcycle facts glossary for content to hopefully get recognized as an expert site on our subject too. Anyway, I was just curious what other folks do at a minimum paid advertising wise now and what we may have to do if the game gets to be 100% pay to play.
How does the Google browser and linking toolbar fit into the situation, will advertisers get links by the linking toolbar before non-advertisers?
I found out the hard way on how depending on getting something for nothing works in the world of business. It does not work For years my company belonged to an industry information group that let us list our product line in their database for free and charged the users to access the database to search for products. Then when the economy turned bad in 2000 or so, they implemented a $795.00 listing fee for ALL SUPPLIERS. We paid it for a couple of years and were fine, but when business slowed further due to the economy we did not pay the bill on time and were delisted. That was devastating to the business as we were removed from the supplier database. Business is not fair, you get what you PAY for in the end and if you can not PAY, then you can not play. Business is not a playground as some webmasters seem to think it is, it is a ruthless place and if you can not grow your cash flow your competition will crush you in time. Look at what M$ did to Netscape. Why do you think Google is grabbing as much cash as they can, M$ is going to try to kill them too
Yep, so are you no longer doing any seo? now you have a real job? I never wanted to get into the business of traffic.. Its a risky living.. pm me if you are interested in an unusual project..