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The battle between Google and webmasters, quality content versus what makes money fast, continues.
Search Engine Roundtable picked up on discussions humming along at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint. At both sites, webmasters believe they have been hit with a "Google Slap," an increase in keyword bids stemming from Google's believe a site violates its AdWords quality guidelines.
DigitalPoint Logo "The reports all come from advertisers noticing a major change in their minimum bids as of yesterday, March 5, 2008," Barry Schwartz wrote.
Minimum bids for ad groups began hitting the $10 mark, to the chagrin of posters on those boards. Google's action deemed their sites of Poor quality, meaning unless the pages/sites in question receive fixes that Google approves, those bids will stay high.
"They are trying to milk out more money per click," one DigitalPoint poster fumed. "Especially after that Comscore erroneous article put their stock in a tailspin a couple weeks ago."
The simplest answer could be the correct one: Google just got around to reviewing the sites in question, and penalized them as per AdWords terms of service. Commentary on the boards doesn't suggest the sites being Google Slapped were of exceptional use to their visitors, high click-through rates or otherwise.
If they were, I think we would see webmasters publishing links to the sites with the newly-administered $10 bids, and demanding someone point out what Google might dislike about those pages. That isn't happening, though.
Retailers Panic Over Google Site SearchBeating The Unbeatable GoogleGoogle Sacrifices Clicks To Increase Advertiser ROIGoogle Fear Hits AT&T Square In The JawYahoo Patent Filing Sheds Light On PageRank Google Adwords GuideGoogle AdWords Case Is Sadly FunnyGoogle Tweaks AdWords Site TargetingGoogle Related Links With Ads Is Google Hitting Directory Links? 
Comments
Just Leave Google
I use a new searc h engine called Megaglobe and honesly it works fine for me. Google has never been cool with advertisers anyway and I cannot rely on them to make sales right now.
Google has always been evil.
Google has always been evil. Google's philosopy is take money from webmasters and then treat them like dirt.
Google Slap? Webmasters Slap Back
Google, Paypal and Ebay, what a trio. I wonder how many business people have left all 3 of those and are waiting for suitable replacements? Now there is a market just waiting for someone to pickup the slack.
Google has gone evil
Amen... nothing else to say here.
Google has gone evil
Well I'm in the sales business and not in the content business. When people come to my Dodgeballs.com to buy dodgeballs.... that's what they get. When they come to my weightlossprogram.com - they come to buy weightloss products (which they do). Apparently some Blogger talking about how fat they are and stressed out is more relevant to Google. My VoIPService.com ..... same thing - "buying customers" get what they are looking for.
I don't give a rat's ass about Google any more and I refuse to build my business around them. Some day when the masses of webmasters get enough guts .... they won't care as well and Google's importance will not be that important anymore. Until then - when Google says "jump" - their "webmaster slaves" will jump. I'm not a web design guru and am a salesperson/marketer. I'm a simpleton which apparently "buying customers" like (the important ones).
One day you are on Google's goodside - the next day their evil twin shows up. I can honestly say that I got a better ROI with Yahoo and MSN anyway .... even before my misc. sites Google Adwords determines should cost me $10 a click. Obviously I couldn't afford to do any advertising if "buying customers" weren't purchasing products from my sites.
By the way - Google Adsense gave me a 7 day notice (2 months ago) they were divorcing me "after" I asked them a question twice regarding a lingerie site of mine (Never ask Google a question is good advice) .... the reason "they decided they didn't like my business model". They never did answer the question by the way. I'm in the midst of finding an adequate advertising replacement and hope that Yahoo releases their competitive system out of Beta soon. I've always prided myself in providing very targeted "customer" traffic for my merchants and my advertisers. I may attempt to sell ads directly but it's so time consuming.
Interesting side note from an email from one of my lingerie merchants I just received - " On behalf of The HollywoodExoticwear.com team I would like to congratulate you for the number of sales you brought to our company, we would like to let you know that we value your effort and we would like to encourage you to do so by increasing your commission" .... That's right .... my business model is so bad that customers are purchasing products from me and merchants are increasing my commission levels. I really don't care if Google or other webmasters don't like my sites because I know that "buying customers" do. "Buying Customers" are the only good determination of what "exceptional use to their visitors" really is (THAT'S A FACT!). Google is not serving the end user whatsoever with their evil criteria - that also is a fact.
I am a firm believer that many of the review sites being put up to satisfy Google are filled with "fake reviews" as well. Does that help anyone? When I was trying to keep my relationship with Google Adsense I asked them if I was supposed to write a review about how one dodgeball provided less of a "Smmmmack" then the other? Apparently they didn't like my sarcasm (Ha). My sites save customers time by getting to the point with very little fluffy content. (Note - if I had "How-to" websites - there would be content. I prefer "buy some products" websites.)
Unfortunately .... I also happen to be a Google stockholder since right after the IPO. I'm hoping for a rebound in their massively declining stock price and then I wanna sell out. Every single webmaster knows that Google is very vulnerable when it comes to their Adsense system if Yahoo or even MSN comes out with their model. Many of the smaller advertising networks like Adbrite, Adengage, Bidvertiser, Adtoll, etc... also are gaining many customers.
By the way ... which phrase is the bigger lie?
"I didn't inhale" or "Don't be evil!"
Larry Wentz "Simpleton Site Designing, Customer Producing Fool"
I Got Googled
I totally agree with this comment and you are right on track. At first my theory was for the natural search, Google was making us turn to information/how-to websites with lots of (worthless) content. They said they wanted to provide thier users quality content. However, what they were really doing is providing natural search with content crap forcing "Buy Products" sites to advertise through Adwords. If I want to buy a pair of red shoes, I dont want to read an article on red shoes and the history of how red shoes were made, I want to see them and buy them. If you search for something on Google now, the natural results give you a bunch of worthless information and its almost impossible to find what your looking for. That is untill you realized that the product you want to buy is advertised by Adwords. It is a shame they would stoop to that sort of deceipt but, they did.
Now they are using the same tactics with Adwords as they did with natural search. They are saying one thing but we know the real reasons is their bottom line dollar. I am an affiliate promoting a babysitting service. My website is entirely about babysitting and where to find one. It has lots of good info on babysitting services and my customers like the site. It converts at 1:50. Not anymore, how can a site entirely about babysitting have to pay $7.50 a click. Not me. Yahoo, MSN, here I come.
Right on Target
Been there and doing that! I made the same mistake I was making money. I too cannot wait for MSN and Yahoo and I am using Adbright .You should also check out Kontera. Bidvertiser was a waste of time. good luck!
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