Google tweaks formula to thwart landing-page con artists

While I agree that Google must tackle no content landing pages and click fraud they woudl be well advised to test an algorythm change prior to implementing it in the future. What has now transpired for anyone who is a paying avertiser on google's adwords is that now, even if you are meeting or beating their relevancy requirements ie 2% click through or better and key search word being on the site with relevant information, is that advertisers woke up this morning to having the bulk of their keywords turned off with rediculously high bid prices of anywhere from $2 per click to over $15! PER CLICK These were for advertisers with relevant sites - some getting 8 - 10% click through rates and high relevancy. Mass anger and exodus ocurred today as thousands of blogs listed outraged affilialte and small business advertisers, raging complaints, and a drive to move their busniess to Yahoo and MSN Search. This company needs to learn two basic tenents of good business...one give your paying clients communication that accurately spells out your changes and their potential impacts...and second, a viable way to be contacted. One blog I read today gave an example of a client with keywords shut off without notice and asking prices of $5 per click to turn them back on. When he went to the live chat at Google for help and direction he got a non plussed rep who could not communicate beyond the "scripted" responses. The rep didn't "know why the landing page with a site product matching the key word term" would not be meeting the relevancy nor why a key word at 5 cents per click the day before would now be $5. Most marketing divisions do not read this latest move by Google to be in any way aimed at helping resolve relevancy or fraud but a shameless way to wrench out more money from the vast amount of small advertisers that make up 80% of their advertiser volume. It will be interesting to see the response of so many advetisers - the majority with relevant landing pages - just shut all of their terms off and move on.

Just another inaccurate post with a "scare everyone" heading.

People who implement strategies doing what you say - buying cheap traffic and sending them to pages where they hope to turn a profit by having that visitor click on a more expensive ad - isn't a con. It's not fraud.

It's just savvy marketers fulfilling a need.

It's called a market. It's a way someone can add value to a searchers experience by providing more relevant/better information (better ads).

There would be better ways to deal with what Google sees as the issues.

Hi Brendon,

I have to respectfully but completely disagree. The "little to no content" pages that feature a plethora of Google AdWords ads are not fulfilling any legitimate marketing need I can fathom. These website operators are just pushing fraud, plain and simple. If you can point me to a website that's high on a Google search that actually has useful content and not ads littering the page, I'd be happy to look at it, but I doubt my opinion will change.

From the industry comments I've read, the algorithm changes appear to be affecting AdWords advertisers unilaterally, so I do not think it's fair to suggest that the algorithm change was designed to eliminate AdWords to AdSense arbitragers, just because the update is about the quality score of the landing page.

The stupid decision on Google's part was to make a sudden change that unilaterally affects its customers without informing them before the fact or supporting them after the fact.

It's not about fraud, it's about hubris.

Who pays most of these "fraudsters and criminals" pennies at a time? How about Google and Yahoo!

I think it is more criminal to blog ignorantly about an issue than it is to create a profitable low or no value site. At least the other guys are honest about the value of their content.