How to get your banned site at the top of Google’s results page
In the last year there have been many articles about the hypocrisy of Google. Many times they have been guilty of double standards and have bent their own rules to suit themselves too (keep tabs on Michael Gray’s fantastic SEO Blog if you’re curious about some of these double standards). I came across a post today which exposed one of these double standards and is a great example of how Google are happy to break their own rules if theres a dollar to be made.
Ramiro Gómez from SEO-Expert-Blog.com wrote a great post yesterday entitled ‘Google’s Link Marketing Hypocrisy‘. Ramiro’s post is regarding the advertising network Text Link Ads.
Text Link Ads were famously banned from Google due to the nature of their business ie. selling text links that pass PageRank. You will not find TLA on Google if you search for Text Link Ads or their domain name Text-Link-Ads yet if you search for Links the first sponsored listing is Text Link Ads. I would be very surprised if Google were not aware of this so I can only assume that they know about it and are happy to take TLA’s money. Considering that TLA have been penalized by Google it would be safe to say that they are spending a lot of money on AdWords to bring traffic in and perhaps that’s the reason they don’t mind.
Surely Google needs to have some sort of consistency. Surely any site which is banned or penalized from the SERP’s has to be banned from AdWords too. I can only imagine what Google’s unofficial middle man Matt Cutts thinks about this sort of thing. Matt has wrote many posts about the reason Google has penalized those sites whish pass PageRank and whilst I haven’t always agreed with these reasons, I respect Matt for at least discussing it. However, I have yet to see Matt explain some of the double standards Google has been guilty of in the last few years and to be honest, I don’t blame him, as it would be difficult to defend.
What do you think : Should sites which are banned on Google be allowed to use AdWords to get a top listing in the SERP’s?
* Kudos to Ramiro from SEO-Expert-Blog.com for exposing this.
Anil Gupta | July 31st, 2008 at 9:52 pm #
Google looks to be following double standards on several occasions. When they are given some money, they are even ready to show a banned site. So Google don’t look to have any set of rules and regulations. If they have some, they break them for some money
Vikki | August 1st, 2008 at 10:51 am #
Let’s face it, Google is weird, incomprehensible and hypocritical - note in particular it’s support of the repressive regime in China. Unfortunately it is a quasi-monopoly and until someone comes up with something better we are stuck with it. I recently put up a post about Google and pagerank and shortly afterwards my pagerank was slashed from 3 to 0 - pure coincidence ? Hmmm.
Dax Brady Sheehan | August 1st, 2008 at 1:04 pm #
Pay to Play. What more can I say. A couple things, should they be allowed to use Adwords? No. Will they? Yes, of course it’s Google’s business model. Although it is worth noting that the only reason Google would not allow it is if Link Brokering became illegal or lude… think alcohol, poker, and porno. None of those industries can use Adwords but to my knowledge that is it.
Turning cats in to lions | August 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 am #
What if Google ban text link ads from adwords too. There will only be few options for the tla and publishers and adverisers will suffer eventually. Google may have double standards but if they ban a site from both natural search results and from sponsored ads we can say bye bye to that company. If they start doing that Google will definitely be the GOD of internet and will decide which company to survive and which company to close down. ( Some say Google is GOD anyways…)
Software Development Sydney | August 2nd, 2008 at 3:31 am #
Nice Post! yes ofcourse Google may follows double standards in some cases. If someone gets banned from organic search results they may use TLA to get listed under sponsored listings. But I Hope Google and its TLA Terminology will never comes to an end.
I E | August 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 am #
I never knew that was possible with banned sites.
bilginin adresi bilginin tek kaynağı | August 12th, 2008 at 7:01 am #
if they start doing that Google will definitely be the GOD of internet and will decide which company to survive and which company to close down.