When search engines attack…
I want to share with you today, a story that is all about love, hatred and betrayal. It is an inspiring and gripping tale that will leave you wondering what the next chapter will bring. You can rest assured that there will be no end to this saga.
At it’s core, this is a classic story line. You know it very well, I’m sure. It is the quintessetional “boy meets search engine” tale. For those of you who are unaware, it goes something like this: Boy meets search engine, boy becomes besotted by the power and unparalled reach of the search engine, search engine kicks boy to the curb (for no apparent reason), boy’s account is suspended and his once thriving business is shut down overnight.
What I have just described, is the most recent round of ‘slaps’ for Adwords advertisers. For the purposes of this story, we’ll refer to the boy as “Cam” and the search engine as “Google” (this is actually based on a true story 
.
From the very start, we could see the unbelievable power of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to our landing pages. It is fast, targetted and when done well, yields an extremely high ROI. We knew that the top earners rely almost exclusively on PPC to generate the number of leads necessary to build a profitable business in this industry. So from day one, Cam immersed himself in learning PPC. After a couple of months of full throttle study, he unleashed our campaign, and within four months, we had been recognized with a master marketing award by CCPro. It was a giddy ride. Cam loved the science and precision of PPC. We could see immediately which of our campaigns were working, and which weren’t. Our campaigns delivered us highly qualified leads within hours of turning them on, almost more than we could handle in fact.
But then the rules of engagement changed. Google, partly at the behest of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) went on the rampage in the home based business industry. Any Adwords campaigns that drove traffic to landing pages which were replicated, or obvious “biz opp” pages, were shut down. Use of trademarked company names in Adwords campaigns, such as Liberty League International, Lifepath or Global Resorts Network, also led to the shut down of the campaign.
Now, in some cases, accounts were ‘slapped’, and advertisers received a warning. In other cases, accounts were suspended (definitely more serious). Worse, some advertisers were advised in writing, that Google would not accept any advertising from them ever again.
Obviously, this is pretty devastating, but when we consider what has happened in the context of why it has happened, it is actually not as grim as you might imagine.
Having spent a lot of time listening to people such as Perry Marshall, Dr Glenn Livingston, Frank Kern and Cherie Yvette (as well as gleaning information from Google itself), it has become apparent that a couple of forces are at work here. Firstly, the FTC is cracking down on the home based business industry in a big way.
It would seem that there is a strong move to clean up the “get rich quick” marketers who extract a lot of money from people who are chasing a dream, and are generally not well suited to work this type of business (these same marketers give this industry a very bad name). This is a very good thing. For those of us conducting our businesses online with integrity and professionalism, this will narrow the pack considerably. It will also protect consumers to a greater degree than ever before.
Google enjoys market share online (a staggering 83.5% amongst a field of thousands of search engines), and the reason why, is because it consistently delivers value to searchers in the form of relevant, current and unique information on each and every search. So you can understand why Google might be inclined to crack down on replicated websites.
This is where a solid understanding of marketing principles is going to be absolutely critical to your success online. You will need to know how to research what your niche is searching for, and how to deliver that information to them in a professional manner. And the principles that underpin the way the search engines function are not likely to change in dramatically in any way, other than to continue to tighten up to protect searchers/consumers when they are online looking for products, services, businesses and information.
You have now joined the ‘Information Marketing’ industry. You will need to learn how to research and present high quality relevant information online, and in doing so, position yourself as a person of value and a leader.
So, in the final wash up, the ending is not necessarily the disaster it first appeared to be. Increase your value to the world, present your business in an honest and professional way, and stay abreast of search engine requirements (by tapping into as much training in the CCPro back office as you can), and you should be well positioned to enjoy a happy ending.
Make today a great one.
Cheers,
Respectfully,
Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
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