Being online since 1999 and witnessing the changes that have happened in the way online page results are presented in that time, we fully support the government’s plans to offer greater protection to the online consumer – long overdue in our opinion.
The Government is setting up a single complaints register through Consumer Direct for consumers to report online breaches of consumer laws or other problems they encounter with online transactions (such as non-delivery of goods or services ordered over the internet). The register will be available later this year and you can read more about that here
In the meantime how can consumers protect themselves more?
Well if you recently undertook a Google search, you may have noticed that the Google Ads that take up the top three positions on a search results page have become almost indistinguishable from the organic or natural listings below them. The shaded area that once clearly identified the top three results as Sponsored Listings is now almost the same shade as the natural listings that appear below and is now labelled just “Ads” faintly enough to miss if you’re eyesight is on a par with mine
What does this mean for the searcher, or shall I say the researcher?
Well it’s perfectly possible for a person or group of people to decide that their new online business would be in the kitchen sector, whether they had any experience in this industry or not, and to put that website up and running and making some profit within hours. I’ll focus on the search term “Silestone Worktops” as an example because it’s one of the products we specialise in here at TFI:
What would be a sure fire way of getting visitors to the website with the ultimate aim of ordering the product?
The simple answer is by setting up an internet ad campaign, the cost of which relates only to the popularity of a particular search term in this case, the popular term “Silestone Worktops” To do this will perhaps mean the new website owner/s must bid higher for the term than their rivals to ensure they secure one of the top three positions in the results page.
Next, after setting up the Ad Campaign and for it to pay dividends, they must consider what “hook” to employ in the advert to get visitors to the website.
There’s a number of ways this might work here but as an example let’s try the word “Sale” or “Sale Now On” Most of us will not be able to differentiate between the meaning of “Sale” and “Special Offer” but they are, of course, entirely different.
A “Special Offer “can easily be determined as being authentic by obtaining a quote elsewhere from a seller who wasn’t promoting one and then compare the difference.
The world “Sale” although factually correct, in that it applies to all products offered at a cost – is not ethically correct if utilised as a term designed to attract buyers into thinking that a “Sale” refers to a lower price than is normally offered.
Confusing isn’t it? And it’s meant to be.
Clarity, honesty, and concise description of the history of a company; the goods a company offers; a postal address, details of product warranties that apply and a clear and easily defined description on Special Offers – these are the elements that distinguish us and a number of others from the misleading use of terms that can have a double meaning and may be used to exploit.
We hope very much that this new government initiative will bring online retailers in line with the advertising restrictions imposed quite rightly on bricks and mortar retailers whose misuse of terms and phrases in advertisements are policed by the Advertising Standards Authority, whose remit as of March 11th 2011, was also extended significantly to deliver more comprehensive protection to online consumers
If searching online it’s important to remember that no search engine rep or internet watchdog is as yet, acting on the consumers behalf to vet the businesses appearing in online search results, so effectively anyone can promote goods on priority listings using any number of hoodwinking terms to secure an order. The consumer must research the credibility of an online company with as much vigour as they research any other business before parting with their money.
Whilst you have actually hit on a very valid point about the naughty way Google is cloakiing its Adwords adverts at the top of the natural search rankings, I am afarid you have misunderstood what affects to cost of a keyword click through.
Whilst I am not qualified to comment on your comments about kitchens, I do know a bit about Google Adwords and how they calculate the cost per click.
You say “The simple answer is by setting up an internet ad campaign, the cost of which relates only to the popularity of a particular search term in this case,…..
It is possible to change that cost per click and this is NOT only related to the popularity of the search term. AdWords calculates a Quality Score for all of the keywords you use in the your search campaign. To do this it considers sevral factors to assess how relevant the keyword you have chosen is to the text in your advert. Each keyword’s Quality Score is updated on a regular basis and, most importantly, is closely related to its performance. So an advert that has a high Quality Score will mean that the keyword will trigger adverts in a higher position (possibly in that top bar above the organic search) and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC). So by undertsanding this process you can actually drive the cost per click downwards and sit higher up the page than someone paying twice as much for their cost per click.
So how is the Quality Score calculated?
AdWords Quality Score is a major factor in the AdRank equation i.e. where your advert appears in the search engine ranking results. In essence the formula is very simple:
AdRank (AdWords Page Position) = Bid x Quality Score
It is so important to have a good understanding of Quality Score because it is critical to ensuring your AdWords campaign is successful by reducing the amount you pay Google for clicks.
Oh and by the way, I did find your articles about kitchens most interesting, that was how I came to the blog to start with. I was looking to post a comment for one of my clients with a back link to his site, but saw your post and felt I should clarify it for non-specialists. If you want to find out more take a look at Pay Per Click Advertising
Gordon,
Thanks for your comments on this and it’s clear that you are knowledgeable about the subject . Not being an expert on SEO Ad campaigns but having undertaken a fairly satisfactory job of getting this website ranking where it is I’m left a little confused by your response here.
Just to clarify – are you stating that regardless of the money a company is prepared to pump into an Ad Campaign and the competition for a particular term, let’s say Kitchen Worktops,, it’s the skill of how an advert reads that ultimately determines it’s position in a results page? In effect one company can shell out £1500 per month yet the same term will rank higher for another company forking out a third less if the SEO company they hire compiles an advert using the right formula
If this is the case then choosing an effective and cost saving SEO consultant would be simple based on their previous statistics.
SEO consultants have the most difficult of tasks winning clients given that they must provide tangible and immediate evidence of their success and here we must receive 10-15 e-mails per day requesting that they undertake our SEO. I have to laugh though when I visit some of their company websites and see an appalling rank for a company whose aim it is to achieve others a higher ranking.