Can deceptive ads help sites to rank? Pogosticking effect involved...
-
Hello,
I have a question for you.I have noticed that many music sites that appear in the first top results for keywords our users search for, include all the same ads that deceive people by inviting them to "Download" or get the "Full Album" of what people may be search for.
Look at the following websites that are often displayed at the first spots for keywords like "Christmas Sheet Music" (just an example):
[....]
They all have, most of the times, the same ads. Look at the following screenshots taken from the sites above (the ads are at the top of the page):
http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/storage/google/Shot1.jpg
http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/storage/google/Shot2.jpgThose deceptive ads could engage users more than legitimate websites not showing those ads or not showing ads at all, making Google think that people are more engaged on those website showing those deceptive ads.
If it is quality that Google is looking for, shouldn't they do something to avoid having sites ranking well just because of some deceptive ads that take users into action, but without any useful result?
I am eager to know your ideas on this issue.
Thanks!
Fab.
-
Ok, I understand what you mean, but I do think that those kind of ads (the ones you can see in the screenshot links I posted above) could let Google think that users are "engaged" inside the website more just because they clicked those ads and didn't get back to Google (pogosticking effect). That would actually affect rankings. Do you see what I mean?
Thank you.
-
Could visitors engaging the ads help them rank?
In my opinion, yes, maybe.
How might your site benefit from this idea?
A) Those ads are google adsense, so you could sign up for adsense and run those ads too. If they are getting clicked by the huge percentage of people that you suspect then you could make the same money that they are making.
B) You could make a nice portfolio of printable music and offer it for free. Offer it conspicuously at the top of the site, just like those ads. Lots of people would accept your generous offer. That would get your site some great engagement and get lots of people printing sheet music from your website - which might bring people back to make a purchase.
C) You could get really aggressive and offer lots of free music. You could do that in a variety of ways... offer them the first page for free... they could then try playing and see if it is at the right level for them, if it is an arrangement that they like, they can come back and buy the rest. Offer tons of free music for beginners. Offer a different selection of free music each month. Lots of people will come back over and over to see what you have. Some of them will become buyers, all of them can be shown ads.
There are many ways to structure free printables. I have a website that offers lots of free printables (not related to music). Printables had 160,000 visitors last month and 522,000 pageviews (not counting pdf views). I don't sell the products that are given away for free, I make money from the ads. The income was more than a lot of retail sites make. Free printables can be a great business model.
-
Those ads are generated by Google AdSense to target the user - you. Google keeps track of your search history and pages you've visited to generate relevant ads to increase clicks and sales for the companies paying for those ads.
So in short, the ads have nothing to do with the sites rankings. The fact that they are the same is explained by them being AdSense ads.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
# of links and how it impacts ranking
Hi everyone I was running a competitor analysis in Moz Pro of my site and 3 competitors that are ranked above me. One of the things I noticed is that my # of total links is very high compared to 2 of my competitors(please see attachment). Other seo tools are telling me the same. This is mainly due to a few affiliate sites that have us in their footer. I was wondering if this could impact our ranking if some of these sites have very low domain authority and have thousands of backlinks to our site? I am looking into starting the disavowing process. Walau
Competitive Research | | wdsguy0 -
How on earth is this site ranking so highly?
I'm trying (& struggling) to rank for the keyword property in italy. Yet in the past 5 weeks I've seen this site -- betterpropertyitaly (dot) com -- rocket from about #30 to #2 for the keyword and am trying to figure out why. The obvious is that it's in the domain name, but that can't be the be-all-and-end-all, surely? It's a 2 yr 9 mth old site, so why the sudden spurt? I look in Open Site Explorer and the metrics look pretty weak: Domain Authority: 17 Page Authority: 29 Linking Root Domains: 9 Absolutely zero social shares. Good luck to him and all -- but I'm trying to figure out what he's doing right and I'm not. My site apart, he's beating some pretty big-hitters.
Competitive Research | | Jeepster0 -
Feed sites replacing my pages in SERP
I have a problem! Sites like:
Competitive Research | | pycckuu
http://lynk.ly/
http://www.yousaytoo.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://friendfeed.com/ Are replacing my posts even if i am searching for an exact title of the post. For example this search query:
Christmas Party Style Sets With Black Cocktail Dresses Original post here:
http://richclubgirl.com/christmas-party/christmas-party-style-sets-with-black-cocktail-dresses/ How do i fight this issue? I want to stay on these sites somehow! Thanks in advance!0 -
Local Real Estate Site vs Larger National Sites
Hello all, I am a local realtor that created my website with an idx feed. I am on page one but at the bottom. Question is how can a local real estate website rank better in the SERPS than the larger national brands? Any tips out there from those who have worked with real estate websites and seo? I'm trying to out rank the larger sites for my main keywords. Thanks all.
Competitive Research | | bronxpad0 -
Why is this site ranking #1?
I've done extensive research into http://www.maggiesottero.com/ and cannot come up to any definitive conclusions as to why this site is ranking #1 for the term "wedding dresses." The page is not optimized for the keyword. **Any thoughts? **
Competitive Research | | craigsmith3330 -
Best Way to Consolidate Domains/Rankings After Purchase of Competitor
One of my customers is buying a competitor. The competitor has a site that usually ranks just 1-2 spots below the main site that we manage for them (our site has been up for about a year, and their's is 15-years old). I am wondering what is the best way to consolidate the rankings/websites to take advantage of the purchase of the competitor's web assets. I would love to leave both sites up and just get 2 top-25 links to our products, but with no more marketing being done under the competitor's name, I assume their rankings will degrade. Would a basic 301 re-direct on a page-by-page basis be enough to 'steal' all of the juice their domain name/site has built? Is there some other method of using an older domain to boost the rankings of a newer one (I am assuming they only rank as well as we do because of how long they've been active - all of our metrics are better than theirs across the board). Thanks for any help/advice the community here can provide!
Competitive Research | | dschapira0 -
Search shows site links, but not hyperlinked?
2 of our competitors on Google have site links show in their results which brings you to that specific page. In our listing we show up with the same results a few spots behind them with our site links visible showing very similar content, but are not actually hyper linked. Is there a way to fix the issue and let people actually be able to click on our site links instead of just reading them?
Competitive Research | | sknott0 -
Competitor with over 100,000 links to duplicate copy ranks well, anyone know why?
One of our competitors has over 100,000 links on Yahoo site explorer, most of them are from pages on their site with duplicate content and they don't seem to have a focus on gaining backlinks, but the site still ranks really well. Can anyone think of a reason why this duplicate content hasn't been penalised by Google?
Competitive Research | | RobertHill0