Digithoughts

Google: Your Friend With Benefits

July 02, 2009 by Karen Bellin IN THE IMAGE:

1. A "plasma tv deals" news search returns a results page
2. Google sells ads. The ads sit in "Sponsored Links" areas.
3. Google does not share revenue with publishers whose content has been "sucked" into the results page. Publishers, like WSJ, must provide compelling headlines and text descriptions to entice searchers to click-through to the full story. This makes Google better for searchers and allows publishers to also make money off of Google (when the searcher visits their site.)

A partnership goes two ways. I've looked at how Google benefits your online business, but how does your Web site keep Google in business? For some, the fact that Google sells advertising alongside search results that contain content from their Web site makes Google a blood thirsty "internet vampire" (as interpreted in The Independent) and not a partner at all. "[Google is] 'Sucking the Blood' Out of Newspapers," said WSJ Publisher, Les Hinton in reference to the fact that Google does not share ad revenues from its News site with News publishers. But even if Google did share the revenue, would news publishers share advertising revenue they accrued based on visits referred to their site from Google? Probably not. Site publisher's costs around maintaining Google optimized sites, whether they are ad supported, eCommerce or Lead Generating, impact Google's bottom line. In return for the investment required to devote resources and funds to optimizing a site for Google, Google gets better search engine results pages. With better search engine results pages, Google attracts more searchers and can then sell more advertising. The number 1 thing you do on your Web site that makes Google succeed is having page titles and descriptions that have click-appeal and include carefully researched keyword terms. Google can sell ads alongside the results it "sucks" in based on search terms. If the results were not there or were not quality, no one would use Google. It is an understatement to say that Google expends a lot of effort to surface this type of quality search result to users. In return, you get qualified visits from Google, keep qualified visits away from competitors, raise brand awareness, gain brand credibility and improve your Web based revenue streams. You can see from your Web Analytics reports how many visits Google sends to your Web site. For a lucky few ad supported sites Google sends millions upon millions of visits each year. What are you doing to make the most of your site's "partnership" with Google?