Digithoughts

Is your ad-supported Web site at the mercy of Google?

There is one Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that can be used to determine how to value Google as a partner in your success: it’s % of Total Revenue referred by Google.

This KPI is my answer to the recurring debate around whether Google is parasitic or symbiotic when it comes to ad-supported Web sites.

The latest version of the debate came to my attention via Twitter when Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Web Spam team, tweeted a link to a Techdirt post that debunks the statement "Google devalues everything".

This statement was uttered by Robert Thomson, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, when he was a guest on the Charlie Rose show.

The Techdirt blog debunks this statement very well. But, it doesn't answer the question of just how much value Google adds to ad-supported Web sites.

If you don't understand exactly how much Google influences the success of your online business, you are missing out on opportunities to put your site ahead of the competition.

Exactly How Much Does Google Influence Your Bottom Line?

If you have an e-commerce site, you may discover that you can credit more than 50 percent of your revenue to your symbiotic relationship with Google. The KPI to look at in your case is relatively straight-forward:

• % Total Revenue referred by Google

For newspaper Web sites, which are ad-supported, page views and video views can be used as a stand-in for revenue via ad impressions. Each page view represents a set number of ad impressions and each video view represents a set number of video ad rolls.

By looking at two KPI you may see that more than 20 percent of your ad impression revenue is courtesy of Google:

•  % Total Monetized Pages Viewed by Visitors referred by Google
•  % Total Monetized Videos Viewed by Visitors referred by Google

For sites like WSJ.com, where premium content is available to online subscribers only, an additional KPI will help you to realize just how much Google contributes to your business:

•  % Total Subscription Revenue referred by Google.

As a site operator you work hard to continually improve your site navigation, your video inventory, your products' reputation and form completion rates. Unless you are doing extensive testing or behavioral targeting, all visitors will experience your site at the same point in its evolution regardless of how they get there. Maintaining an even playing field for visitors from all sources ensures that these KPI are fair indicators of Google's value to your business.

Now That You Value Google's Contribution, What Can You Do About It?

These KPI can also be used to provide insight into how to diversify the means by which visitors find and consume your monetized site content. If Google goes down, or you lose your rankings, you can use these KPI to inform your contingency plan for the inevitable revenue loss.

Drilling down into these KPI can also clue you in on how to harness Google as a business partner. By making content accessible and frequently infusing new content that is relevant to searchers, Google may send more and more valuable visitors to your site. Meanwhile, ad-supported sites can focus on creating more ad inventory and innovative sponsorships, while building a visitor base that is appealing to advertisers. Sites like the WSJ.com can focus on optimizing the selection of articles made public, internal linking and leveraging their community to lift subscription rates of visitors referred by Google.

A partnership is two ways. I've looked at how Google contributes to ad-supported Web sites, but how does your ad-supported Web site keep Google in business? In my next blog post I'll address the costs of feeding Google content.

Karen Bellin Digital Strategy Director

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