Google's Attitude Towards New Domains in Sponsored Listings and Normal Listings

April 10th will live on in the collective minds of Google and all of its faithful employees for a long time to come. In fact it is the one singular day that may change the way that Google handles its ad sales. First it’s important to know the difference between sponsored listings and normal listings and the problems inherent with them.

Sponsored listings are for pay rankings, meaning that the website owner or Internet marketer will actually pay so much money to get the their link at the top of the search page for selected keywords that they have paid for, so when a user searches for the selected words their site comes up right away.

Normal listings are those that anyone can do. They are free and only take a few seconds to complete. You gather up your information such as your name, site name and any keywords you wish to use and you post. You are not guaranteed any sort of position though so you’re left to the search engine gods.

Everyone knows what the Better Business Bureau is and what it can do for you. Many people use it on a daily basis but on April 10th it was used for a very malicious act. Hackers were able to purchase a top ranking spot on Google for a web site that they had in place that redirected to the Better Business Bureau (which it did) but before it did redirected, a malware program was sent out to exploit the security holes that are found in Internet Explorer. It essentially stole your name, phone numbers, logins and passwords as well as banking information.

April 24th had Google identify, and subsequently cancel, the AdWords account that were displaying the re-directed users to malicious sites. The site attempted the malware installed to user’s computers. Google takes the issue very seriously and is planning on reevaluating their practices.

The question really boils down to responsibility. Is its Google’s responsibility to check and double checking just who is purchasing top links or checking where the link goes? Or can the spots go to whoever is willing to pay out the money? Google allows anyone to add links to their service without ever checking out who is behind them or where they actually go. This is a failure on Google’s part, but is more a failure when dealing with paying customers.

Their feeling on the subject is that if you’re willing to pay money to place your site in a top ranking position, that you’re a well established and a viable business, but since the April 10th incident they have decided to check who is purchasing top rankings and installing more protective software against malware, spyware and other forms of tracking software. Several online groups are not happy with Google’s response feeling that sponsored links should not be allowed at all and instead should go back to the old way of listing web sites which is manually. There are ways now that can prevent bots and fast posting software from being able to be used allowing for honest web sites to post fairly nearly eliminating SEO and SEM services altogether.