Are you valuing all keywords equally, assuming they all offer the same benefit to your paid search campaign? That may be a mistake. Here’s a cautionary tale that shows you how to assign appropriate values to keywords based on their role in the conversion funnel.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | Search Ads: Domaining

Like many people, I misspelled a domain name today when I was trying to visit a web site. I typed Twiter.com (with one T) rather than Twitter.com. I wasn't surprised to land on a site with ads, as is common when entering typos. I was surprised that both Google and Yahoo were making money off those ads. Google has a program known as AdSense For Domains, previously known as DomainPark. Got a tasty domain but no content for it? AdSense For Domains will put lucrative ads up on it, for you (really lucrative: see more here and here). The practice is known as domaining. And before some domainer [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Google: AdSense | Search Ads: Domaining | Top News | Yahoo: General

Google Sued For Selling Ads On Parked Domains from InformationWeek reports Google was slapped with a class action lawsuit over the AdSense for Domains product. In short, advertisers are upset with the quality of traffic driven through that program and feel that their money was taken from them without any return. The suit was filed on Friday in a U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. The law firm, Schubert Jonckheer Kolbe & Kralowec, is based in San Francisco. The one suing is actually a lawyer, suing under Levitte International for his advertising campaign he ran from June 1, 2007 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdSense | Google: AdWords | Google: Legal | Legal: Clickfraud | Legal: General | Search Ads: Domaining

In response to popular request, block domain ads looks to be coming, along with other blocking features. I have reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that some AdWords advertisers are now able to block categories of sites, plus they are able to block domain ads and error page ads. Back in August, Google told us that AdSense For Domains Opt Out Coming To AdWords Advertisers. It appears that some advertisers are now able to take advantage of that feature. The Site Exclusion features, which I personally do not yet see myself, reportedly include: Block sites by domain, sub domain, or fold [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Search Ads: Domaining

I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google has said they will be allowing AdWords advertisers to opt out of the AdSense for Domains product. I quoted AdWordsAdvisors2 from a WebmasterWorld thread as saying: We are working on making it simpler for advertisers who don't want to show on domain sites or error pages to exclude them. AdSense for Domains, also known as DomainPark, is a product of much controversy. Google places ads from AdWords campaigns on parked domains and match the relevancy of those ads based on the words found in the domain name of the site. In fact, Google was [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdSense | Google: AdWords | Search Ads: Domaining

Brand Owners on Web Offensive from Red Herring reports that Yahoo, Dell, Coca Cola, Hilton and others have joined together to fight cybersquatting. The companies formed a collation against cybersquatters named Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse. Cybersquatters purchase domain names that are similar to trademark names, such as yahooemail.com and hilt0n.com. Some use that traffic to earn an affiliate commission on sales from the trademark owners, but others may use it for criminal activities, such as phishing for passwords, bank account details and other personal information. CADNA Preside [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Legal: Trademarks | Search Ads: Domaining | Yahoo: Legal

While a decent percentage of the global business community has become aware of the importance of search engine marketing, very few businesses seem know about the best practices surrounding the purchasing and ownership of web site domain names (e.g. when to purchase, what to purchase, etc.). Unlike SEO problems, where a banned site can get re-included if the webmaster fesses up to bad behavior, mistakes involving domain names are frequently permanent (though sometimes large amounts of cash can be used to overcome problems). Here is an example of a particularly egregious corporate domain name [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search Ads: Domaining | Search Marketing: Branding | Search Marketing: General | SEO: Domain Names & URLs

In the earlier installment of this article I covered the topic of local-oriented subdomaining. In this second installment, I'm covering domaining. As you may recall, I described "domaining" as the practice of buying domains mainly for their potential keyword value. Speculators purchase keyword domains with a view towards reselling those properties at a considerable markup, or to get revenue by "parking" the domains with minimal content and lots of ads. The "local space" version of domaining is where a domainer has set up shop on a name which includes some sort o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Local Search | Search Ads: Domaining | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing

Google Sued in Domainer Lawsuit--Vulcan Golf v. Google from Eric Goldman covers a new lawsuit in which Google is being sued for allegedly violating trademarks by helping domainers monetize "typosquatter" domains. Eric explains that this filing (4.3MB PDF) may be the first lawsuit against Google for its domainer relationships. The complaint considers Google as the domain name licensee, because AdSense for Domains effectively takes control of domains in the program. Google's policies aren't supposed to allow typo domains to be in its program, but these get through. And since Google puts ads [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdSense | Google: Domains | Google: Legal | Legal: Trademarks | Search Ads: Domaining

Business 2.0 has a fairly comprehensive (cover) story about domain portfolios and "direct navigation." It starts off with a profile of Vancouver entrepreneur Kevin Ham ("The Man Who Owns the Internet"), who operates a $300 million domain "empire" but goes on to discuss others who have become wealthy from domain speculation, parking and domain portfolio ownership. (The author of the article Paul Sloan has a related post here.). The ads on Ham's domains are served by Yahoo. There's something vaguely unseemly about profiting off domain ownership and parking, often a kind of "bait and switch" fo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Domaining | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search Ads