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SEO Q&A: Which Is More Likely to Be Clicked?
- By Jill Whalen
- Published 11/20/2008
- Search Engine Q&A
SEO Q&A: Which Is More Likely to Be Clicked?
Hi Jill,
Is someone more likely to click on my organic or paid search result if they appear side by side?
D. Greene
Jill's Response
The MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Guide shows that people are more likely to click on the organic search results than the paid. However, they also show that having your brand appear in both sets of results reinforces your brand in the eyes of the searcher. So that's a good reason for having your website appear in both.
In addition, if you look at the eye-tracking studies of the search results from the SEM Benchmark Guide, you'll see that people do scan the very top paid results. It wouldn't surprise me if the average web searcher doesn't even know that those top ones are paid for, and thus click on them more often than they might if they knew they were ads.
Jill
Penalized for Buying Links?
Dear Jill,
In Google's Webmaster Tools there is a section where you can submit someone you think is buying links. Here is what I don't understand – can Google really penalize you for purchasing links? The reason I ask is because if that were the case, couldn't we all just purchase a ton of crappy links to our competitors to knock them out of the search engine results?
What are your thoughts? Can Google penalize for purchasing links, or would they just discount them?
Thanks!
J. Knox
Jill's Response
Google can do whatever they want, it's their search engine! So yes, they most certainly could penalize those links if they felt like it. But you are correct that if they started penalizing for things that were out of the site owner's control, it could cause big problems – both for websites and for Google's search results. I think they typically try to avoid this scenario.
What I believe happens in cases like this is that Google probably reviews the site's overall linking profile as well as what they're doing on their actual pages. If they find a decent amount of high-quality links from relevant, reputable websites and nothing spammy on the pages, then they probably just discount any links that they can confirm are paid ones.
By the same token, I imagine if they review a website and see that it is doing lots of spammy things hoping to get a leg up in the search results, perhaps the purchasing of links could be the last straw for that website. I'm just speculating, however, as I don't work for Google and don't have access to their inner circle or their algorithm!
You may want to read my previous thoughts on buying links:
Buying Text Links
Google’s Paid-link Smack in the Face
Also, this week Rand Fishkin wrote an interes
ting article providing some tips on buying links without "buying links" – it's worth a read.
Jill
Shutting Down a Site
Hi Jill,
I work for a nonprofit that since 2000 has been operating an e-commerce website to provide emerging artists with a web presence. It has earned a toolbar PageRank of 5, thanks to some decent inbound links. Due to a variety of things, the parent company of the website has decided it's time to shut the site down.
Is there a certain protocol for doing this?
We are keeping the domain name registered and may someday decide to relaunch the site. I know that if we create a custom 404 page announcing the site's closure, we will lose all link popularity and rankings and have to start over again from scratch. I'm wondering if it would be better to keep the site hosted for informational purposes by having just a one-page site that directs new visitors and old customers to links to some of the artists' individual websites rather than redirecting to a 404 page? I suspect you will answer that it doesn't make much difference since a one-page website will lose its Page Rank and search engine rankings anyway, but I just wanted you to confirm.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
N. Anthony
Jill's Response
It's difficult to say for sure without knowing all the details. However, my first choice would be to simply keep the site exactly as is, at least in terms of the content. While you may no longer want to offer the e-commerce functions, perhaps you could allow the artists to simply add a link to their own websites (if they have one). In other words, when people get to the artists' page on your site, you could continue to provide the info you're providing, but add something that says, "To view more or purchase this artist's work, please visit their website here."
If for some reason that's not an option, then I would suggest setting up permanent 301 redirects from the artists' pages to their own websites. This will at least transfer some of your link popularity over to the artists' sites.
The worst thing you can do is put up 404 not-found pages. Those will remove the website completely from the search engines and if you do decide to relaunch it, you may very well be starting from scratch. Leaving just one page up for informational purposes is completely different from 404'ing it. (Technically, they provide different http header responses to browsers and spiders.) You won't lose PageRank, at least not from external links, if you keep an informational page up as the main home page; at least not until or unless the other websites that are linking to yours remove their links. Remember, PageRank is completely and totally about links and nothing else, as opposed to where your "page is ranking" in the search results, which is affected by the combination of hundreds of factors.
Another option is to redirect the entire site (via a 301) to another website that the company owns, which might be on a similar topic. That will enable the link popularity from the shut-down site to transfer to their other site. I do that all the time with my sites if I decide to close them down for some reason.
Hope this helps!
Jill
Is someone more likely to click on my organic or paid search result if they appear side by side?
D. Greene
Jill's Response
The MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Guide shows that people are more likely to click on the organic search results than the paid. However, they also show that having your brand appear in both sets of results reinforces your brand in the eyes of the searcher. So that's a good reason for having your website appear in both.
In addition, if you look at the eye-tracking studies of the search results from the SEM Benchmark Guide, you'll see that people do scan the very top paid results. It wouldn't surprise me if the average web searcher doesn't even know that those top ones are paid for, and thus click on them more often than they might if they knew they were ads.
Jill
Penalized for Buying Links?
Dear Jill,
In Google's Webmaster Tools there is a section where you can submit someone you think is buying links. Here is what I don't understand – can Google really penalize you for purchasing links? The reason I ask is because if that were the case, couldn't we all just purchase a ton of crappy links to our competitors to knock them out of the search engine results?
What are your thoughts? Can Google penalize for purchasing links, or would they just discount them?
Thanks!
J. Knox
Jill's Response
Google can do whatever they want, it's their search engine! So yes, they most certainly could penalize those links if they felt like it. But you are correct that if they started penalizing for things that were out of the site owner's control, it could cause big problems – both for websites and for Google's search results. I think they typically try to avoid this scenario.
What I believe happens in cases like this is that Google probably reviews the site's overall linking profile as well as what they're doing on their actual pages. If they find a decent amount of high-quality links from relevant, reputable websites and nothing spammy on the pages, then they probably just discount any links that they can confirm are paid ones.
By the same token, I imagine if they review a website and see that it is doing lots of spammy things hoping to get a leg up in the search results, perhaps the purchasing of links could be the last straw for that website. I'm just speculating, however, as I don't work for Google and don't have access to their inner circle or their algorithm!
You may want to read my previous thoughts on buying links:
Buying Text Links
Google’s Paid-link Smack in the Face
Also, this week Rand Fishkin wrote an interes
Jill
Shutting Down a Site
Hi Jill,
I work for a nonprofit that since 2000 has been operating an e-commerce website to provide emerging artists with a web presence. It has earned a toolbar PageRank of 5, thanks to some decent inbound links. Due to a variety of things, the parent company of the website has decided it's time to shut the site down.
Is there a certain protocol for doing this?
We are keeping the domain name registered and may someday decide to relaunch the site. I know that if we create a custom 404 page announcing the site's closure, we will lose all link popularity and rankings and have to start over again from scratch. I'm wondering if it would be better to keep the site hosted for informational purposes by having just a one-page site that directs new visitors and old customers to links to some of the artists' individual websites rather than redirecting to a 404 page? I suspect you will answer that it doesn't make much difference since a one-page website will lose its Page Rank and search engine rankings anyway, but I just wanted you to confirm.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
N. Anthony
Jill's Response
It's difficult to say for sure without knowing all the details. However, my first choice would be to simply keep the site exactly as is, at least in terms of the content. While you may no longer want to offer the e-commerce functions, perhaps you could allow the artists to simply add a link to their own websites (if they have one). In other words, when people get to the artists' page on your site, you could continue to provide the info you're providing, but add something that says, "To view more or purchase this artist's work, please visit their website here."
If for some reason that's not an option, then I would suggest setting up permanent 301 redirects from the artists' pages to their own websites. This will at least transfer some of your link popularity over to the artists' sites.
The worst thing you can do is put up 404 not-found pages. Those will remove the website completely from the search engines and if you do decide to relaunch it, you may very well be starting from scratch. Leaving just one page up for informational purposes is completely different from 404'ing it. (Technically, they provide different http header responses to browsers and spiders.) You won't lose PageRank, at least not from external links, if you keep an informational page up as the main home page; at least not until or unless the other websites that are linking to yours remove their links. Remember, PageRank is completely and totally about links and nothing else, as opposed to where your "page is ranking" in the search results, which is affected by the combination of hundreds of factors.
Another option is to redirect the entire site (via a 301) to another website that the company owns, which might be on a similar topic. That will enable the link popularity from the shut-down site to transfer to their other site. I do that all the time with my sites if I decide to close them down for some reason.
Hope this helps!
Jill
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Jill Whalen
Jill Whalen is the owner of High Rankings and moderator of the free weekly email newsletter, the High Rankings Advisor. Jill specializes in search engine optimization, directory submissions, SEO consultations and seminars. She has obtained hundreds of number 1 and 2 spots for her vast array of clients throughout the years. Clients include multi-million dollar companies, major universities, real estate agencies, attorneys, surgeons, dentists, and small-medium sized businesses.
Do you like Jill Whalen's article? Then take a look at "The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" where she explains how to write for the search engines and your users.
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