Google and type-in traffic
As I prepare to travel back home today after an extended Christmas break with the in-laws in New Brunswick — hence my curtailed posting schedule this past week — I've been having some further thoughts on the subject of misspellings and pay-per-click traffic. This was recently the subject of a posting in John Battelle's Searchblog almost a month ago, but I thought it worth some more discussion. (Battelle is the author of The Search, a book about the genesis of Google and the rise of search engines.)
There are entrepreneurs out there who work to profit specifically from what is called “type-in traffic”. Remember my traffic tip about creating content that targets common misspellings of your keywords? This is the same idea. Companies grab domains that are misspellings of keywords and trademarks and create simple one-page sites that do nothing but display ads. Users mistype a domain name and end up on one of those pages. Some small percentage of the visitors then click on the ads. Given that the cost of hosting such a site is minimal, it doesn't take many clicks to turn a profit. Do this with hundreds or thousands of domains and you've got a business.
Google has an AdSense program geared specifically for these kinds of sites. It's called AdSense for domains. It's only open to sites (or networks of sites) that generate a high level of traffic.
Purists are offended by Google's participation in these schemes to capture type-in traffic. The whole idea of capitalizing on misspellings to take advantage of users who don't know any better doesn't sit well with them.
It occurred to me the other day, however, as I was reading The Google Story (a competitor to The Search, but very much focused on Google), that Google is in some ways a product of type-in traffic itself. Consider this extract from page 39:
I typedin G-o-o-g-l-e and misspelled it on my workstation, and that was available. Larry found that acceptable, and he registered it later that evening and wrote it on the whiteboard: Google.com. It had a wild Internet ring to it, like Yahoo or Amazon. And I came in the next morning and Tamara had written a note saying, 'You misspelled it. It is supposed to be G-o-o-g-o-l.' Of course that was already taken.
So if Sergey hadn't misspelled “googol” to begin with, we wouldn't have the “Google” we know and love today. Somehow I don't see Google turning its back on revenue generation from type-in traffic.
Eric Giguere is the AdSense expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google. Subscribe to his AdSense newsletter for more tips and advice on AdSense and content monetization.
 |
Enjoyed this post? Get free updates by mail or by RSS! |