Ask Kalena

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Hi Kalena

I run a website about SEO. I use Google Analytics to check some parameters in particular traffic sources.

Once I noticed that a big part of traffic came from a porno website. Does it mean it’s some kind of “black hat” technology and someone try to discredit my website? And what is your advice about how to avoid it?

Thank you
Valentine

Hi Valentine

In my experience, huge amounts of traffic from dodgy or unrelated sites is generally related to AdSense, fraudulent clicks and/or site scraping.

Do you run AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing pay per click campaigns for your site? If you do and if you’ve opted into their Content Networks, your ads may appear on websites that participate in AdSense or the Yahoo Publisher Network. Those networks are designed to show your ads on pages that contain content that is relevant (contextual advertising), but some dodgy publishers can switch their content once their participation is approved, resulting in a temporary display of ads on pages containing adult content, (which is generally banned in the AdSense program), or other unsuitable content.

Clicks you receive on your ads on such sites are rarely authentic. They are more likely fraudulent clicks by the site owner or persons employed by the site owner to falsely inflate their AdSense traffic and earnings. The best ways to avoid PPC traffic from such sites include:

1) Making sure your target PPC terms are laser focused to your product/service.

2) Opting out of Content Networks to avoid your ads being shown on sites you don’t approve of.

3) Using negative keywords such as “-free”, “-best” etc. to ensure your ads aren’t shown for unrelated or inappropriate searches.

4) Monitor your traffic and add any dodgy domains to your PPC campaign’s URL Exclusion list to ensure your ads are no longer shown on those sites.

Another common reason for an influx of traffic from dodgy sites is site scraping. This is where site owners deploy software that trawls the web and scrapes legitimate content from other websites as a way of creating lazy content for their own sites. Usually this content is combined in a haphazard, unreadable way that is designed to fool search engine robots but not appealing to users at all.

Domainers often employ this tactic as a fast way to populate hundreds of domains with fake content so they can throw AdSense code up and try to earn money via PPC clicks. Or they might simply use it to try to gain fast rankings for competitive keywords and populate the fake pages with links to products where they earn an affiliate commission per sale.

Often you’ll find your site content has been scraped, complete with internal links to your pages, which is why you’ll see referrals from the site in your analytics. I’ve ranted about site scrapers before and even managed to get my own back on occasion, but short of sending site scrapers a *cease and desist* email, there’s not much you can do about them.

So while the techniques used to link to you may well be black hat, it’s doubtful any of them were employed to deliberately discredit your web site.

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I haven’t got time to review them all in detail yet, but I’ve noticed a number of new initiatives launched by Google over the past week or so that deserve mention here.

Ad Sitelinks in AdWords

Ad Sitelinks is a new AdWords feature that allows you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to content deep within your sites. Rather than sending all users to the same landing page, Ad Sitelinks will display up to 4 additional Destination URLs on your search-based text ad for users to choose from.

Google Comparison Ads:

Comparison Ads is another new feature of AdWords, which lets users compare multiple, relevant offers more easily. Comparison Ads ads value to the ad experience on Google by letting users specify exactly what they are looking for and helping them quickly compare relevant offers side by side.

Google Page Previews:

Google has added a new option to web search called Page Previews. Click on *show options* and select *page previews* after running a search. Google will then show a longer snippet, plus a site thumbnail for each search result

Google Fading Home Page:

Google has been experimenting today with an even more minimalist home page than usual. The new *fading* home page hides everything on the page apart from the logo and the search box until you move your mouse over it and then the remainder of the navigation fades in.  A few people mentioned this one on Twitter but I haven’t seen it in action yet.

Have you used or noticed any of these yet? Please let us know what you think via the comments below.

Dear Kalena…

I was wondering if you have an active ppc program if this hurts you in natural search optimization since your paying for keyword placement. Why would Google/Yahoo rank you high if your already paying them lots of money. I tested this by pausing my Yahoo ad for 1 month and sure enough my keywords are all on front page when beforehand they were are pages 3-5. Too nervous to do with Google since we spend a lot per month.

Billy

Hi Billy,

This is a topic which has been much debated over the years, but the short answer is No, running a PPC Campaign will have no “direct” impact on your rankings.

People have speculated that using PPC might improve your rankings (as a reward by the search engine) or – as you’ve have suggested – decrease your rankings (presumably to encourage people to click on the ads).

It should be very easy to test, and many people have tried to prove it one way or the other – but I am unaware of any conclusive proof.  Even though your test seems to suggest a correlation between your PPC and organic rankings, you only appear to have done a part of the test.  In order to prove the correlation you would need to turn on and off your PPC campaign over an extended period and track this against changes in your rankings.

In my opening sentence above, I emphasized that there is no “direct” effect, because running an aggressive  PPC campaign could in fact have an indirect impact on your organic rankings – in a couple of different ways :

1. By running PPC you will get extra traffic in a shorter amount of time, and the data that this generates can help you to tweak and improve factors that can influence your organic rankings.  For example, through using a broad range of keyword phrases on your campaigns – and by looking at the impressions you get, you will get an idea of which phrases are being searched most often.  You should also be able to determine which keywords are converting better.  By focusing your optimisation efforts on high volume and higher converting phrases, you will boost your rankings and your sales or enquiries.
2. Running PPC will also raise the visibility of your brand and your site. You will be getting extra visitors – and if they like what they see they are likely to link to your site.  This in itself will also improve your organic rankings.

Andy Henderson
Ireckon Web Marketing

Dear Kalena…

There is still one thing that confuses me about Pay Per Click advertising. Whenever I use a geographic term in my ad at the very end google comes back and tells me the search value will be too low.

For instance *web site designers Southern Maryland*. If that term is in the ad then the results seem to be flagged by Google, while the original estimates it gives me look ok.

Should I avoid uses regional terms in my ads?  I left them because it didn’t tell me they were rejected and they seem to appear if I run a search for the terms at times.

Thanks
Debbie

Hi Debbie,

If you have your regional targeting set up accurately within the campaigns settings, there will generally be little need to use regional qualifying terms in your keywords/ads.

Google has determined that the number of people searching for your phrases that include *Southern Maryland* is very low so your ad is not likely to be shown. You should start by targeting more generic phrases such as *web design Maryland* and then if the search volume is too high you can reduce the click costs by adding *Southern* in later.

The other option is to set your regional target markets within your campaign settings and use Dynamic Keyword Insertion to determine your ad headlines.

Just a quick heads up that we have recently added another course to our curriculum at Search Engine College.

After years of running PPC campaigns, I’ve come to realize that writing copy for PPC ads requires a completely different mindset to writing copy for web pages or writing articles. The same rules simply don’t apply. Not only do you have to try to hook your audience, but you have an extremely limited number of characters to do it in.

Copywriting for Pay Per Click is a new course designed to help you craft PPC ads that speak to your individual markets like you do. In simple, direct, everyday language that explains why they need your product/service without the hype or the shouting. It will remove any writer’s block or marketing bias you might have when it comes to promoting your service and help you embrace the limited advertising format that you’re faced with when drafting PPC ads.

Here’s a sample excerpt from Chapter 1:

“It’s usually very important to include a keyphrase in the headline of these ads.  The keyphrase helps the site visitor instantly know that your ad has what s/he’s looking for.  I don’t believe it’s nearly as important to use a keyphrase in the description/body copy of PPC ads.

Depending on the length of the keyphrase, it can hog all the available space that should be used for differentiating yourself, explaining a special or limited-time offer or otherwise enticing the searcher to click your ad as opposed to the dozens of others they’ll see.”

Written and tutored by copywriting whizz Karon Thackston, Copywriting for PPC is an ideal companion to our PPC 101 and PPC 201 courses or as a stand-alone course if you’re already running PPC campaigns and want to achieve higher conversion rates.

So what are you waiting for? Enroll now and join our first round of graduates.