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How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

nenadseo.com

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Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#101

Post by cases »

Shog9 wrote: post #93
camillomiller wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. What I despise the most is their hypocrisy and the clean face their Head Hypocrite Matt Cutts always wears when answering those SEO questions. So you have the biggest search engine in the world and all the transparency you can think of consists on putting a man in front of a camera like a country preacher, always saying things that leave open spaces of interpretation?

Because, what? You expect Cutts to be on the phone handling calls from irate webmasters instead? If Google sells me ad-space - or a Nexus - and then doesn't respond when I have a problem, that's bad. But if your pages drop in the search result rankings, suck it up and maybe pay a bit more attention to the spirit of that preaching - Google owes you ZERO customer support if all you're paying for is snake-oil from some…

It's odd that you talk about snake-oil in a thread where it's already mentioned that Google will just as easily ban you even if you follow their rules. Expedia and RapGenius are the two latest examples of how easy it is to cheat the system.

Meanwhile the world commerce is moving towards the Internet and Google controls 70% of that. But you don't want to come off as "spammy" so better to risk your company and follow the rules of an unresponsive search company that might or might not punish you for it.

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#102

Post by searchmartin »

1337biz wrote: post #100
searchmartin wrote: post #98

FULL DISCLOSURE: Im an Expedia employee (inbound marketing director, covering SEO), although Im currently at the end of my notice period. (Im leaving in two weeks). Also, I worked in the B2B division, nothing to do with the consumer side that this article references. The author of the post linked above contacted me a couple of days before publishing it, to warn me that he would publish (quote: "damning evidence of ex…

Conclusion: You guys are having some he-said-she-said issue that's kinda cute but doesn't change thing about the questionable Expedia tactics.

Which is in no way relevant to me, other than I worked for a different division of the same company.

The only reason I got mentioned, was that I refused to pay money to not have it published, and told the author that blackmail wasnt a great idea.

If someone had attempted to extort you, and were now using your name in this fashion, wouldnt you want to respond?

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#103

Post by ris »

throwaway420 wrote: post #33
pknight wrote: post #3

This just adds to the list of why to hate Google. Basically if you are either a big brand or a spammy company or have a nimble operation, you can afford to do grey & black seo. If you are a small business/ up and coming company white seo practices are the safe choice.

Even if you use nothing but white-hat and above-board SEO strategies, you're at risk of your page getting penalized or delisted. This happens to people every day. Only unlike Rap Genius, there is literally zero way to communicate with somebody at Google unless you manage to get a popular thread going at HN. I'm happy this Rap Genius incident happened because it's driven some attention to how Google's business actuall…

> Even if you use nothing but white-hat and above-board SEO strategies, you're at risk of your page getting penalized or delisted

This rather suggests that what you're calling "white hat" is a slightly less white shade than you may think. After all, who exactly is defining what "above board" is here?

You're talking as though Google has some kind of responsibility to you. They don't. You are not their customer. Their customer is the searcher, and they have every right to do whatever they like with their results to give what they think is the best result for the searcher.

I'm getting pretty tired of this attitude (generally among "SEO" people) that Google is some sort of public property.

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#104

Post by walshemj »

searchmartin wrote: post #102
1337biz wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conclusion: You guys are having some he-said-she-said issue that's kinda cute but doesn't change thing about the questionable Expedia tactics.

Which is in no way relevant to me, other than I worked for a different division of the same company. The only reason I got mentioned, was that I refused to pay money to not have it published, and told the author that blackmail wasnt a great idea. If someone had attempted to extort you, and were now using your name in this fashion, wouldnt you want to respond?

Call the police and probably record the call :-)

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#106

Post by nawitus »

MichaelTieso wrote: post #60

Just a few emails I usually get from Expedia. "In fact, the article can be about any topic related to your blog, just mentioning at some point something like “find coupon codes for Expedia”, “get some deals in Expedia”.. Do you think that would fit in? Doesn’t have to look very spammy (we don’t want that either). What do you think? About the price, how much would it be a post like this with maybe 2 links? " AND "I’m…

How much were they willing to pay?

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#107

Post by guelo »

ris wrote: post #103
throwaway420 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you use nothing but white-hat and above-board SEO strategies, you're at risk of your page getting penalized or delisted. This happens to people every day. Only unlike Rap Genius, there is literally zero way to communicate with somebody at Google unless you manage to get a popular thread going at HN. I'm happy this Rap Genius incident happened because it's driven some attention to how Google's business actuall…

> Even if you use nothing but white-hat and above-board SEO strategies, you're at risk of your page getting penalized or delisted This rather suggests that what you're calling "white hat" is a slightly less white shade than you may think. After all, who exactly is defining what "above board" is here? You're talking as though Google has some kind of responsibility to you. They don't. You are not their customer. Their…

1. The searcher is not the customer, the AdWords buyer is. For example, Expedia.

2. Once a company reaches monopoly status the government can regulate it for the public good.

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#109

Post by mgkimsal »

PaulHoule wrote: post #11
chaz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This just adds to the list of why to hate Google. Aren't all search engines susceptible to the same practices? How would you like to see them fixed?

You could rank #1 for Viagra in Bing and get maybe two visits a day.

You gotta rank high for V14GR4! then you'd get more visits. That's apparently how the kids spell it these days...

Re: How Expedia Buys Its Way To The Top Of Google

#110

Post by hvass »

davemel37 wrote: post #23
hvass wrote: post #5

I am a bit confused about the argument about Expedia not being penalized because they are spending on AdWords, wouldn't great organic rankings reduce their paid budget? And if Google penalizes them for legitimate reasons I doubt they would cut their AdWords budget. I am sure Matt will provide more info soon especially after what happened to RapGenius.

Google did research that shows having organic rankings and paid ads, boosts your click rate significantly. So, it would be a mistake to stop advertising if you rank well organically. http://www.google.com/think/infographics/organic-impact-on-p... This is nothing compared to what RapGenius did. This is a low quality, but legit link building tactic. The author claims the articles are poor quality, but they aren't. The…

I am aware of the study, even so, where does the Expedia AdWords spend come into play as an argument? So they get penalized - they won't cut AdWords obviously, they might even up it. They do not get penalized, they either cut their AdWords budget or it remains the same. Again, where is the incentive for Google to not penalize Expedia? Because the AdWords argument doesn't hold.
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