The search results of Google are split into two sections, on the right hand side and the top few are results of PPC (pay per click) adverts. It can cost a fair amount of money to have your website listed at the top of the PPC section for certain words.
The main bulk of the search results are organic results which are results of search engine optimisation (SEO), unless you are very lucky and have got good search results without doing SEO. Again running a SEO campaign takes time and more often than not money too (if not doing it yourself).
So is it fair that Google are putting adverts for one of their services at the top of the results. For example Google now offer a compare option for the keyword ‘car insurance’ (for example). By clicking on their link it takes you to the first step in comparing car insurance. I’m not going to go into the service they are offering or if they are making money from it or not, I’ll let you decide yourself on that! 😉
They actually say they are not making any money off it, well not directly anyway.
But is it fair that they can put their advert at the top of the search results?
I can also see what they are trying to do, making it easier for people to compare insurance (in this case). I do feel sorry for those comparison websites out their though! How will they compete with Google, they have to make money too.
What is stopping them from creating an advert for ‘hairdressers in Birmingham’ or ‘download music here’ or whatever YOUR keywords are?!
Is this the start of Google slowly taking over the internet as we know it?
