Can a Google Slap hurt your business?
Recently, one of my newest clients in a very competitive industry found his pay-per-click rates had literally doubled overnight. Nothing had changed with his site or his keywords – but now he was paying twice as much to get people to his website.
Unfortunately, he and others in his industry had found themselves “Google slapped”. A “Google slap” happens when too many sites are competing for the same keywords all based around the same subject. A recent example of this is the “Water for Gas” sites. With gas prices rising, who wouldn’t want to run their car solely on water?
Lots of people…in fact, far too many for Google’s liking. So it slapped a penalty on the Water for Gas advertisers and affiliates by forcing them to pay more in order to have their ads shown across its network.
Can your site be Google slapped, and if so, how can you stop it or prevent it from happening? Read the rest of this entry »