Wham! Another "Google Slap" and the 2 Things You Should Do About It.

Wham! Another "Google Slap" and the 2 Things You Should Do About It.

December 16th, 2009 @ MsMedia // 3 Comments

I’ve got to admit that Google has been my main source of my traffic, since I discovered Google Adwords a few years ago. My first campaigns were nothing but flops, and I never even got a single sale in my early pay-per-click days.

After a while, though, I started to get the hang of it – started to see what was working – and ended up spending around $43,000 a year with Google. Great was my surprise when the mighty search giant simply shut my account down recently. “Is this the way to reward an faithful advertiser who has spent a big amount of advertising dollars?”, I thought to myself. It almost felt unreal.

Getting my account shut down?!! Hey, what had I ever done to hurt Google? As it turned out, my “crime” was that I had been linking to affiliate offers that had pop ups on their sites.

The amazing thing is that I have yet to hear of anyone who has been banned by Google ever getting their account reinstated. Having this happen to me actually made me feel like some sort of criminal. But I soon figured out I was not alone.

As recent as yesterday, I received a newsletter from a “pay-per-click guru” revealing that dozens of his customers had now received the dreaded “You’ve Been Banned by Google” emails over the last week. It’s nothing new that Google dislikes re-bill offers, like those that are being used to sell business opportunities, weight loss and teeth whitening products.

What is special this time around is that even people promoting ClickBank products, own products etc have been hit by this most recent Google slap. According to the aforementioned PPC Guru, even a company that had been spending one million dollars a year with Google Adwords selling their own coffee product was banned without explanation.

It’s hard to see why Google should start clamping down on some of these products, but at the core, Google is trying to protect a “good user experience” for their users. I don’t think anyone will ever know all the answers as to why Google is acting this way, but the most important thing is simply to be prepared for the worst, if you’re an advertiser.

Here are 2 tips that will make sure your business is not going down, whatever Google decides to do with your account in the future:

1. Never Put All Your Traffic Eggs in One Basket – Not Even in the Huge Google Basket!

Some marketers have had as much as 70-100% of their traffic coming from Google Adwords. That’s a pretty scary thought, when you consider that one of those “You’ve Been Banned by Google” emails could show its ugly head in your inbox before you get started on your next cup of coffee!

These folks will go from having an online business one day, to having to apply for an OFFLINE job the next day. So please heed this warning: If you’re heavily dependent on Google for traffic, you’d better start looking for additional traffic sources immediately, to spread the risk.

2. Do Not Replace Your Google Traffic with One New Traffic Source Only!

Do not make the big mistake of replacing your Google traffic with one new traffic source only. There is absolutely no reason why you should feel relaxed and confident, if all you do is add one more traffic source to your marketing efforts.

Ideally you should have 4 or 5 traffic sources to really spread the risk and diversify your traffic generation. One single traffic source should probably not account for more than maximum 25% of your total traffic.

When it comes to PPC, you’re much less likely to run into trouble when using the Second Tier pay-per-click networks.

I will therefore jump at the chance to repeat the following list of 5 alternative PPC networks that we told you about not long ago:
1. AdClickMedia.com
2. AdBrite.com
3. Bidvertiser.com
4. Clicksor.com
5. ValueClickMedia.com

Now go diversify your traffic! Best of luck.

About The Author: Charles Jahren is a content manager for Multiple Stream Media – a company dedicated to helping online businesses Attract More Customers the Easy Way. To get more low or no cost advertising tips from Charles and the Multiple Streams Media staff, visit www.weeklytips.com

Category : Abe Cherian &Advertising Network &Charles Jahren &Tactics