Search engine optimization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indices.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", terms adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, URLs, and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Webmasters and search engines
2.1 Getting indexed
2.2 Preventing indexing
3 White hat versus black hat
4 As a marketing strategy
5 International markets
6 Legal precedents
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
//
[] History
Webmasters and content providers began optimizing sites for search engines in the mid-1990s, as the first search engines were cataloging the early Web. Initially, all a webmaster needed to do was submit a page, or URL, to the various engines which would send a spider to "crawl" that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be indexed.[1] The process involves a search engine spider downloading a page and storing it on the search engine's own server, where a second program, known as an indexer, extracts various information about the page, such as the words it contains and where these are located, as well as any weight for specific words and all links the page contains, which are then placed into a scheduler for crawling at a later date.
Site owners started to recognize the value of having their sites highly ranked and visible in search engine results. They also recognised that the higher their site ranking the more people would click on the website. According to industry analyst Danny Sullivan, the earliest known use of the phrase search engine optimization was a spam message posted on Usenet on July 26, 1997.[2]
Early versions of search algorithms relied on webmaster-provided information such as the keyword meta tag, or index files in engines like ALIWEB. Meta tags provided a guide to each page's content. But using meta data to index pages was found to be less than reliable because the webmaster's account of keywords in the meta tag were not truly relevant to the site's actual keywords. Inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data in meta tags caused pages to rank for irrelevant searches.[3] Web content providers also manipulated a number of attributes within the HTML source of a page in an attempt to rank well in search engines.[4]
By relying so much on factors exclusively within a webmaster's control, early search engines suffered from abuse and ranking manipulation. To provide better results to their users, search engines had to adapt to ensure their results pages showed the most relevant search results, rather than unrelated pages stuffed with numerous keywords by unscrupulous webmasters. Since the success and popularity of a search engine is determined by its ability to produce the most relevant results to any given search allowing those results to be false would turn users to find other search sources. Search engines responded by developing more complex ranking algorithms, taking into account additional factors that were more difficult for webmasters to manipulate.
Graduate students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed "backrub", a search engine that relied on a mathematical algorithm to rate the prominence of web pages. The number calculated by the algorithm, PageRank, is a function of the quantity and strength of inbound links.[5] PageRank estimates the likelihood that a given page will be reached by a web user who randomly surfs the web, and follows links from one page to another. In effect, this means that some links are stronger than others, as a higher PageRank page is more likely to be reached by the random surfer.
Page and Brin founded Google in 1998. Google attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design.[6] Off-page factors such as PageRank and hyperlink analysis were considered, as well as on-page factors, to enable Google to avoid the kind of manipulation seen in search engines that only considered on-page factors for their rankings. Although PageRank was more difficult to game, webmasters had already developed link building tools and schemes to influence the Inktomi search engine, and these methods proved similarly applicable to gaining PageRank. Many sites focused on exchanging, buying, and selling links, often on a massive scale. Some of these schemes, or link farms, involved the creation of thousands of sites for the sole purpose of link spamming.[7] In recent years major search engines have begun to rely more heavily on off-web factors such as the age, sex, location, and search history of people conducting searches in order to further refine results.
By 2007, search engines had incorporated a wide range of undisclosed factors in their ranking algorithms to reduce the impact of link manipulation. Google says it ranks sites using more than 200 different signals.[8] The three leading search engines, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Live Search, do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages. Notable SEOs, such as Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, Aaron Wall and Jill Whalen, have studied different approaches to search engine optimization, and have published their opinions in online forums and blogs.[9][10] SEO practitioners may also study patents held by various search engines to gain insight into the algorithms.[11]
[] Webmasters and search engines
By 1997 search engines recognized that webmasters were making efforts to rank well in their search engines, and that some webmasters were even manipulating their rankings in search results by stuffing pages with excessive or irrelevant keywords. Early search engines, such as Infoseek, adjusted their algorithms in an effort to prevent webmasters from manipulating rankings.[12]
Due to the high marketing value of targeted search results, there is potential for an adversarial relationship between search engines and SEOs. In 2005, an annual conference, AIRWeb, Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web,[13] was created to discuss and minimize the damaging effects of aggressive web content providers.
SEO companies that employ overly aggressive techniques can get their client websites banned from the search results. In 2005, the Wall Street Journal reported on a company, Traffic Power, which allegedly used high-risk techniques and failed to disclose those risks to its clients.[14] Wired magazine reported that the same company sued blogger Aaron Wall for writing about the ban.[15] Google's Matt Cutts later confirmed that Google did in fact ban Traffic Power and some of its clients.[16]
Some search engines have also reached out to the SEO industry, and are frequent sponsors and guests at SEO conferences, chats, and seminars. In fact, with the advent of paid inclusion, some search engines now have a vested interest in the health of the optimization community. Major search engines provide information and guidelines to help with site optimization.[17][18][19] Google has a Sitemaps program[20] to help webmasters learn if Google is having any problems indexing their website and also provides data on Google traffic to the website. Yahoo! Site Explorer provides a way for webmasters to submit URLs, determine how many pages are in the Yahoo! index and view link information.[21]
[] Getting indexed
The leading search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Some search engines, notably Yahoo!, operate a paid submission service that guarantee crawling for either a set fee or cost per click.[22] Such programs usually guarantee inclusion in the database, but do not guarantee specific ranking within the search results.[23] Yahoo's paid inclusion program has drawn criticism from advertisers and competitors.[24] Two major directories, the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project both require manual submission and human orial review.[25] Google offers Google Webmaster Tools, for which an XML Sitemap feed can be created and submitted for free to ensure that all pages are found, especially pages that aren't discoverable by automatically following links.[26]
Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled.[27]
[] Preventing indexing
Main article: Robots Exclusion Standard
To avoid undesirable content in the search indexes, webmasters can instruct spiders not to crawl certain files or directories through the standard robots.txt file in the root directory of the domain. Additionally, a page can be explicitly excluded from a search engine's database by using a meta tag specific to robots. When a search engine visits a site, the robots.txt located in the root directory is the first file crawled. The robots.txt file is then parsed, and will instruct the robot as to which pages are not to be crawled. As a search engine crawler may keep a cached copy of this file, it may on occasion crawl pages a webmaster does not wish crawled. Pages typically prevented from being crawled include login specific pages such as shopping carts and user-specific content such as search results from internal searches. In March 2007, Google warned webmasters that they should prevent indexing of internal search results because those pages are considered search spam.[28]
[] White hat versus black hat
SEO techniques can be classified into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design, and those techniques that search engines do not approve of. The search engines attempt to minimize the effect of the latter, among them spamdexing. Industry commentators have classified these methods, and the practitioners who employ them, as either white hat SEO, or black hat SEO.[29] White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing.[30]
An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines[31][17][18][19] are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see.
White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility,[32] although the two are not identical.
Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception. One black hat technique uses text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off screen. Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking.
Search engines may penalize sites they discover using black hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. Such penalties can be applied either automatically by the search engines' algorithms, or by a manual site review.
One infamous example was the February 2006 Google removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for use of deceptive practices.[33] Both companies, however, quickly apologized, fixed the offending pages, and were restored to Google's list.[34]
[] As a marketing strategy
Eye tracking studies have shown that searchers scan a search results page from top to bottom and left to right (for left to right languages), looking for a relevant result. Placement at or near the top of the rankings therefore increases the number of searchers who will visit a site.[35] However, more search engine referrals does not guarantee more sales. SEO is not necessarily an appropriate strategy for every website, and other Internet marketing strategies can be much more effective, depending on the site operator's goals.[36] A successful Internet marketing campaign may drive organic traffic to web pages, but it also may involve the use of paid advertising on search engines and other pages, building high quality web pages to engage and persuade, addressing technical issues that may keep search engines from crawling and indexing those sites, setting up analytics programs to enable site owners to measure their successes, and improving a site's conversion rate.[37]
SEO may generate a return on investment. However, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of continued referrals. Due to this lack of guarantees and certainty, a business that relies heavily on search engine traffic can suffer major losses if the search engines stop sending visitors.[38] It is considered wise business practice for website operators to liberate themselves from dependence on search engine traffic.[39] A top-ranked SEO blog Seomoz.org[40] has reported, "Search marketers, in a twist of irony, receive a very small share of their traffic from search engines." Instead, their main sources of traffic are links from other websites.[41]
[] International markets
The search engines' market shares vary from market to market, as does competition. In 2003, Danny Sullivan stated that Google represented about 75% of all searches.[42] In markets outside the United States, Google's share is often larger, and Google remains the dominant search engine worldwide as of 2007.[43] As of 2006, Google held about 40% of the market in the United States, but Google had an 85-90% market share in Germany.[44] While there were hundreds of SEO firms in the US at that time, there were only about five in Germany.[44]
In Russia the situation is reversed. Local search engine Yandex controls 50% of the paid advertising revenue, while Google has less than 9%.[45] In China, Baidu continues to lead in market share, although Google has been gaining share as of 2007.[46]
Successful search optimization for international markets may require professional translation of web pages, registration of a domain name with a top level domain in the target market, and web hosting that provides a local IP address. Otherwise, the fundamental elements of search optimization are essentially the same, regardless of language.[44]
[] Legal precedents
On October 17, 2002, SearchKing filed suit in the United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma, against the search engine Google. SearchKing's claim was that Google's tactics to prevent spamdexing constituted a tortious interference with contractual relations. On May 27, 2003, the court granted Google's motion to dismiss the complaint because SearchKing "failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted."[47][48]
In March 2006, KinderStart filed a lawsuit against Google over search engine rankings. Kinderstart's web site was removed from Google's index prior to the lawsuit and the amount of traffic to the site dropped by 70%. On March 16, 2007 the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose Division) dismissed KinderStart's complaint without leave to amend, and partially granted Google's motion for Rule 11 sanctions against KinderStart's attorney, requiring him to pay part of Google's legal expenses.[49][50]
[] See also
List of search engines
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
Search engine optimization consultants
[] References
^ Brian Pinkerton. "Finding What People Want: Experiences with the WebCrawler" (PDF). The Second International WWW Conference Chicago, USA, October 17–20, 1994. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
^ Danny Sullivan (June 14, 2004). "Who Invented the Term "Search Engine Optimization"?". Search Engine Watch. Retrieved on 2007-05-14. See Google groups thread.
^ Cory Doctorow (August 26, 2001). "Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia". e-LearningGuru. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
^ Pringle, G., Allison, L., and Dowe, D. (April 1998). "What is a tall poppy among web pages?". Proc. 7th Int. World Wide Web Conference. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
^ Brin, Sergey and Page, Larry (1998). "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine". Proceedings of the seventh international conference on World Wide Web. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
^ Thompson, Bill (December 19, 2003). "Is Google good for you?". BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
^ Zoltan Gyongyi and Hector Garcia-Molina (2005). "Link Spam Alliances" (PDF). Proceedings of the 31st VLDB Conference, Trondheim, Norway. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
^ "Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine". New York Times (June 3, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
^ Danny Sullivan (September 29, 2005). "Rundown On Search Ranking Factors". Search Engine Watch. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
^ "Search Engine Ranking Factors V2". SEOmoz.org (April 2, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
^ Christine Churchill (November 23, 2005). "Understanding Search Engine Patents". Search Engine Watch. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
^ Laurie J. Flynn (November 11, 1996). "Desperately Seeking Surfers". New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ "AIRWeb". Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web, annual conference. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ David Kesmodel (September 22, 2005). "Sites Get Dropped by Search Engines After Trying to 'Optimize' Rankings". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2008-07-30.
^ Adam L. Penenberg (September 8, 2005). "Legal Showdown in Search Fracas". Wired Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ Matt Cutts (February 2, 2006). "Confirming a penalty". mattcutts.com/blog. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ a b "Google's Guidelines on Site Design". google.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
^ a b "Site Owner Help: MSN Search Web Crawler and Site Indexing". msn.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
^ a b "Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines". help.yahoo.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
^ "Google Webmaster Tools". google.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ "Yahoo! Site Explorer". yahoo.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ "Submitting To Search Crawlers: Google, Yahoo, Ask & Microsoft's Live Search". Search Engine Watch (2007-03-12). Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
^ "Search Submit". searchmarketing.yahoo.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ "Questionable Results at Revamped Yahoo". Washington Post (2004-03-11). Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
^ "Submitting To Directories: Yahoo & The Open Directory". Search Engine Watch (2007-03-12). Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
^ "What is a Sitemap file and why should I have one?". google.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-19.
^ Cho, J., Garcia-Molina, H. (1998). "Efficient crawling through URL ordering". Proceedings of the seventh conference on World Wide Web, Brisbane, Australia. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ "Newspapers Amok! New York Times Spamming Google? LA Times Hijacking Cars.com?". Search Engine Land (May 8, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ Andrew Goodman. "Search Engine Showdown: Black hats vs. White hats at SES". SearchEngineWatch. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ Jill Whalen (November 16, 2004). "Black Hat/White Hat Search Engine Optimization". searchengineguide.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ "What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?". google.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
^ Andy Hagans (November 08, 2005). "High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization". A List Apart. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ Matt Cutts (February 4, 2006). "Ramping up on international webspam". mattcutts.com/blog. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ Matt Cutts (February 7, 2006). "Recent reinclusions". mattcutts.com/blog. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ "A New F-Word for Google Search Results". Search Engine Watch (March 8, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
^ "What SEO Isn't". blog.v7n.com (June 24, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
^ Melissa Burdon (March 13, 2007). "The Battle Between Search Engine Optimization and Conversion: Who Wins?". Grok.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ Andy Greenberg (April 30, 2007). "Condemned To Google Hell". Forbes. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
^ Jakob Nielsen (January 9, 2006). "Search Engines as Leeches on the Web". useit.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
^ "SEOmoz: Best SEO Blog of 2006". searchenginejournal.com (January 3, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-31.
^ "A survey of 25 blogs in the search space comparing external metrics to visitor tracking data". seomoz.org. Retrieved on 2007-05-31.
^ "The search engine that could", USA Today (2003-08-26). Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
^ "Stats Show Google Dominates the International Search Landscape". Search Engine Watch (2007-02-22). Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
^ a b c Mike Grehan (April 3, 2006). "Search Engine Optimizing for Europe". Click. Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
^ Pfanner, Eric (December 18, 2006). "New to Russia, Google Struggles to Find Its Footing", New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
^ "Google Gaining, But Baidu Still Dominates In China". Search Engine Land (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
^ "Search King, Inc. v. Google Technology, Inc., CIV-02-1457-M" (PDF). docstoc.com (May 27, 2003). Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
^ Stefanie Olsen (May 30, 2003). "Judge dismisses suit against Google". CNET. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
^ "Technology & Marketing Law Blog: KinderStart v. Google Dismissed—With Sanctions Against KinderStart's Counsel". blog.ericgoldman.org. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
^ "Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Google Sued Over Rankings—KinderStart.com v. Google". blog.ericgoldman.org. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_Per_Action".
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Cost per action
Cost per action
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Cost Per Action)
Jump to: navigation, search
Cost Per Action or CPA (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA) is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement.
Direct response advertisers consider CPA the optimal way to buy online advertising, as an advertiser only pays for the ad when the desired action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser.) Google incorporated this model into Google AdSense [1] but shut down the offering in June 2008[2]. eBay has recently announced a similar pricing called AdContext.
The CPA can be determined by different factors, depending where the online advertising inventory is being purchased.
Contents
[hide]
1 CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"
2 Effective cost per action
3 Companies
4 See also
5 References
//
[] CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"
CPA is sometimes referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition", which has to do with the fact that most CPA offers by advertisers are about acquiring something (typically new customers by making sales). Using the term "Cost Per Acquisition" instead of "Cost Per Action" is not incorrect. It is actually more specific. "Cost Per Acquisition" is included in "Cost Per Action", but not all "Cost Per Action" offers can be referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition".
[] Effective cost per action
A related term, eCPA or effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis.
eCPA is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPI, or CPT basis. In other words, the eCPA tells the advertiser what they would have paid if they purchased the advertising inventory on a CPA basis (instead of a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis).
[] Companies
Google started testing CPA on 2006. On June 2007 Google expanded its beta trial, opening it to users of AdWords[3]
eBay has moved into CPA advertising with its AdContext system on 2006[4]
Snap.com, CPA pioneer and later merged with other to form NBC Internet (NBCi), has long touted the advantages of the CPA model, such as the elimination of click fraud[4].
ViralyticsMedia.com, Created the first CPA e-mail marketing network in the Fall of 2007.[4].
Jellyfish.com was the Internet's first comparison shopping search engine to operate exclusively on a Cost Per Action (CPA) ad model, has a patent pending on an improvement over CPA where part of the ad revenue goes to the customer, and has been bought by Microsoft for integration into Live Search[5].
Hydra, LLC launched the first-ever exclusive, fully transparent CPA network, called Hydra Elite in 2008.[6].
[] See also
Affiliate marketing
CTR - Click-through rate
CPC - Cost Per Click
Cost Per Conversion
CPI - Cost Per Impression
CPM - Cost Per Thousand
CPT - Cost Per Time
eCPA - Effective Cost Per Action
eCPM - Effective Cost Per Thousand
CPD - Cost per Day
Internet marketing
PPC - Pay Per click (Search engines term for CPC)
Revenue Share - Cost derived from advertiser income
VPA - Cost Per Action variation that transparently balances incentives between vendors and consumers
Compensation methods
[] References
^ Reference: Google Tries Out Affiliate Ads
^ [1]
^ Information Week: Google Confirms Testing New Ad-Pricing Model, retrieved March 18, 2008
^ a b c Startup Primed To Challenge Google CPC Ad Model, retrieved March 18, 2008
^ Jellyfish.com Partners With Channel Intelligence, retrieved March 18, 2008
^ Hydra Launches Elite Network Within a Network Bringing Full Transparency to CPA, retrieved July 02, 2008
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_Per_Action".
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Cost Per Action)
Jump to: navigation, search
Cost Per Action or CPA (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA) is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement.
Direct response advertisers consider CPA the optimal way to buy online advertising, as an advertiser only pays for the ad when the desired action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser.) Google incorporated this model into Google AdSense [1] but shut down the offering in June 2008[2]. eBay has recently announced a similar pricing called AdContext.
The CPA can be determined by different factors, depending where the online advertising inventory is being purchased.
Contents
[hide]
1 CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"
2 Effective cost per action
3 Companies
4 See also
5 References
//
[] CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"
CPA is sometimes referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition", which has to do with the fact that most CPA offers by advertisers are about acquiring something (typically new customers by making sales). Using the term "Cost Per Acquisition" instead of "Cost Per Action" is not incorrect. It is actually more specific. "Cost Per Acquisition" is included in "Cost Per Action", but not all "Cost Per Action" offers can be referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition".
[] Effective cost per action
A related term, eCPA or effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis.
eCPA is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPI, or CPT basis. In other words, the eCPA tells the advertiser what they would have paid if they purchased the advertising inventory on a CPA basis (instead of a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis).
[] Companies
Google started testing CPA on 2006. On June 2007 Google expanded its beta trial, opening it to users of AdWords[3]
eBay has moved into CPA advertising with its AdContext system on 2006[4]
Snap.com, CPA pioneer and later merged with other to form NBC Internet (NBCi), has long touted the advantages of the CPA model, such as the elimination of click fraud[4].
ViralyticsMedia.com, Created the first CPA e-mail marketing network in the Fall of 2007.[4].
Jellyfish.com was the Internet's first comparison shopping search engine to operate exclusively on a Cost Per Action (CPA) ad model, has a patent pending on an improvement over CPA where part of the ad revenue goes to the customer, and has been bought by Microsoft for integration into Live Search[5].
Hydra, LLC launched the first-ever exclusive, fully transparent CPA network, called Hydra Elite in 2008.[6].
[] See also
Affiliate marketing
CTR - Click-through rate
CPC - Cost Per Click
Cost Per Conversion
CPI - Cost Per Impression
CPM - Cost Per Thousand
CPT - Cost Per Time
eCPA - Effective Cost Per Action
eCPM - Effective Cost Per Thousand
CPD - Cost per Day
Internet marketing
PPC - Pay Per click (Search engines term for CPC)
Revenue Share - Cost derived from advertiser income
VPA - Cost Per Action variation that transparently balances incentives between vendors and consumers
Compensation methods
[] References
^ Reference: Google Tries Out Affiliate Ads
^ [1]
^ Information Week: Google Confirms Testing New Ad-Pricing Model, retrieved March 18, 2008
^ a b c Startup Primed To Challenge Google CPC Ad Model, retrieved March 18, 2008
^ Jellyfish.com Partners With Channel Intelligence, retrieved March 18, 2008
^ Hydra Launches Elite Network Within a Network Bringing Full Transparency to CPA, retrieved July 02, 2008
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_Per_Action".
Google's Ad sense program details
AdSense
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AdSense is an advertisement serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and more recently, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.
Contents
[hide]
1 Overview
2 History
3 AdSense for Feeds
4 AdSense for search
5 AdSense for mobile content
5.1 XHTML compatibility
6 How AdSense works
7 Abuse
8 Criticism
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
//
[] Overview
Google uses its Internet search technology to serve advertisements based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted advertisement system may enroll through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the advertisements are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website.
Currently, AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating website. If the advertisements are included on a website that has not yet been crawled by the Mediabot, AdSense will temporarily display advertisements for charitable causes, also known as public service announcements (PSAs). (The Mediabot is different from the Googlebot, which maintains Google's search index.)
Many websites use AdSense to monetize their content. AdSense has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small websites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and salespeople. To fill a website with advertisements that are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters implement a brief script on the websites' pages. Websites that are content-rich have been very successful with this advertising program, as noted in a number of publisher case studies on the AdSense website.
Some webmasters invest significant effort into maximizing their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:[citation needed]
They use a wide range of traffic-generating techniques, including but not limited to online advertising.
They build valuable content on their websites that attracts AdSense advertisements, which pay out the most when they are clicked.
They use copy on their websites that encourages visitors to click on advertisements. Note that Google prohibits webmasters from using phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. The phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements".[citation needed]
The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program, which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction. AdSense commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (i.e., a bid not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.
[] History
The underlying technology behind AdSense was derived originally from WordNet, Simpli (a company started by the founder of Wordnet, George A. Miller), and a number of professors and graduate students from Brown University, including James A. Anderson, Jeff Stibel, and Steve Reiss.[1] A variation of this technology utilizing WordNet was developed by Oingo, a small search engine company based in Santa Monica founded in 1998 by Gilad Elbaz and Adam Weissman.[2][3] Oingo changed its name to Applied Semantics in 2001,[4] which was later acquired by Google in April 2003 for US$102 million.[5]
[] AdSense for Feeds
In May 2005, Google announced a limited-participation beta version of AdSense for Feeds, a version of AdSense that runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising—and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from."[6]
AdSense for Feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by a RSS reader or Web browser, Google writes the advertising content into the image that it returns. The advertisement content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's website in the same way as regular AdSense advertisements.
AdSense for Feeds has remained in its beta state until August 15, 2008, when it became available to all AdSense users.
[] AdSense for search
A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search, allows website owners to place Google search boxes on their websites. When a user searches the Internet or the website with the search box, Google shares any advertising revenue it makes from those searches with the website owner. However the publisher is paid only if the advertisements on the page are clicked: AdSense does not pay publishers for mere searches.
[] AdSense for mobile content
AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile websites using targeted Google advertisements. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches advertisements to the content of a website — in this case, a mobile website.
[] XHTML compatibility
As of September 2007, the HTML code for the AdSense search box does not validate as XHTML, and does not follow modern principles of website design because of its use of
non-standard end tags, such as and ,
the attribute checked rather than checked="checked",
presentational attributes other than id, class, or style — for example, bgcolor and align,
a table structure for purely presentational (i.e., non-tabular) purposes, and
the font tag.
Additionally, the AdSense advertisement units use the JavaScript method document.write(), which does not work correctly when rendered with the application/xhtml+xml MIME type. The units also use the iframe HTML tag, which is not validated correctly with the XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.0 Transitional DOCTYPEs.
The terms of the AdSense program forbid its affiliates from modifying the code, thus preventing these participants from having valid XHTML websites.
However, a workaround has been found by creating a separate HTML webpage containing only the AdSense advertisement units, and then importing this page into an XHTML webpage with an object tag.[7] This workaround appears to be accepted by Google.[8]
[] How AdSense works
The webmaster inserts the AdSense JavaScript code into a webpage.
Each time this page is visited, the JavaScript code creates an IFrame with a src attribute set to the page's URL.
For contextual advertisements, Google's servers use a cache of the page to determine a set of high-value keywords. If keywords have been cached already, advertisements are served for those keywords based on the AdWords bidding system. (More details are described in the AdSense patent.)
For site-targeted advertisements, the advertiser chooses the page(s) on which to display advertisements, and pays based on cost per mille (CPM), or the price advertisers choose to pay for every thousand advertisements displayed.[9] [10]
For referrals, Google adds money to the advertiser's account when visitors either download the referred software or subscribe to the referred service.[11] The referral program will be retired in August 2008.[12]
Search advertisements are added to the list of results after the visitor performs a search.
Because the JavaScript is sent to the Web browser when the page is requested, it is possible for other website owners to copy the JavaScript code into their own webpages. To protect against this type of fraud, AdSense customers can specify the pages on which advertisements should be shown. AdSense then ignores clicks from pages other than those specified.
[] Abuse
Some webmasters create websites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense website to make money from clicks. These "zombie" websites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g., a directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper websites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such "AdSense farms" are splogs (spam blogs), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Many of these websites use content from other websites, such as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.
A Made for AdSense (MFA) website or webpage has little or no content, but is filled with advertisements so that users have no choice but to click on advertisements. Such pages were tolerated in the past, but due to complaints, Google now disables such accounts.
There have also been reports of Trojan horses engineered to produce counterfeit Google advertisements that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The Trojan downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a webpage and then replaces the original advertisements with its own set of malicious advertisements.[13]
[] Criticism
Due to concerns about click fraud, Google AdSense has been criticized by some search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid clicks", in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine advertisements to drive up the other company's costs.[14] Some publishers that have been blocked by Google complain that little justification or transparency was provided. Webmasters who publish AdSense can receive a life-long ban without justification.[citation needed] Google claims they cannot "disclose any specific details" on fraudulent clicks since it may reveal the nature of their proprietary click-fraud monitoring system.[15]
To help prevent click fraud, AdSense publishers can choose from a number of click-tracking programs. These programs display detailed information about the visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use this to determine whether or not they have been a victim of click fraud. There are a number of commercial tracking scripts available for purchase.
The payment terms for webmasters have also been criticized.[16] Google withholds payment until an account reaches US$100,[17] but many small content providers[citation needed] require a long time—years in many cases—to build up this much AdSense revenue. These pending payments are recorded on Google's balance sheet as "accrued revenue share".[18] At the close of its 2006 fiscal year, the sum of all these small debts amounted to a little over US$370 million, money that Google is able to invest but effectively belongs to webmasters. However, Google will pay all earned revenue greater than US$10 when an AdSense account is closed.
Google recently came under fire when the official Google AdSense Blog showcased the French video website Imineo.com. This website violated Google's AdSense Program Policies by displaying AdSense alongside sexually explicit material.[19] Typically, websites displaying AdSense have been banned from showing such content.[citation needed]
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adsense".
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AdSense is an advertisement serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and more recently, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.
Contents
[hide]
1 Overview
2 History
3 AdSense for Feeds
4 AdSense for search
5 AdSense for mobile content
5.1 XHTML compatibility
6 How AdSense works
7 Abuse
8 Criticism
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
//
[] Overview
Google uses its Internet search technology to serve advertisements based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted advertisement system may enroll through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the advertisements are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website.
Currently, AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating website. If the advertisements are included on a website that has not yet been crawled by the Mediabot, AdSense will temporarily display advertisements for charitable causes, also known as public service announcements (PSAs). (The Mediabot is different from the Googlebot, which maintains Google's search index.)
Many websites use AdSense to monetize their content. AdSense has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small websites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and salespeople. To fill a website with advertisements that are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters implement a brief script on the websites' pages. Websites that are content-rich have been very successful with this advertising program, as noted in a number of publisher case studies on the AdSense website.
Some webmasters invest significant effort into maximizing their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:[citation needed]
They use a wide range of traffic-generating techniques, including but not limited to online advertising.
They build valuable content on their websites that attracts AdSense advertisements, which pay out the most when they are clicked.
They use copy on their websites that encourages visitors to click on advertisements. Note that Google prohibits webmasters from using phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. The phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements".[citation needed]
The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program, which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction. AdSense commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (i.e., a bid not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.
[] History
The underlying technology behind AdSense was derived originally from WordNet, Simpli (a company started by the founder of Wordnet, George A. Miller), and a number of professors and graduate students from Brown University, including James A. Anderson, Jeff Stibel, and Steve Reiss.[1] A variation of this technology utilizing WordNet was developed by Oingo, a small search engine company based in Santa Monica founded in 1998 by Gilad Elbaz and Adam Weissman.[2][3] Oingo changed its name to Applied Semantics in 2001,[4] which was later acquired by Google in April 2003 for US$102 million.[5]
[] AdSense for Feeds
In May 2005, Google announced a limited-participation beta version of AdSense for Feeds, a version of AdSense that runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising—and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from."[6]
AdSense for Feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by a RSS reader or Web browser, Google writes the advertising content into the image that it returns. The advertisement content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's website in the same way as regular AdSense advertisements.
AdSense for Feeds has remained in its beta state until August 15, 2008, when it became available to all AdSense users.
[] AdSense for search
A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search, allows website owners to place Google search boxes on their websites. When a user searches the Internet or the website with the search box, Google shares any advertising revenue it makes from those searches with the website owner. However the publisher is paid only if the advertisements on the page are clicked: AdSense does not pay publishers for mere searches.
[] AdSense for mobile content
AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile websites using targeted Google advertisements. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches advertisements to the content of a website — in this case, a mobile website.
[] XHTML compatibility
As of September 2007, the HTML code for the AdSense search box does not validate as XHTML, and does not follow modern principles of website design because of its use of
non-standard end tags, such as and ,
the attribute checked rather than checked="checked",
presentational attributes other than id, class, or style — for example, bgcolor and align,
a table structure for purely presentational (i.e., non-tabular) purposes, and
the font tag.
Additionally, the AdSense advertisement units use the JavaScript method document.write(), which does not work correctly when rendered with the application/xhtml+xml MIME type. The units also use the iframe HTML tag, which is not validated correctly with the XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.0 Transitional DOCTYPEs.
The terms of the AdSense program forbid its affiliates from modifying the code, thus preventing these participants from having valid XHTML websites.
However, a workaround has been found by creating a separate HTML webpage containing only the AdSense advertisement units, and then importing this page into an XHTML webpage with an object tag.[7] This workaround appears to be accepted by Google.[8]
[] How AdSense works
The webmaster inserts the AdSense JavaScript code into a webpage.
Each time this page is visited, the JavaScript code creates an IFrame with a src attribute set to the page's URL.
For contextual advertisements, Google's servers use a cache of the page to determine a set of high-value keywords. If keywords have been cached already, advertisements are served for those keywords based on the AdWords bidding system. (More details are described in the AdSense patent.)
For site-targeted advertisements, the advertiser chooses the page(s) on which to display advertisements, and pays based on cost per mille (CPM), or the price advertisers choose to pay for every thousand advertisements displayed.[9] [10]
For referrals, Google adds money to the advertiser's account when visitors either download the referred software or subscribe to the referred service.[11] The referral program will be retired in August 2008.[12]
Search advertisements are added to the list of results after the visitor performs a search.
Because the JavaScript is sent to the Web browser when the page is requested, it is possible for other website owners to copy the JavaScript code into their own webpages. To protect against this type of fraud, AdSense customers can specify the pages on which advertisements should be shown. AdSense then ignores clicks from pages other than those specified.
[] Abuse
Some webmasters create websites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense website to make money from clicks. These "zombie" websites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g., a directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper websites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such "AdSense farms" are splogs (spam blogs), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Many of these websites use content from other websites, such as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.
A Made for AdSense (MFA) website or webpage has little or no content, but is filled with advertisements so that users have no choice but to click on advertisements. Such pages were tolerated in the past, but due to complaints, Google now disables such accounts.
There have also been reports of Trojan horses engineered to produce counterfeit Google advertisements that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The Trojan downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a webpage and then replaces the original advertisements with its own set of malicious advertisements.[13]
[] Criticism
Due to concerns about click fraud, Google AdSense has been criticized by some search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid clicks", in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine advertisements to drive up the other company's costs.[14] Some publishers that have been blocked by Google complain that little justification or transparency was provided. Webmasters who publish AdSense can receive a life-long ban without justification.[citation needed] Google claims they cannot "disclose any specific details" on fraudulent clicks since it may reveal the nature of their proprietary click-fraud monitoring system.[15]
To help prevent click fraud, AdSense publishers can choose from a number of click-tracking programs. These programs display detailed information about the visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use this to determine whether or not they have been a victim of click fraud. There are a number of commercial tracking scripts available for purchase.
The payment terms for webmasters have also been criticized.[16] Google withholds payment until an account reaches US$100,[17] but many small content providers[citation needed] require a long time—years in many cases—to build up this much AdSense revenue. These pending payments are recorded on Google's balance sheet as "accrued revenue share".[18] At the close of its 2006 fiscal year, the sum of all these small debts amounted to a little over US$370 million, money that Google is able to invest but effectively belongs to webmasters. However, Google will pay all earned revenue greater than US$10 when an AdSense account is closed.
Google recently came under fire when the official Google AdSense Blog showcased the French video website Imineo.com. This website violated Google's AdSense Program Policies by displaying AdSense alongside sexually explicit material.[19] Typically, websites displaying AdSense have been banned from showing such content.[citation needed]
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adsense".
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