Loading…..”Hurry Up or Cough Up” says Google

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Adding to the increasing complexity of the AdWords “Quality Score” algorithm, Google has announced that page loading times will soon become a key factor.

The intention is that sites runing advert-heavy pages will be penalised in an effort to improve the “user experience”. Google claims conversion rates are lower when page loading times are poor, as users abandon the site, a claim supported by many frustrated browsers.

Losers

Flash Sites and Image-Heavy Websites - as Flash sites tend to require more image requests from the server than a typical html site, they may be penalised under the new calculations.

Poorly Hosted Websites - the jury is still out on whether cheaper hosting packages result in slower server responses, but inferior hardware undoubtedly takes its toll.

Winners

Text-Only Sites - we might see retailers using incredibly simple text-only landing pages (or maybe defaulting to the low-graphics accessibility pages?).

Google have not (and will not) release details of how much effect loading times will have on the quality score, for all we know it could be minimal, but Google are generally very commited to providing the best search results for their users. There are several conspiracy theories and there is no doubt that any changes will benefit Google’s profit margins but ultimately those who abide by the rules will be rewarded.

Yahoo + Microsoft = a threat for Google?

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The media has been inundated over the last few days with details of the proposed Yahoo buy-out by Microsoft for £23bn.

Google is said to be concerned and wants regulators to oversee the deal, as it would allow one company too much control over email and instant messaging accounts.

Over the last few years, both MSN and Yahoo have failed to make any major dents in Google AdWords monopoly of the search engine market.

Google still represent in excess of 70% of searches made via the internet, with MSN and Yahoo fluctuating between 2% and 10% over the last 5 years.

Various shake-ups and “aggressive restructures” have failed to improve the situation at Yahoo and the final quarter of 2007 saw a 27% drop in profits.

This is a potentially exciting time for pay per click marketing as ROI (return on investment) and customer service from MSN and Yahoo have been well documented as far inferior to Google.

The merger/acquisition may finally create a search engine platform that can challenge Google, hopefully providing a few incentives for advertisers to reassess the distribution of their search engine marketing budgets.

LandingNet await the outcome with baited breath!

Google Adsense Video Units

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Google have introduced video units on Google Adsense.

Google have teamed up with around 100 YouTubers to supply relevant videos for people who have adsense on their site.

Video units enable AdSense publishers to display videos from several YouTube content partners. The video units are ad-supported, and the ads are relevant to both the video and the site content

If you have a paid for advertisement campaigns, it is likely that some of your ads will be shown on other peoples websites who employ Google Adsense.

Many webmasters are now using videos on their websites as a tool to keep people interested in their site and to keep them coming back - if you use, or are thinking of using videos to increase your traffic as well as growing your audience, then showing your video via content distribution on Google Adsense could prove to be a benefit.

For more information on Google Adsense and Video units, visit the official Google Blog.

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