Google Can’t Tell the Difference Between Ads and Search Results
Google Can’t Tell the Difference Between Ads and Search Results
Two changes to how Google displays search results will likely have a real impact on your business.
Most of us think of Google as the place to go and get answers to just about everything. In fact, 90 percent of all search queries use Google, accounting for almost half of all internet traffic. If you’re an entrepreneur or marketer, you know that Google’s primary business is selling targeted advertising along with every one of those searches. In fact, Google is the largest advertising platform in the world.
The intersection of those two realities just got a little clearer, while the distinction became less so with a few recent changes made by Google. Here’s what changed recently, as well as what it means to your business.
Ads Versus Organic Results
Google Ads are extremely effective, because advertisers are able to target ads to the keywords people search for. People depend on Google to give them the highest-quality results for their questions, which is why appearing at the top of a search results page is so valuable to marketers and content creators.
For a long time, it was obvious that there was a difference between results that appear organically–ranked highly on the basis of their relevance and quality–and those that appeared prominently because they are paid ads. Over time, however, Google has made the distinction less clear.
The latest example blurs the line almost completely by adding a “fav” icon to the organic results, and including the link above the result, both of which make them look far closer to the ads above.
While it isn’t clear what result this is likely to have for individual businesses, the motivation seems clear: Increase click-through on ads. Since the majority of visitors click on the top three or four search results, making the paid and organic results look as similar to each other as possible is going to lead to more clicks on the paid results since they appear at the top.
