Hi Mike,

Interesting. I just finished reading your post about carousel replacement testing and was going to post a question. I was curious to know what your take was on Google’s motives for removing website, reviews, phone number, etc. – essentially removing the link elements in the listing. One of my thoughts was with none of those elements present, people may be more inclined to click on ads since, well… you can click on them.

Then I noticed this post (chained to your computer today?). Maybe my first hunch was right? This screenshot you posted is like a plate full of cheeseburgers (paid ads) with a moldering brussel sprout (stripped local results) off to the side. Who wants that?

Hard to believe they could improve on even this search result:
http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/world/

Couple of comments: I haven’t seen the test runs at all. Tried that search on hotels nyc and got the carousel, as I’ve gotten all day.

There are other elements to google monetizing the site. A lot of the ads have star ratings. They GRAB eyeballs and probably clicks. Any of that eyecatching “stuff” in ads works. I bet stars work like a charm. When we add site links to ads their click throughs increase dramatically. I’m sure stars work as well if not better.

I really think google is presenting something wherein they want readers to click on anything but the businesses website. …or only get to the website if one clicks on a monetized result.

The internet travel agent world is one where google has muscled its way in, where google really dominates…and its frankly one where google seems to do whatever it wants.

That includes helping out the ITA sites. I know the owners of small hotels just hate it. The hotel operators find themselves paying fees up the yingyang.

“above the fold there are 11 ads, 1 organic directory listing, a map and 2.5 local results”
—> Thanks for pointing out the 2.5 ‘non-monetized’ listings Mike, we will have our team create 2.5 more ads for this page asap; again thanks Mike – Google SERP Monetizing Team 😉
*disclaimer – I am not representing Google or any of its divisions in any way – Andy Kuiper 😉

What is the point of buying any AdWords space if AdWords, along with local listings, is completely dominated by spammers, to the point that they can not only outcompete you, but also recoup enough from defrauded consumers to outbid your legitimate business for keywords on AdWords and SEO? Google is playing a game of hide-and-not-seek, pretending that the profits from AdWords from spammers are acceptable and that they’re not responsible for the listings on their services (courtesy of Section 230 of the CDA), even though they know that a vast majority of AdWords from locksmiths, movers, and carpet cleaners are being run by spammers, and that a huge chunk of local listings are pure spam. Taking money from spammers is “Be evil”, because every transaction requires that the end consumer be defrauded, and Google is getting their cut.

Google is increasingly moving more toward AdWords, but the AdWords is being bid up by spammers, to the point that in certain segments, a legitimate business can’t afford AdWords (or their AdWords accounts are drained by click fraud bots run by the spammers). If Google provides no mechanism to remove spammers in the Local space (RAP–Report a problem does not work), then essentially they’re using an increasingly squeezed Local to herd businesses toward AdWords, and juicing up Google’s own profits, with some pretend nonsense that what’s good for Google is good for SMBs. That’s racketeering! It would be one thing if there was another search service that could actually compete with Google, or a regulatory authority that would crack down on Google’s shenanigans, but the reality is is that Google has 80% of the searches! And no one in DC or elsewhere is lifting a finger to stop them.

A SMB can’t survive very long without Google, but Google can apparently get along quite well without the SMB. There’s always another sucker waiting around the corner, right?

Dan:

I looked at locksmith results in a city far from me. In that category I agree with you. I used some of the methods you suggested in the past to try and ascertain which businesses were real or not. It appears that advertisers are fake businesses.

If I can figure out which are fake or not, one would think Google could also. In fact if I can figure it out, Google can easily determine it.

They don’t bother evidently. Nobody calls them out on this except for you. Frankly the law enforcement world doesn’t seem to care. Its a form of low grade theft. It rips off consumers and it hurts the real businesses, but each example is relatively small. So nobody seems to care.

I don’t know how many verticals suffer from this fate. Clearly there are many that don’t.

But in that industry google doesn’t seem to care at all. Lord knows they are aware of the problems and have been for years.

Thanks for the feedback, Dave. It’s not just locksmiths, it’s movers (which is dominated by a single guy actively engaged in criminal activity), it’s plumbers, it’s garage door suppliers, it’s lawyers, it’s handymen. Anyone willing to spend a little extra money can afford to engage in black hat SEO. Google is NOT interested in stopping them.

I should also point out that Google is making $100 million in AdWords revenues from the locksmith scammers in the US alone, according to my back of the envelope calculations. Google has a very strong incentive not to police locksmith listings, because it makes them more money not to do so (savings from not removing spam, revenues from scammers as the scammers increasingly competing among themselves for the AdWords slots, bidding up the AdWords out of reach of ordinary locksmiths).

As I said, that’s racketeering.