SEO Blog

Get ready to read some disturbing news in the next few weeks. Though not a fortune-teller or psychic, my gut-sense tells me that the search and mainstream media is going to get all apocalyptic over a perceived downturn in ad-spends in the major PPC networks. I am almost certain it is going to happen and just as certain the reports, though numerically correct, will be factually wrong.

Next week marks the end of Google’s first quarter in 2008. As with the comScore report issued in late February that showed a .3% decline in click-throughs on the AdWords network in January 08, we are bound to read about lowering numbers of clicks and subsequent worries about Google meeting the often over-hyped and unusually under-informed expectations of Wall St. analysts.

Google has seen a minor decline in clicks but that is mainly due to Google’s own diligence. Google is moving to clean-up its click-stream by making it more difficult for searchers to make mistaken clicks. It has limited the clickable area in AdWords and is better filtering bad clicks. Both actions serve to lower the overall number of clicks recorded and billed for, thus slightly lowering Google’s perceived ad-audience and very real revenues.

The emails went out last night stating that the PPC Summit scheduled for next week in Vancouver has been canceled due to lack of commitment from vendors. Having just returned from the highly successful Search Engine Strategies conference in New York, the cancellation of PPC Summit came as a shock and a disappointment. Metamend had planned to send a small delegation to Vancouver to learn in the sessions, help the hosts with our local knowledge and contacts and to network with other search marketers.

I am especially disappointed because our new Pay-per-Click guru, Mark Johnstone was going to attend and I wanted to introduce him to some of the people who run the paid-advertising networks at Google, Yahoo and MSN. I was looking forward to listening in on the conversations and questions Mark would engage in and ask.

The cancellation of the PPC Summit demonstrates how difficult it can be to organize international events in a Canadian venue. Though Vancouver is situated on the border, scant minutes north of the 49th parallel, it is in a different country than the predominantly US based conference circuit. That makes a difference as the vendors and many attendees question the quality of the market north of the border.