How Google Grows Advertising Rev 20% a Year, While Global Economy Grows at 4%

PALM BEACH, FL – If you are in the Internet business, you’re going to want to stop and read this one. It will educate you. It might explain a couple of things you have thought about when it comes to Google. It might even make you a little mad. But it is always best to know what is happening in your industry. Or you could stay in your little bubble where they say, ignorance is bliss.

Google has the ability to provide the illusion of diversity while using sort of eye candy displacement efforts to shift an increasing share of searches from organic to paid results.

Aaron Wall, Brands Verses Ads

The “Illusion of Diversity”

Very well said. The topic screams for 50 more stories on it. It reminds me very much of a time when I used to say that everything seems to make sense when analyzing the algorithm, and then it doesn’t; Google pulls out a tiny piece of the puzzle so it just doesn’t fit. This effectively makes it impossible to make sense, because it doesn’t.

I remember when I got started in this business around the year 2000, there were a few super-knowledgeable people to listen to when they discussed search engines and algorithmic changes, specifically those changes that were affecting Google search results. One of those people was Aaron Wall, from SEO Book; a very smart guy that when you listen to him analyze and report on his findings, you’ll always learn something new [I was going to use the word “almost”, but I decided against it; it doesn’t apply; it’s “always”].

Aaron has a post about Google that domain owners and developers should read; it is very interesting and you can rest assured, that his ramblings are spot-on with what is happening with Google; how [and why] they continue to eat up the competition. I remember Aaron well from the old Developer Shed SEO Chat Forum created by Darrin Ward (one of the first forums I ever used), and I’m sure Aaron remembers me. Other names I remember well were Morgan Carey (SEO Guy), Jill Whelan (HighRankings.com), Jim Boykin (We Build Pages) and the list goes on.

Below is a very small excerpt of what you’ll learn by taking the time to read it over. As one commented:

“Aaron, fantastic piece, thank you. Illuminating and depressing at the same time.” – I can second that.

Here are two very significant take-aways domain enthusiasts will appreciate:

Most of the top selling hotel-related domain names were sold about a decade ago. On August 8th HongKongHotels.com sold for $4,038. A decade ago, that name likely would have sold for around $100,000. And the new buyer may have overpaid for it!

This is because a decade ago, that would have offered a near guarantee of top ten first page and potentially, #1 rankings. Not anymore.

“Google consistently grows their ad revenues 20% a year in a global economy growing at under 4%. There are only about 6 ways they can do that…”

1- growth of web usage (though many of those who are getting online today have a far lower disposable income than those who got on a decade or two ago did)

2- gain marketshare (very hard in search, given that they effectively are the market in most markets outside of a few countries like China & Russia)

3 – create new inventory (new ad types on image search results, Google Maps & YouTube)

4 – charge more for clicks

5- improve at targeting through better surveillance of web users (getting harder after GDPR & similar efforts from some states in the next year or two)

6 – shift click streams away from organic toward paid channels (through larger ads, more interactive ad units, less appealing organic result formatting, pushing organic results below the fold, hiding organic results, etc.)

• Related: Exact Match Domain Names Yielding “Free Ticket to Ride” Long Over on Search Giant
• Related: Gobble, Gobble: Google Wants To Steal Your Website’s Local Event Calendar Traffic Too
• Related: Websites and Domain Names to Become Insignificant within 20 Years or Less
• Related: Who Needs Domains and Websites Anyway? Google Say’s “You’re A Loser”

Take the time to read it over. You can thank me for talking you into it later.

John Colascione

About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a ‘how to’ book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®