Last week Google launched its new Google Local search in the UK, this week the search megalith announced that it has another idea, CPM (cost per impression) advertising for its adsense program.

The introduction of CPM advertising will completely alter the way the Adsense programme works. Currently Google displays Adsense Ads on sites that its contextual tool judges to be relevant in theme to the Ad.

For one thing, the CPM model has the potential to reduce click fraud, and that will be very popular with advertisers. More profoundly though, Google will now allow advertisers to specify which sites their ads appear on. This will mean that advertisers can choose to appear only on sites that give them the best conversion rates, but it will also allow for brand advertising. Even if certain sites do not provide conversions, advertisers can grow their brand by careful selection of where their ads appear.

Let me add another word on the introduction of Google Local we featured last week. Our SEO friend, (Big) Bill Kruse has been looking into this a bit further and he has told us that Google seems to be simply replicating Yell’s listings. This means that Google has moved away from the accuracy of search based on on page content to simply
a paid inclusion model for sites that have forked out £299 plus VAT for a Yell.com priority listing. Bill has posted a sequence of pages covering his very interesting discussion with Yell here:

http://www.kruse.co.uk/google-local-1.htm




*SEARCH ENGINE WORKSHOPS*

Search Engine Workshops has now uploaded the agenda for the ClickTracks Training Events on 7th June and 20th July. See the agenda @

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/click.htm

It's filling up fast, and numbers are extremely limited so don't forget to register here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm