I’ve been a long proponent of the argument that the importance of Page Rank is completely dependent on your interpretation of Page Rank to begin with. To me, there is more than one form of Page Rank. The first form that most people obsess on is visible Page Rank… the one that graces the web browsers of those who have downloaded the Google toolbar. The there’s the other form, the invisible one that is the basis of Google’s ranking algorithm (aka. the one that matters).

For the record, Google rarely updates visible Page Rank (approx. 3-4 times per year). The invisible form never sleeps and is at work 24/7 as Google sifts through mounds of content in search of the most trustworthy and authoritative content that has earned the right to grace the first page of their ranking results. Bottom line folks… visible Page Rank simply doesn’t matter. It’s the invisible cousin that you need to focus your efforts on.

OK, so what did Google do to combat paid linking and why was it so “brilliant”. Well, they basically identified and isolated sites that were selling ad space to text ad link brokers for the purpose of publishing text links on behalf of advertisers who were looking to acquire text links from authoritative web sites in order to increase their organic search engine rankings.

How did they identify these sites? Let’s face it, the little box near the footer of each page that said “Sponsored Links” or “Sponsored Advertisements” were kind of a dead freakin’ give away. Heck, Google’s own hotsheet for their Adsense program that shows publishers where to place their Adwords to achieve the highest yield should have clued us all in to the fact that Google already had an idea where commercial links were most likely to exist on a web page!

But what was wrong with the text link ads to begin with? Well, Google has answered that question emphatically with a question of their own for years now. If the links aren’t intended to game their search results, then why not apply a nofollow tag to alert the engines to ignore the link. Kinda kills both birds with one stone doesn’t it?

So, what did Google do? They played on the fact that the vast majority of text ad link brokers use visible page rank as a proxy to determine the market price of their links. The higher the Page Rank… the higher the premium advertisers paid for the link. The SEO world debated the potential impact of such a broad sweeping witch hunt for years. Wouldn’t Google be shooting themselves in the foot if they reduced the Page Rank of respected, authoritative web sites. Shoot, Forbes.com publishes these links. Can you imagine Google’s results for “business news” and “financial news” without Forbes.com in it?

Well… that argument presumed that a reduction in visible Page Rank would have an equivalent impact on the site’s ability to rank within their index. And in hindsight, that presumption was fatally flawed. Forbes still ranks as high as they always have for business news and financial news. In my opinion, they’re still authoritative in Google’s eyes, they’re just not trustworthy with respect to their ability to pass Page Rank along to other sites.

How interesting would it have been to be a fly on the wall when the text ad link brokers of the world had to call their publishers and on one hand apologize for the adverse effect their links had on the publishers visible Page Rank… and on the other hand had to break the news that the fees advertisers were willing to pay for the links had to be reduced to account for their loss in visible Page Rank? Yikes!

Game, Set, Match…?

I remember back in the day when the sports stadiums took on their own names instead of those of their sponsors. Maybe I’m nostalgic, but I miss those days. I can remember going to Eagles and Phillies games at the Vet and 76ers and Flyers games at the Spectrum. Nowadays they’re Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Ball Park and Wachovia Complex respectively. That’s not the only thing that’s changing in the world of sports marketing.

According to eMarketer, sports is the largest recipient of sponsorship spending in North America. The numbers are staggering.

Sports is the largest category of sponsorship spending in North America. In 2006, $8.94 billion was spent on sports sponsorships in the region, representing two-thirds of the $13.39 billion total, according to IEG.

eMarketer projects that sports sponsorship spending in North America will increase to $13.24 billion by 2011, and that it will continue to represent between 66% and 69% of overall sponsorship spending in the region.

eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna sees sponsorship as part of a sports-driven marketing mix that is moving online.

“The spending bonanza that accompanies mega-events like the Super Bowl and the World Series has played out mainly on broadcast and cable TV,” Mr. Verna said.

“However, by 2011, the online share of the US sports advertising pie will double to 10%, from 4.9% in 2006. In dollar terms, this will translate to $1.1 billion in advertising revenues at sports-related Web sites in 2011, up from $407 million in 2006.”

This is great news for all of us sports crazed fans in the online marketing industry.

This seems like a logical position Google has taken considering the immense amount of click fraud lately, however it’s uncertain as to why Google is only placing a restriction on “Refferal Ads” as opposed to regular Google Adsense units. It would be my guess that regular ads sense ads are next to come on the chopping block.

Since the validation is not being carried out simultaneously, this could result in big losses for high end publishers. In the end, I see this as a positive move on Google’s part. Weeding out the rogue advertisers will only strengthen the ad network and put more $$ per click in your pocket as the publisher.

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