rbacal - 8:21 pm on Aug 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

So, it seems the only surefire way to avoid problems is to bid to #1; meaning you can launch whatever site you want, just stay in spot #1 and you're safe. Beyond that, things get more speculative. You could take some stabs at building a 'quality' site, but your fate may very well be sealed by your bid behavior (as measured against that of the top bidders)...or you may not nail the metrics Google uses to measure site quality

I guess. I just don't know if you need to bid to be #1. I'd doubt it. My guess would be that you'd need to be bidding within top 50% of competitors bidding on the term.

But it's a guess. Also, keep in mind that your spot isn't determined just by the bid, so that can be a bit tricky.

I also figure nothing, not even things that are clearly "surefire" are, or will remain so. It's kind of an elusive grail.