thanks for any thoughts and/or comments
waiting for more opinions on this. anyone from google with some educated input?
It makes much more sense for google to do this as a blanket rule rather than case by case. Time and energy saved...
Unless you have online in your domain name or have the term trademarked within a phrase or something, I wouldn't bother fighting it. Generally you can find better copy to use than the 6 byte 'online' anyway.
What are the chances that "America Online" stipulated that ad titles should not contain the word "online" lest their sorry subscribers be confused? This theory isn't too far-fetched. I used to get AOL users stumbling on one of my sites' contact pages thinking they were contacting AOL Customer Service.
Also in my experience, advertisers who do a good job of explaining their special situation will get a fair hearing from Google Editorial staff.
However, on things like spelling, punctuation, banned items, prohibited words, etc. - these are likely going to be more rule-based and non-negotiable. There are some grey areas that are negotiable, but apparently use of the word "online" is not one of them.
:) Talk to 'em - they are very reasonable, imho. Much easier than my (fewer) Overture talks.
Though, if it's something like "widgets online" that, as they have said, won't work -> because since it is "online" it is redundant.
I guess the delimiter would be something like, "the name of the product or service has to contain it" for the word "online" to be used.
b) thanks for all the feedback.
c) back to my original question - as i said, i provide a service which is specifically distinguished by the fact that i provide it online. it's not a product that a client can buy at a store but is an alternative to going-to-a-boring-out-of-the-way-all-day-long lecture. "online" is what sells in my case. with that in mind, i think i have a reasonable bone to pick with them, no?
jeremy, who do you suggest i contact and what is the best approach to take with them?
everyone else, if i get a outright "no", any suggestions for alternative words to use? i already have "internet", "instant", "at-home" and "interactive".
thanks to all again!
- max
Usually, when I had stuff rejected / etc, I'd get an email, and then I would reply to the email they'd sent.
Cheers.
It is similar to editing directories when someone suggests a description like this.
Online Thingies
Offers online thingies to anyone who wants to buy online thingies.
If I was in your shoes I would come up with a better description, that does not use the word online, for the reasons mentioned above. If its hard to do look at the top ads and how their descriptions are written and look for the alternative. There are a few instances where online could be used, but it would be limited to Online ordering and a few others I dont have the brain power to think of.
jeremy, that's exactly what i did. i hope my email to them wasn't too formal - maybe i should've kissed a little butt. don't know...
miles, i understand your point and not looking to arbitrarily contradict you. but just to clear up my explanation, most people who are looking for services i offer don't realize they can actually do it online. most of them use a se to fing a local training facility etc, and what i'm trying to do is boldly alert them that they have an alternative (ie doing it online via my website) and then entice them into clicking through to the site. i hope that makes a little more sense now as to why "online" is such an important element in my adword.
again, thanks to all for your feedback.
btw, can anyone direct me to some good threads about seo for subscription-based sites? since i only have a few "open" pages, i probably lose out on a lot of indexing (i'm a newbie so forgive me if i use wrong terminology).
- max
