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im runnign several sites just now, some personal and some for my employer - all unrelated industries.
One of my personal sites competitors (a multinational) now has sponsored listings when you search for my employers brand name (only 22 results come up when you search for it so its not a big industry).
Im concerned because i made a bit of an enemy of this multinational (what can i say, ive got a big mouth! ;)) and i now think they are targeting my employer as a vendetta against me.
When you search for a general term in my employers industry, the sponsored listings dont appear, and also seaching for my employers competitors brand names dont bring up this multinational listings.
Is it possible for a company to pay google for sponsor listings a say, "i want to be up top when xxx xxx is searched for"?
If so, is there anything i can do about? It seems very anticompetitve and also i have reported the aforementioned mulitnational for spamming (dup content and multiple meta keywords spamming) using googles spam report.
Id hate to think that the opinons that I put forward on my own personal site can damage my employers business, and im pretty p!ssed of at the fact that this mulitnational appears to be targetting me in this way!
Any comments would be greatly appreciated!
JOAT
Whether or not they actually remove it will depend on how it's being used.
If they are targetting my employer and not related buisnesses then surely its a reflection of my experiences with them? And if so then surely it could be argued that they are specifically targetting me (the business my employer is in is miles away from my site).
Had it been some random website, i would have just gone into a marketing war with them, but this company boasts business partners such as AOL, MSN and Netscape. How can the small businessman compete with those resources?
Granted on my personal site i was outspoken against them, but it was based on fact (my personal experience) and i had screenshots and other evidence to back my statements against them. Does this warrant an attack against my employer (which is obviously an attempt to make my life difficult, but unknown to them will actually benefit me greatly)?
I just feel that it is very dirty tatic by a very large company for a very petty reason. I just hope google will see it this way.
JOAT
1, Certain companies DO buy sponsored listings when their competitors brand name / product name is searched for, and from my understanding Google are very understanding if you complain.
However in the particular case, i think "2" applies:
2, Competitor is purely bidding on Adwords for search term related to your brand, however due to the small number of listings, Click Through rate is probably quite high, therefore Adwords is showing as a Sponsored Listing.
I may have got this completely wrong, but I really think these guys are running Adwords and NOT sponsored listings.
Shak
2. My employers site currently has listed "untitled page1" and "untitled page 2" in the SERPs (a legacy from my predecessor that i hope will change in this update).
3. My employer operates soley in a regional area within a country and not on a worldwide basis.
3. I scour my stats on a daily basis. Theres no chance in hell that this is an attempt to get additional traffic. 80% of our visitors come to our site by typing in the URL after referals at trade shows etc.
4. The business is expanding onto the web - its had no presence there until recently - this is a personal attack!´
What can I do? (other than asking google to remove the listing). This is a totally anti competitve practice! Im not a happy chappy! :)
(on a side noted - it doesnt matter - my small one man run website totally kicks ass for content and information and i fully intend to make it my lifes work to put said multinational out of business! ;))
JOAT
This would still be the case if it was an AdWords listing, which had been promoted to the Northern Banner (as some like to call it)
as for the rest, I can not comment as it seems quite a delicate and personal situation you are in.
Shak
i seem to get in a lot of those!;)
I still think its poor show for a multinational to attack my employer to get at me!
Still....shows that theyre scared! Im going to revoloutionise the industry and there will be no place for them in the new order! ;)
JOAT
ie like the spam report?
cheers for the input peeps! ;)
JOAT
I think its a personal attack.
Put it this way, how would you all like it if a multinational targeted your clients because your site competed (and bested) them?
Its out of order and anticompetitive! :)
my two cents
JOAT
Perhaps an -email to the CEO pointing out his/her IT department is using company funds to promote a competitor might do it?
Im sorry i dont understand what you mean.
The multi in question has set up an entire site for "widget support services".
My employer sells "widgets".
Granted it could be said that the sponsored listing does not generate enough visitors to substansiate the listing, but i dont feel thats the point.
The point (as i see it) is that they are targetting one site based on anothers (unrelated) business.
JOAT
If you are being targeted, I think it is one or two individuals not the corporation. Considering that you have set yourself up for a long battle, you might last longer since you have no overhead costs as they do.
I feel that way as well.
I still think it is a low move for such a large org to take and as such it is anticompetitive.
rgds
JOAT
the one or two individuals who i p!ssed off are not web team, so it goes further than that...
:)
rgds
JOAT
ps i really appreciate all the input from the forum - it means a lot!
I just thought I would add to this post and try to get some views from the Monday morning squad! ;)
I appreciate all the feedback so far, but im still unsure as to what do about.
The sponsored listing now seems to have been removed (either by them after reading my rant on my own site, or through this forum), but I really pretty concerned that a large company would target an individual like this.
Besides the fact that they are using my personal information i gave them as a registered user to put pressure on my employer and therefore me (which im sure must have some data protection issues) after I started competing with them, but the way they have gone about it is totally anti-competitive. After all im running a free information and advice site!
Its crazy! :)
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
JOAT
<added>eh, the sponsored listings have just reappeared!</added>
