Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by charcircuit 1567 days ago
>Yeah, once you realize the most profitable Google search terms are already the top organic result paying to be on top

What if you aren't the top organic search and you want to drive traffic. For example "mesothelioma lawyer" is a very profitable keyword that'd you would want to show up on top. If there weren't any ads you would need to out SEO other law firms and hope Google doesn't screw you by adjusting the ranking algorithm.
2 comments
tempestn 1567 days ago
The problem is specifically with branded searches. When someone searches not "mesothelioma lawyer", but rather, "Kirkland & Ellis LLP.", and they get an ad for some other law firm above that.
link
ocdtrekkie 1567 days ago
That's the obvious legitimate purpose of selling the ad space. If that's where Google's money was coming from, I wouldn't be irritated. Well that and if they didn't profit on the malware/support scam ads.

However, I suspect if we were to remove Google's revenue from those two categories, they would not be in the Fortune 50.

link