Technology

Did Google Violate Its Own Policy While Paying Bloggers for Favorable Posts?

According to SEO Book (via Tech Crunch), Google and its marketing firm Unruly paid bloggers to write posts “sponsored by Google” as part of a marketing campaign for Google Chrome for small businesses. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the posters had followed their own policy by including a “nofollow” tag in the link, which helps ensure that search results are not manipulated in favor of paid content.

Here are some of the issues SEO Book reports seeing with the posts:

  • Some of those sites are paid posts and have live links in them to Google Chrome without using nofollow & talk about SEO in the same post as well;
  • Some of those posts link to the example businesses Google was paying to have covered;
  • And all the posts are effectively “buying YouTube video views” for this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFLP7HD1s7k
Google Violates Its Own Policy for Paid Links in Chrome Marketing Campaign, Says It Was a Mistake

The red arrow indicates a violation of Google's paid link policy in its own marketing campaign for Google Chrome. (Screenshot via Search Engine Land)

Tech Crunch notes that the posts should talk about how Chrome can be of use to small business owners but really don’t provide “details on Chrome features or how the browser can actually benefit small businesses.” To Tech Crunch, this means they are “garbage posts.”

Both Tech Crunch and SEO Book note that the at least one “nofollow attribute” not included in the post could have been left out by mistake. All Things D reported Tuesday that Unruly CEO Scott Button said it was in fact a technical mistake, which was corrected as soon as it came to their attention. Button says that the paid blog posts are part of a campaign that the company ran for Google through the end of December. All Things D has more from Button’s email response:

We’re always completely upfront and transparent with bloggers that we are running commercial campaigns and who we’re working for. We always require that bloggers disclose any commercial incentive to post video content. We always require that bloggers disclose even on related tweets that they might do off their own bats.

It’s also a key part of how we operate that we don’t tell bloggers what or how to write. It’s really important that opinions expressed and the tone of voice belong to the author not the advertiser. Occasionally that leads to human error, as here, so we’re always really happy to have these kinds of example flagged and will sort them out as quickly as we possibly can.

SEO Book reports that Googling “This post is sponsored by Google” returns more than 400 posts that are part of the marketing campaign. All Things D goes on to report that Unruly’s ad campaigns for Google generally reach 725 million people per month.

Search Engine Land points out that several companies came under fire by Google last year for violating this policy and poses the question if Google will ban Chrome:

Paid links drew much attention last year, after Google penalized JC Penney, as well as Forbes and Overstock for using them. Google even banned BeatThatQuote, one of its own companies last year, BeatTheQuote, over the issue. In 2009, Google penalized Google Japan for its own search results for the same issue, not removing it but reducing its ability to rank for 11 months.

Potentially, all this means that Google will have to ban the Google Chrome download page over paid links.

The New York Times (via Search Engine Land) also ran an article Monday with details about Google’s increasing self-marketing. The Times reports Google’s VP of Global Marketing Lorraine Twohill as saying that with the company’s growth and new products, advertising was important to help people see it as more than just a search engine. The advertising campaigns, the Times reports Peter Daboll, a chief executive of the firm Ace Metrix that evaluates advertising, as analyzing the campaigns that “make you feel something about search, as opposed to just relying on it as a useful tool.”

[H/T Gizmodo]

Comments (19)

  • Rowgue
    Posted on January 4, 2012 at 4:01am

    No matter how you sugar coat it, it’s a shady practice. It’s been around since way before there was an internet, it’s just far easier and more prevalent now. Google doing it themselves when they are so publicly against the practice is sort of doubly deceptive though.

    Report Post »  
  • robinakilt
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:11pm

    What happened to “Don’t be Evil?” Do you really trust a company that is bed with the federal government like Google?

    Report Post » robinakilt  
    • scheduler
      Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:30pm

      How is this wrong?

      http://politicalbowl.com – Political Videos

      Report Post »  
    • happyscrapper
      Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:43pm

      I don’t trust a company that sends trucks around to take pictures of my house. But that’s just me!

      Report Post »  
    • NIPPOHIPS
      Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:46pm

      Ron Paul doesn’t trust them.

      Ron Paul!!

      Report Post »  
    • Ruler4You
      Posted on January 4, 2012 at 2:45am

      Hey, it’s all relative. It depends on what the meaning of “IS” is. (B.J.Clinton). Don’t you know that “lying ”IS” a state of mind?” (DOJ Eric Holder before congress last month).

      Google “IS” virtually an arm of government these days. Words have no meaning in candy land.

      Report Post » Ruler4You  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:03pm

    Is this any kind of suprise since Google was in bed with the administration to allow the Muslim Brotherhood to depose the old guard of Egypt?

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • Commerce Exchange
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:59pm

    Usually google is pretty responsable on this acts, so probably some sort of a glitch between google and Chrome managment. The one thing is that google is spreading its ventures very wide, even too wide i would say. and projects such as plus are not really launching as expected.
    http://www.ecomm-unity.com/forum/topics/10-social-media-events-to-expect-on-2012

    Report Post » Commerce Exchange  
  • Survivor101
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:54pm

    How can you trust Google or FB…WWW included Web…makes you wonder when anything you have googled or posted on FB will be hacked and put public when you go against the beast. Being trapped by the web….

    Report Post »  
    • JamesHMiller
      Posted on January 4, 2012 at 9:30am

      One of my favorite Eric Schmidt quotes: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place” At a CNBC interview

      Could easily be a newfangled translation for “: and be sure your sin will find you out.”

      Report Post »  
  • goobert
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:52pm

    You forget that bloggers only get paid per click. If the ad isn‘t relevant to my blog I’m way less likely to click on it in the first place. DOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Report Post » goobert  
  • happyscrapper
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:50pm

    What happened to my first post?

    Report Post »  
  • happyscrapper
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:49pm

    Elizabeth 234…Please stop with the advertising. You are using someone else’s blog for free ads and it is immoral to do that. Wise up.

    Report Post »  
  • Midwest Blonde
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:48pm

    I tried chrome when it first came out – it sucked big time. Doesn‘t surprise me that they’re having to pay bloggers for “advertising”…. it sure as heck isn’t a good browser.

    Report Post » Midwest Blonde  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:02pm

      it works FAR better now….beats IE into the ground as far as I am concerned… Chrome that is..

      Report Post » Stoic one  
  • happyscrapper
    Posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:45pm

    Just use Bing.com instead. Google isn‘t the only search engine and isn’t even the best. They just have a catchy name. The folks at Google are globalist lefties and I don’t want to give them any of my support in any way. Plenty of other options!

    Report Post »  
    • sWampy
      Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:11pm

      Google didn’t become the biggest search engine on the planet because of their name, google had no meaning at all, until it became associated with the best search engine on the planet.

      Report Post »  
    • Mandors
      Posted on January 3, 2012 at 2:41pm

      @Swampy

      Google became the biggest search engine on the planet because of fraud. It got paid by companies, and still gets paid by companies to have their names and products come up first in a search. Long gone are the days of real boolean searches.

      Report Post » Mandors  

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