• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

SEMrush

Home » Google » Is Google Quietly Embracing Paid Inclusion?

Is Google Quietly Embracing Paid Inclusion?

Posted on February 1, 2016 Written by Bill Hartzer

Let’s think about Google’s current product offerings, what services they are offer us as business owners, online merchants, and website owners. You can submit your website to get crawled, but you can also pay for inclusion. Over the years, Google says that it’s free to get listed. But really, is it? You can get included, but the options are very limited. It seems as though that Google just won’t send you a lot of traffic to your website unless you pay for it. Is Google quietly embracing paid inclusion?

A recent H/N post that hit on the front page linked to this article from 2012. That got me thinking… even though Google says it’s free, do you have to pay? It certainly seems as though that’s the case.

Currently, we can submit our website to Google (which really isn’t necessary) because Google’s crawlers are so good at crawling the web and discovering new domain names, new web pages, and new URLs. And, if you want to pay for traffic to your website, you can certainly pay to get listed (or pay for the traffic) via Google AdWords, Google Shopping, and Google’s display network options (running banner ads, etc.).

— Google used to let ecommerce retailers submit their shopping feed for free traffic. Now merchants have to pay for that same traffic, via Google Shopping.
— Google had a separate blog search for bloggers, Google blog search. It no longer exists. But you can still submit your blog?
— Google used to show more Google Maps listings in the search results. It was called the “7 pack” or sometimes the “11 pack”. Now, we’re down to only 3 local map listings being displayed.

Then there’s this:

colleyville fencing google search results

A local search, like for “Colleyville fencing” (a city here in Texas) shows the Google AdWords ads, the local map with 3 local results, and then that’s it…. you have to scroll down to actually see the organic “free” search results.

Back in the early 2000s, if you had a large website (over 100,000 pages) it was really a good thing to opt into Paid Inclusion. You could get a lot of your pages included in Yahoo!, for example, which really did work to bring a lot of traffic, and sales, to your ecommerce site.

But we’re at the point now where it really seems as though Google is really quietly embracing paid inclusion, or they have already done that. They “say” it’s free to be included, and I believe it will always be free. However, if you want traffic and paying customers then you have to pay for that.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engines

SEMrush

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, LLC, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management.

Recent Posts

  • Someone Stole My Domain Name: Here’s What You Do January 4, 2023
  • Web Hosting Services Market to Grow to $254.86 Billion by 2029 December 13, 2022
  • This SEO Blog Post Was Written by ChatGPT December 8, 2022
  • Facebook Rolling Out Facebook Articles December 7, 2022
  • Doing SEO is Better Than… December 6, 2022
  • Tucows and GoDaddy Report Q3 2022 Results November 6, 2022
  • How to Measure App Events Sourced by Organic Search and SEO September 20, 2022
  • Google Allegedly Eavesdrops and Monitors the Brain 24 hours a Day to Control Humanity September 14, 2022
  • Why You Shouldn’t Hire SEOs Based on An Email September 13, 2022
  • Global SEO Market to Reach $122.11 Billion by 2028 September 9, 2022
  • Bluehost Launches New Commerce Solutions for WordPress September 8, 2022
  • Which CMS? How to Choose the Best CMS for Your Purposes August 29, 2022
  • Accidental SEO Manager: Interview with Ash Nallawalla August 15, 2022
  • Sometimes Google Isn’t Family Friendly August 1, 2022
  • Something’s Seriously Wrong with Facebook Notifications July 12, 2022
  • Facebook Internet Tracking Settlement June 24, 2022
  • RankSense Acquired by SEOClarity June 1, 2022
  • LinkedIn Links, Digital Marketing News, and SEO Questions Answered May 9, 2022
  • GoDaddy Ending Forwarding of Existing Shortened Links May 5, 2022
  • 7 Ways to Protect Your Domain Name March 31, 2022

US Agency Awards Judge

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

I Love SEO
WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Phil Drinkwater
Dixon Jones
Brian Hartzer
Navah Hopkins

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (19)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (12)
  • Domain Names (209)
  • Google (236)
  • Internet Marketing (25)
  • Internet Usage (85)
  • Link Building (53)
  • Local Search (39)
  • Marketing (180)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (3)
  • Podcast (18)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (9)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (48)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (19)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (164)
  • Search Engines (204)
  • Social Media (192)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (17)
  • Webinars (1)

Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 ·