{ 2008 04 05 }

Google Makes Exception To Display URL Policy For Large Advertiser?

Bill Hartzer has written an important post explaining how Google’s display url policy will effect large local search marketers like ReachLocal. Bill shows a good example of how ReachLocal’s advertisers could be adversely effected by the policy change.

However, it doesn’t appear that ReachLocal was effected by this change at all; as they continue to display URLs in Adwords that are different from the landing page URL. Here is how ReachLocal is currently displaying the url in an adwords ad:

www.mysite.com

Here is the URL on the landing page:

www.mysite.reachlocal.com/

Here is Google’s policy as quoted from the Inside Adword’s Blog:

What about tracking URLs?
We do understand that many advertisers utilize tracking URLs within the destination field of their ads. Therefore, if the URL of your landing page matches that of your display URL, your ads will be approved.

For example:

Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
–> Landing page URL: www.google.com would be acceptable

Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
–> Landing page URL: www.trackingurl.com would not be acceptable

Inside Adword’s Blog further clarifies this point as it goes on to say:

Yes, the use of sub-domains and additional text within the display will continue to be acceptable provided the top-level domain matches the URL of your landing page.

As you can see, ReachLocal is plainly in violation of this policy. The top-level domain is clearly reachlocal.com, yet this is what is happening today, April 5th, 5 days after the policy has taken effect.

Here is a screen shot of the display url, please double-click the thumbnail to view the image. The Adwords ad has companyname.com. This screen shot was taken today:

Display URL of ReachLocal AD
I will not show a screen shot of the ad, though I have it, because I believe it could adversely effect the advertiser. For that reason, I have blurred the business name in the URL, as well.

My only question is whether Google has made an exception for ReachLocal or has Reachlocal taken more time to get in compliance with the policy? And if the latter is the case, which seems naive to believe, why are the ads currently running?

If an exception was made, which seems to be the most likely scenario at this point, we are all at a disadvantage. Most small businesses that advertise on Google are in competition with ReachLocal. If they are granted an exception, how are we supposed to compete?

This is an enormous issue and I hope that it is resolved quickly and in a way that is fair to everyone.

Posted by Local Search Hound on Saturday, April 5th, 2008, at 1:51 pm, and filed under Uncategorized.

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