Search engines have become the digital libraries that help us all find the information that we need. No more trips to the real libraries to get supporting details for research papers, case studies, or just general knowledge. It’s convenient and a very popular resource. In fact, it’s one of the major uses of the Internet overall. So how is it that they stay in business?
Many are not aware that search engines charge companies for page placement. This is known as a form of advertising and can be viewed as deceiving. Consumers that use the search engines to find the best Italian restaurant in town, or where to buy sports equipment, are probably not aware that their search results can be altered by this page placement. In stead of only offering the most logical search results, these websites are biased and give ideal page placement to those who have paid to be on page 1 or 2 or 3. The ultimate goal here is to create exposure in order to increase chances of sparking the interest of new prospective buyers.
For those companies that aren’t willing to pay extra for idea page placement, it may be beneficial for them to include hot key words into their website text. These key words will be ones that are popular and relate to what the company stands for. Therefore, the search results will pick up on these key words when searched for and the company will have more of a chance to be exposed, but they won’t be paying any extra for it!
I was really surprised to find out just how rampant the paid listing business is. Now I make sure I at least look at the 5th- 10th page of results because I feel like these might contain information that is more relevant to my search or they are more real…if that makes sense.