Google up to some tricks.
By Toby Allen
Monday, September 22, 2003
This is kind of interesting, just an observation, nothing concrete (otherwise I might lay myself open for legal issues).
I'd be the first person to go on about how wonderful google is. I dont use any other search engine, and with a bit of tinkering you can usually find just what your looking for (though it is getting harder). However recently I have seen things from the other side. I run a jobs site for cooks and chefs www.jobsforcooks.com and due to being linked to another popular site on the web www.cookingisfun.ie I was always high in the ranking for certain key words in google For example up to a few weeks ago if you typed in 'Cooking Jobs' in Google, up popped Jobs for Cooks as the number one search result.
Obviously I was thrilled with this. The traffic on my site began to build and life was good.
Then I made a mistake (now this entire episode may be a coincidence and if so Mr Google I apologise for everything I'm about to write). I decided that I'd like to draw more traffic to my site, more visitors and more advertisers, so I looked at Google Adwords. Now some of my friends use these to great affect for attracting visitors to their websites (quick plug www.pride.ie - Irish Sports TShirts ). I was playing around with the various options and stupidy put in the words 'Cooking' & 'Jobs' into the keyword box and google dutifully told me that I was unlikely to every get a single click (since I already appeared at the top of the unsponsered list). I played around a bit more but decided that I wouldnt go ahead at that time.
Now purely by coincidence I no longer appear anywhere on the first page when one types in 'Cooking Jobs' into google.
I'm not saying anything.