Google Search Results Slammed In Studies

Two studies both say Google's search rankings help only the company itself. One says the ranking algorithm worsens the experience for users, while the other says paid placements in the rankings doesn't even benefit businesses.

The first study is from WalletHub, which looked specifically at searches for 48 terms related to credit cards and banking. It claims that in more than a third of searches it carried out, the entire top 10 results were from pages that didn't have any editorial content and were simply promoting financial services for paid advertisers. (Source: wallethub.com)

(While some media outlets have misinterpreted the study, this was not about sites paying Google to appear in the rankings, but instead businesses paying to be mentioned on the web sites.)

Sponsorship Kept Quiet

The study also found that 58 percent of these pages were not fully transparent about the fact that they had been paid to feature products.

Whether Google is doing anything wrong in this situation is disputable. It's possible that these sites, even though they are filled with paid content, are doing the best job of giving users what they want from a search. However, WalletHub also says that on average just 41 percent of top 10 results met the user's intent.

Meanwhile a Northeastern University study says the competition between brand owners and rivals for Google advertising slots helps neither side. Unlike the WalletHub study, this was about the paid positions in the search results page. (Source: aaai.org)

The study tracked the browsing habits of volunteers to see what results they clicked on and what they did next. It then cross-referenced this with the prices advertisers had paid Google to get the results page slot.

Spending Often Wasted

The authors estimate that between 28 and 36 percent of the money spent on paid results is by businesses using the names of competitors in the ad, something that's allowed by Google policies. However, this spending was poor value as in many cases web users clicked on the ad and then almost immediately clicked back when they realized they were not on the site of the brand they had searched for.

This "poaching" advertising then drives up the costs for the actual businesses who believe they have to defensively place ads for their own brand just to get the level of traffic they would expect to get from people who are searching for their product or service.

The authors of the study say one solution would be Google no longer letting people place ads for terms that are trademarked for other business. Ultimately, though, it says Google is too dominant in the search and advertising market to feel the pressure to do this.

What's Your Opinion?

Do you find Google's search results useful? Would you like to know if a site was largely made up of paid content before you clicked through on a search result? Should Google let people place ads using other company's trademarks?