PageRank For Sale

Exclusive interview with SearchKing / PR Ad Network's Robert Massa.

SearchKing has started selling text ads on its network of independent portals, with prices based on Google PageRank. Jono Craig asks Robert Massa of SearchKing if he really believes he can get away with it.

By Jono Craig, 24 August 2002

Google PageRank

Google's patented PageRank technology and its associated merits are widely debated. Using Google's Toolbar we can display the PageRank (out of 10) of Websites indexed and rated by Google's PageRank (PR) algorithm.

The PageRank is calculated on the basis of the "popularity" of the site. The exact algorithm determining this popularity is -- of course -- a company secret. However, we do know that Google count the number of Web pages pointing to a particular page, the "quality" of these sites (i.e. if they themselves have a high PR) and how relevant they are to the topic at hand.

There are limits to what you can do to generate a high PR. The best recipe is to make a content rich, high quality site, that attracts visitors and -- hence -- links from other Web sites. That hasn't stopped search engine optimizers from trying to get additional "high PR links" to their sites, though.

When I saw recent posts (20th August 2002) in various SEO forums about PR for sale, I wanted to find out more (cf. Webmaster World discussion). I wanted the meat of the issue.

I decided the best way to portray this interesting situation was to play the devil's advocate, being such a "cynical" SEO consultant. Don't let my photo fool you. I wasn't going to make it easy for Robert Massa to pitch his service without throwing some tough questions his way.

[See also Pandia's comment on the PageRank text ads.]

SearchKing and the PR Ad Network

Jono Craig: Robert, thank you for the opportunity to hear your views on this new development. Could you provide an overview of what SearchKing & the PR Ad Network are?

Robert Massa: It's like a dating service for commercial Webmasters. We focus on placing text ads on niche sites and directories that have a high PageRank‘ and use that PageRank‘ as a way to gauge part of the value of the ad.

What it offers to advertisers is a high ROI from targeting the text ads to a select demographic, a higher click thru rate as studies have shown text ads have a much higher response rate than typical banner ads and increased link popularity for the site being advertised without having to spend the time trying to contact competing Websites and offering to "trade" links. Trading links is fine but it's not a very effective way of running a business.

It also offers the Webmaster a way to be fairly compensated for their hard work. Those high page ranks don't come easy. The Webmaster had to do a lot of work to get enough people linking to him to give him that coveted, "Google seal of approval". They deserve to be paid for that effort.

Typically, a site with a high PageRank can be expected to be of high quality and a high traffic site within the theme of keywords a niche site would target. This adds value to the site.

With the banner ad networks of 1999 and 2000 now offering as little as 50 cents for a thousand impressions, Webmasters who have earned those high PR's deserve a better rate for their available ad space. By offering the additional benefit of a text link from a high quality site, it makes it easy for the advertiser to justify the cost.

Text ads and PageRank

Jono Craig: Your service sells an inventory of possible high PR links from a growing network?

Robert Massa: Well, for starters, we do NOT sell inventory of "possible" high PR links. We do not place an ad until we KNOW what the PR of that site is at the time we place the ad. We do not own the Websites and we have no influence over Google, who publicly publishes the PageRank of Websites through the use of their own toolbar, so we have no way of knowing what might happen later, but we do know when we place the ad.

In the event the PR of a page with an ad changed, we would simply adjust the pricing or adjust where the ad was being displayed at the advertisers request.

As far as the business model being the same as searchking.com, I would say the only exception might be that SearchKing has been around for a longer time, is more established and is a more general search service where most of our portal partners and ad network partners are more of a very tightly focused niche site or directory. The purpose is the same, to generate additional revenue from the leasing of space on a high profile Web page.

Searchking.com would just appeal to a broader audience of advertisers, which is of course, the need for a network to match advertisers with niche sites.

Criticism

Jono Craig: Criticisms of SearchKing include: not being able to find whether prices are monthly, quarterly or yearly. This information isn't even found within the sign up page - doesn't this approach weaken the service credibility?

Robert Massa: You have to keep in mind that the site is very new. We weren't very prepared for the amount of interest this topic generated as quickly as it did. We do a lot of testing on any Website we launch but it is still easy to overlook the obvious sometimes. We simply forgot to put the word monthly in the page. That has been corrected and it now clearly states the fees are monthly.

Jono Craig: Another concern was that there is no mention of where the ad or link would appear (which site, which page). There were no guarantees as to how many links will be on that given page. In short, there seems to be little evidence of a successful working model for the hard-nosed, ROI savvy to observe.

Robert Massa: What evidence was there that the banner ad networks of the mid nineties were a successful working model? Yahoo sold banner ads for as much as $110 CPM at one time. Those same ads cost considerably less today. Which ROI savvy hard-nosed types bought those ads?

Anyone who has ever been involved in working with or running a network or a brokering service, has enough sense to know that who your inventory is no one's business but your own and by the same token, who your advertisers are is no one's business but your own either.

When an order is placed, I have no idea of who or where that ad will be displayed. I review the ad for quality and other specific criteria such as load time and re-directs. Once approved, I then go about matching the ad to the Websites. Only after the ad is accepted does the Web site owner know who the advertiser is. Only after the ad is placed does the advertiser know where that specific ad is being shown.

The smartest company on the planet

Everyone seems to think I only do it this way because Google wouldn't know who had what links, but that is NOT why. Google may very well be the smartest company on the planet right now and I believe there isn't much they couldn't do when it comes to the Internet. I keep my mouth shut as to who my customers are and who my partners are not because of Google but because it's a good business practice.

To post a list of Websites in my network that any one could look at, only provides easy access to my competition even if that competition is my own customers and partners.

As far as guaranteeing how many other links are on a page. No, I can never do that either. I only guarantee that I will have the ad placed within 7 business days or I will not charge the client. I don't own the sites within the network. I cannot control what they do. I can only act as a broker.

With that said, I should point out that a high PageRank page did not get that high rank by stuffing as many $20 a month ads on their pages as they could get. This is a very good example of a self-policing kind of thing. If a Website has a high PageRank and starts linking to low quality pages, that high PageRank page loses it's rank and it can no longer sell ads for a higher price or expect as much traffic to their own site under targeted keywords.

Click here to go to part 2 of this interview >>>>>

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