Yahoo! launches a separate website with news, tools and resources for combating click-fraud.

The Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog reports that Yahoo! has launched a Traffic Quality Center for users of their pay-per-click advertising (Yahoo! Search Marketing).

The Traffic Center is clearly a response to the many complaints both Yahoo! and Google get regarding click fraud.

Click fraud is caused by persons, automated scripts, or computer programs that click on an ad without being interested in what the ad is about. Such activities may be instigated by sites that publicize the ads (who are paid by the click) or by competitors of the advertiser (who want to see the company bleed).

At the new site you may:

• Learn how to submit a click investigation request (there is a separate form for this)
• Get the latest news on traffic quality
• Access tips and tools that can help you detect click fraud
• Read articles on best practices as regards how to stop click-fraud

Yahoo! is now working with a four step system to stop click-fraud:

1. An automatic click protection system
2. Manual investigations based on complaints
3. They have established a Traffic Quality Council with customer representatives
4. There is a dedicated VP of Network Quality

Yahoo also recently implemented what they call “quality-based pricing. ” According to the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog the “quality” in “quality-based pricing” refers to the quality of traffic you receive from our partners and publishers:

Depending on the relative performance (conversion rate and other factors) of the traffic from the partner or publisher site where the click came from, the cost of your click may be discounted.

Nah, we are not quite sure how that works either.

In any case quality-based pricing has nothing to do with their new ranking model (the Quality Index Score).

The new Quality Index Score system ranks ads not only on the basis of bid price, but which also takes click-through rates into consideration. The point is to be able to show as relevant ads as possible. Users are more likely to click on such ads if they have had luck with them before. Here Yahoo! is following in the footsteps of Google.