Rules and Guidelines: Determination of Relevancy
In order to make sure that our users are getting what they
need quickly and correctly, 7Search checks our advertisers’ keywords to make
sure that they are relevant to the content on their page. This may be one of
the most important things that we do, because our advertisers should respect
our users’ needs. We want our service to be useful and reliable. This is
addressed in our Rules and Guidelines here:
Determination
of Relevancy
7Search evaluates and determines search term relevancy according to the
order in which the search terms or phrases are written.
Example: "Apartment furnishings" would be relevant to a
furniture store, while "furnished apartment" would be relevant to an
apartment listing. Usually, search terms are not interchangeable.
A surfer should have a reasonable expectation that they can
find what they are looking for without having to click through several pages
and websites to find it. If a person is searching for an iPad, they should be
able to be taken to a page that allows them to gain information on an iPad, or
be able to purchase an iPad. A surfer trying to find a job as a computer game
designer should not have to be taken to a gaming site for World of Warcraft. A
person looking for gluten free food for personal health reasons should not be
taken to a site offering coupons for eating out by signing up your information.
This is also for the protection of our advertisers. Unless
an advertiser is running a search site, or a site that can reasonably bid on
all the keywords under the sun, then our search results would be riddled with
multiple listings. This is unfair to our promoters, who are shoved down our
results page and hurts their visibility.
Bidding on keywords that are not relevant to your content
actually costs you more than what it may bring you in terms of traffic. You
will most likely receive a lot of untargeted traffic that will not convert and
bring you a negative return. This tactic used in this case hurts your business
and ours.
Our advertisers have several ways that they are compensated
for their marketing efforts. Some are the more conventional methods of sales
through their site, while others are given credit for each sign up they receive
through their site. Historically some of our advertisers, in order to drive as
many searches to a site for sign ups as possible, have bid on extremely broad
or irrelevant keywords to attract as many clicks as possible. This is a tactic
we work against, in order to keep the playing field even. 7Search will delete
these terms without pause.
The process that we follow to determine relevancy is simple.
We go to an advertiser’s account, and open their website. We then compare their
keyword choices to the content on their site. If we see that the keywords do
not match anything displayed on the site, we delete it. If a service or product
is not offered on the site, and a corresponding keyword is being used in the
campaign, we delete it.
It may be our most straightforward and simple guideline, but
it holds a lot of weight. It administers one of our daily tasks. It helps our
users get what they need. It keeps less than savory tactics in check. I hope
this has helped you understand our rationale.