Well well. Barely a day goes past when I don’t get a call from some cocky arse (generally from Manchester) who tells me that they’re calling me on behalf of Google and that they can get me to the top the search results. Apart from wasting my time and interrupting my day and concentration, they’re incredibly rude. And entirely mistaken. Yes they’re probably able to resell me a “sponsored link position” that’ll put me there on the first page on some instances of some searches. But, as I tell them, I’m already there. “Oh yes? How’s that?” is typical of their response. “Search for photographer brighton“ I tell them. At this point they invariably just hang up.

So why am I bothering to write this?

This is an appeal to anyone who gets called by these people NOT TO FALL FOR IT. Don’t buy what they’re selling. This is why…

  • Google AdWords is a Pay-Per-Click service on which you have to bid for each keyword combination
  • The more people who compete for a keyword combination, the higher the bid has to be to get near the top
  • The resellers are adding their profit to the cost per click, and having to bid higher and higher amounts per click to get you near the top
  • All this is pushing the costs of AdWords up and up, especially in competitive areas like wedding photography, making the whole thing overpriced and less effective

So… when someone calls you and promises to get you to the top of Google, just put the phone down. Then go to your web site, write some high-quality content, go and network with other people and get inbound links, and if you really want to do paid advertising, learn to use AdWords directly to your benefit.