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Over the weekend a bitter war of words erupted in the world of SEO between the BBC and the Mail on Sunday. The newspaper claimed that the BBC was paying for its rankings on the leading online search engine, Google.

The Mail on Sunday reports that the BBC is financing its Google search rankings with a percentage of its £100 million marketing budget. The way that the Mail on Sunday reported this makes it sound like the BBC were doing something deceitful but what the BBC is doing is completely legitimate. You cannot pay for natural Google listings, no matter how much money you are willing to spend. However you can (like the BBC) take some of your advertising budget and use it to take up sponsored listings to promote your website and these incur a charge every time a user clicks on them, and these listings are displayed above all of the regular search results.

The BBC later released a statement commenting on its reasoning behind taking up the Google Adwords campaign and emphasising the advantages of high search engine positions, stating: “Promoting content like the Mercury Prize Online is an effective way to inform the licence fee payers who will want to watch or read about it”

“The BBC has an annual budget for marketing and value for money is at the heart of how decisions are made about spending it.”

By paying for these advertising campaigns the BBC is capitalising on its success and ensuring that its media comes top for certain keywords.

For more information on how to improve your business' internet visibility or how to take up a Pay Per Click campaign please don’t hesitate to get in touch, you can drop us a message via the Contact Us Page or call the Thomas Cole Techteam on 01254 832815.