Google Welcomes Back a Rogue Brother

Yesterday, Google announced it would open up its paid search platform for gambling related terms in the UK!

If this floats your boat, you’re probably in the industry and, therefore, this is a seismic u-turn of notable proportions.

If it doesn’t, it’s probably just another piece of online twoddle, it’s likely to be jargon-riddled and mean very little to the common man.

So, for those in the know, Marketing Managers & Agencies alike will have been working late last night, very late. They will want to ensure their campaigns are ready for go-live when Google opens its doors to paid search from Friday morning onwards.

This opens up 80% of the online space to the UK gambling industry and this will help the significant many to try and capture a greater share of the online space.

Previously, to have a first page position on Google would require a considered approach to SEO which was effective, ethical and properly managed. To the masses this wasn’t an option and was the reserve for the lucky 10. As of tomorrow, all that will change. The lucky 10 will become 20 and in the process, Google will raise its UK billings by the barrel full, million dollar barrels at that.

Has the shift of Google's ownership into the public domain forced decisions like this? Perhaps so!

As a family run business (The Page & Brin’s that is), Google had ethics which it upheld based on their values; promoting gambling was one which jarred with their vision of an ethical company and so the decision was made to remove the gambling clients form Paid Search.

As a publicly owned company however, with a global recession looming, the priorities seem to have changed and this is great for both Google and all UK gaming/gambling companies.

The next few weeks will see all & sundry vying for the best positions but, as this may be uncharted territory for some, having only managed their campaigns in Yahoo! and MSN, it’s important they tread carefully and learn quickly.

Properly managed, this could be the most cost effective channel they now have at their disposal and it’s likely to be around for a long time – perhaps!