On-Line advertisement and promotion is a critical success factor for business organizations that depend upon Internet for core business functions such as marketing, sourcing, selling etc.

While On-line advertisement has many advantages over conventional print and TV media such as quantification, targeting, measuring return on investment etc. - there are certain inherent weaknesses that advertisers should be aware of.

One such downside is the growing menace of fake websites looting your PPC dollars. This danger has grown manifold in last few months, so much so that many advertisers are now losing significant amount of money to unscrupulous web-site owners.

Origin of the Problem - Crooked Website Owners

You are searching Google for some information and several promising web-sites come up on top of search result. You click on one of them, only to reach a web-site that has few ads and nothing even remotely related to what you are searching for.

You go back to search result and click on next promising web-site only to encounter same problem again.

"What's happening ?" - you ask yourself. How come such useless web-sites can rank so high in search result ? And what's the purpose of having web-sites containing ads only ?

Well, therein lies the story of unscrupulous web-site owners creating fake web-sites for displaying AdSense ads.

What is 'Fake Websites Made for AdSense Only'

The AdSense program of Google is a god sent opportunity for small web-site owners. Under this program, any web-site owner can join Google network and display Google AdWords ads in their web-site. Whenever any visitor clicks on such an AdSense ad, the advertiser pays Google a pre-defined sum per click. Google splits this revenue with web-site owners.

Large number of small web-site owners, who otherwise stand slim chance of getting any on-line advertisement, have benefited from Google AdSense program.

The popularity and convenience of AdSense program has attracted many unscrupulous elements who have created large number of fake web-sites with little or no content. Only purpose of such web-sites is to get visitors to click on AdSense ads. The owners have no intention to develop and display quality content or engage in community development, but only to pocket PPC dollars from clicks of unsuspecting visitors.

Why Does People Click on Ads in Such Fake Web-Sites

The overwhelming majority of on-line visitors has no clue what Google AdSense is and doesn't understand that Google and the site owner make money when they click on an ad. By placing these ads in locations that people tend to focus on, it's inevitable that a certain percentage of visitors will click on the ads - intentionally or unintentionally.

What's The Economics of this Fake Operation

How much does a fake web-site earn from this operation ? After all, site owners stand to earn few cents to several dollars per click depending upon the keyword. Even if such a fake site manages to convert 5% visitors to click and it makes 10 cents a click - at the end of the day, its earning is a paltry 50 cents per 100 visitors. This looks far from profitable, even unsustainable !

Well, a smart operator usually employs few hundred web-sites, that earns him thousands of dollars per day ! Besides, these web-sites chase keywords that pay in dollars rather than in cents (such as from automobiles, insurance etc.). Now, re-calculate the earnings and you reach a mind boggling figure. No wonder, fake web-sites are appearing in such large numbers !

How Do Fake Web-Sites Get Traffic ?

In addition to using conventional SEO techniques like link building and unique content, many of these web-sites employ unethical methods such as keyword stuffing and cloaking. Many of them get their clicks in unethical ways - either by clicking on ads themselves or by employing bots to automatically click. This is called click fraud and is against Google's terms of service.

Even if some are caught and get banned by Google, they re-appear in different guise. Google and other on-line portals do have systems in place to reduce click fraud and are always improving their algorithm to rid their results of sites that practice cloaking, keyword stuffing, and other black hat SEO techniques. Unfortunately, it's not enough. Its very difficult for Google or any other organization to detect and clamp down on such fake web-sites in a sweeping manner.

Who Gets Hurt ?

On superficial observation, it may look like no one is getting hurt by "tricking" people into clicking.

But the advertiser, who paid for attracting quality visitors to his/her web-site is losing money from these accidental clicks. Also, you (as searcher) get hurt by getting less than optimal results and wasting time.

What Can You Do Against Fake Web-Sites

As an advertiser, you may decide to avoid Google content network and focus on Google search result only. However, such generalization will punish genuine web-sites and may result in loss of valuable customers who would otherwise have visited your web-site.

Alternatively, bid low CPC (Cost per Click) for content network so that there's less incentive for fake web-sites to steal your PPC dollars.

As searcher, you should not click on fake web-sites and educate others about this menace.