Sponsor link
As sponsors link (also sponsored link , English: sponsored link ) is called a paid entry within search results.
Companies that want search engines to have a high position in the listing of search results have the option of using keyword advertising to buy a good position within the search results for certain search queries . The best known such advertising programs are Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing . These programs are usually billed according to the number of clicks on the link purchased ( pay per click ).
With the large general search engines Google , Yahoo and Bing , the paid search hits are marked as advertising. They are summarized in an advertising block and not mixed with the natural search results . This ad block is usually displayed to the right of the natural search results. In rarer cases, advertising blocks are displayed above the natural search results (with Yahoo also below).
With sponsored links, Google Inc. turned over around 294 million US dollars worldwide in 2002 , and Yahoo's acquired subsidiary Overture even 667 million. A 2003 study estimated that the world market for such sponsored links had grown to around $ 7 billion by 2007.
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Sponsor links are particularly criticized when it is not clear which hits the search engine is only showing on a top rank due to payments. Many users also complain that the search results list is clogged with links that are undesirable and useless for them. There are a number of browser extensions that automatically clean the search results of the major search engines from advertising links and only display the natural search results.
In blogging circles, too, there are more and more so-called sponsored postings that are paid for by companies. The links that are in these sponsored postings are prohibited according to Google guidelines if they are not marked as "nofollow".