Ethical Competitive Research = Your Best Interest
We all look at our competitor’s websites. We have to. That’s just the way business goes. But what’s the ethical way to do this research in the days of pay per click advertising? It’s simple: you have to go out of your way to avoid clicking on their pay per click ads.
Why? Two reasons.
First, the only way to conduct ethical research into competitors you find via AdWords is to type their site address into your browser manually. Yes, it takes more effort, but it doesn’t cost them any money which also means you’re not committing click fraud.
Second, and this is where the your best interest part comes in, when you click on their AdWords link, you make their site appear more relevant for the search criteria. Essentially, in the world of Google, the clickthrough rate is one component of the ad’s quality score which is partially responsible for determining ad postion. When you click on your competitor’s ad, you’re voting it ad as the most appropriate match to you query. If you’re advertising under the same set of keywords, you’re voting for your competitor’s site as being a better fit than your own.
Isn’t that nice? Your best interest and the ethical way of doing research are perfectly aligned.
Read about it in Google’s AdWords Help Center.