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Yahoo launched domain blocking within Yahoo Search Marketing (their search ad solution) to help give advertisers control on which sites, domains and subdomains they do not want their ads to show up on.
So if you see your ad is displayed on site abc.com and abc.com is not converting for you, you can block it. Great, no? Well, according to a Search Engine Watch Forums thread, maybe not.
Many believe that this new feature is encouraging Yahoo to be lazy about who they accept as publishers and partners for displaying their ads. Let me explain. Yahoo has a contextual network called the Yahoo Publisher Network, which I write about over here. Those in the Yahoo Publisher Network have the potential to display your ad on their site and earn income for each and every click.
Now, if you block their site by domain, they can just create a brand new one and start all over again. Is Yahoo getting lazy when it comes to blocking these new or even old partners from creating low quality sites and displaying ads on them? Some think so. And as an FYI, the argument can also easily be made for Google's AdSense network.
Member MSI explains:
I agree I blocked one domain to start (findogo.com), now I get clicks from findogobr.com, findogo.net, findogocr.com, fondogoso.com etc.etc.etc. Didn't see these domains until I blocked findogo.com. So if I block 250 and gain at least four per blocked I will then have 1000 more bad partners to deal with....what a joke.That's why I saw clicks go up and conversions go down when I had them blocking them through my rep months ago!!!!!!
Wake up Yahoo..you lost my last client in your engine this week all because of these type of issues.
Another advertiser said, "YSM is a disaster since they started domain blocking. While there used to be a good share of bad affiliates, now the rate of new bad affiliates is out of control. As fast as I can put them in the filter, new ones come up."
Can such a nice feature cause so many problems?
Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.
