CTR Manipulation - Are These Tools & Methods Viable?

[AlexR]

Is anyone using any of these CTR tools?

• Kraken
• BabylonTraffic
• CTR Booster

Or does Google just ignore all of these signals now from these tools?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Google does use this kind of thing, as we've known and officially learned in their leaked documents, called NavBoost. It's not only measuring CTR but also re-ordering results based on recent "click history" in the SERPs, much like YouTube does with "watch history".

The problem with this is it needs to be a sustained campaign, and automated methods are likely detected and filtered out. Using something like microworkers might do better since there will be real user behavior behind it.

I knew someone in the past (like 10+ years ago) that would buy short 4 letter domains and use this to not only rank but to appear in the auto-completion as well. This person would have people search the brand and click the site. Then they'd search a desired query and then click the site.

Has to be sustained to see the benefit. You have to compete with a lot of natural search volume to tweak the numbers in your favor. Normal marketing efforts might be a better way to spend your budget, with all of the secondary benefits that come along with it.

 

[wikibum]

If you try to force it, then you are already fighting a losing battle. The amount of money, tools, proxies, etc.. you would need to get past all the checks and hit their CTR levels to manipulate it would not be worth the time and energy in my opinion.

You can do regular ol' PR campaigns and branding campaigns to get people searching for the brand name instead. Actual people vs. Bots is a way better investment of time and money.

 

[secretagentdad]

That sort of approach to it seems to only work great for neg seo and screwing up other peoples brands in auto complete. Its gotten downright destructive. Really hope somebody gets sued over it so we can get a legal precedent going. I don't see how its not tortuous interference. I guess something something requires a clear contract and hard to prove....... I'm not a lawyer.

The herders are all talking "warmed up chrome users" now so I really doubt you can get a lot of value from ham fisted proxy style stuff outside of negative.

In the past it was a god tier quick route to the top. 2018-2021
Some slack / discord groups we're running a borderline mafia for it.

 

[Steve Brownlie]

I've seen legit brands run ads like "SEARCH [some keyword they made up for their campaign they rank number 1 for] to find out more"

Instead of putting their website on the ad. I tried this a few years ago but as @wikibum notes it's kinda hard to do it enough to move the needle.

 

[AlexR]

I've seen legit brands run ads like "SEARCH [some keyword they made up for their campaign they rank number 1 for] to find out more"

Instead of putting their website on the ad. I tried this a few years ago but as @wikibum notes it's kinda hard to do it enough to move the needle.

Wow - that's one way to use up your adspend! I was wondering about something similar on the display network as it's cheaper.