Yahoo Search Marketing to Ban Trademark Keyword Ads
In an answer to some of the legal battles and issues concerning competitive bidding on Trademarked Terms, Yahoo Search Marketing is banning bids on Trademarks come March 1st. Yahoo has issued the following email to some of their advertisers.
“On March 1, 2006, Yahoo! Search Marketing will modify its editorial guidelines regarding the use of keywords containing trademarks. Previously, we allowed competitive advertising by allowing advertisers to bid on third-party trademarks if those advertisers offered detailed comparative information about the trademark owner’s products or services in comparison to the competitive products and services that were offered or promoted on the advertiser’s site.
In order to more easily deliver quality user experiences when users search on terms that are trademarks, Yahoo! Search Marketing has determined that we will no longer allow bidding on keywords containing competitor trademarks.”
Aaron Wall of SEOBook notes :
“Trademark terms are some of the most valuable words in the search space. While this move may not be surprising given Yahoo!’s past activities, will this move cause other engines to change their policies? How will this policy effect comparison sites which offer many brands on the landing page? Is Yahoo! trying to commoditize the search marketplace to help them make more money away from search?”
Good questions from Aaron and I’ve pinged Yahoo Search Marketing’s Public Relations team for those Answers (hmmm, I wonder if Yahoo Answers will help..).
I also can’t help but wonder how this will effect the demand of Competitive SEO & ranking for trademarked terms of your competition in organic results. I know of some companies who have practiced this and have done quite well, especially for niche markets. For any of you Organic Search Experts in the crowd, do you notice a large demand for this service?
