Updated 9/9/2010, Originally Posted 12/21/2008

The Google Content Network has greatly evolved. I retract previous statements that the Google Content Network sucks, because it really doesn’t anymore. Yes, there are still some Made for AdSense farms out there, but some of them get good traffic through SEO and produce valuable leads or conversions. I still maintain that for lead generation Content Network leads may be of a lower quality than Search leads, but the Content Network is a far cry from where it was a few years ago.

The key to optimizing the Content Network today is treating websites like keywords, and also targeting your content to relevant keywords on these sites. Google’s placement reports will tell you where your content network placements are showing up. If you target the entire network, this is a good way to get a baseline of where you can show up on the Content Network with the keywords you have populated your Content Campaigns with. As your Placement Reports fill up with placements, add all of the websites as placements, and bid them up or down as necessary based off of ROI (or eliminate some altogether).

The Content Network might not work for everyone, and certain verticals are better than others to be sure. The targeting is still not a perfect science, but it’s much better than it used to be and is far more manageable than it used to be with the introduction of keyword-targeted placements that can be bidded individually. I used to be a naysayer, but if you are overlooking the Content Network, it is time to re-evaluate.