Huh?? Paid ads back in search now?

In the new All Search paid ads are way up in the search listings for my keyword categories. This is from today. I thought that paid ads weren't included anymore in the All search. Am I all wrong? Or is the 503 now really messing up EVERYTHING?

On my first login today I didn't even find my land name in the All search. That was fine again when I cleared cache and relogged, but still... all these ads in the listings, is it just borked or what?

Well personally I think it's outrageous that paid ads aren't way up in the search all. This isn't google.

I'm not sure if this is a quirk you've found or if common sense has returned but there is very little point in paying more that a L$50 advert if you're selling items like clothes with the new search, even if you search by classified only it doesn't return results by who paid most and that is utterly scandalous.

I see it too. Loads of them. I wonder what that's all about.

I disagree with that. Imo, a classified ad should be in Classifieds, and not in every part. But I do agree that price should determine the ranking order of the Classified results in the All search.

I'm sorry Phil but I vehemently disagree. This is not google, those who are running a business damn well should get greater relevance for paying for an advert. I've said it before but some of the prices paid for an ad here are outrageous but if people are paying those prices, they should get promotion and if they aren't getting a boost it's outrageous charging for an advert.

This is not a search engine.

It may be that LL have agreed with your thinking

It may be that the old search of classifieds is being ignored in favor of the new search. If that is the case, it really makes no point in paying more than 50L for an ad. Maybe I'll test this theory next week.

I withdraw my disagreement.

I had another look and, as far as I can tell, paid ads only show in All categories and Classifieds, but not in other categories. I think that's how it should be - it's either "All categories" or it isn't, and if it is, then all categories should be included.

If you do test it, what you find would be very interesting, Cristalle. I've wondered if paying more for a classified is worth it. It looks like it may be to me, but it would be interesting to know.

What I find amazing is those at the top are not very interesting when I visit.

My operative theory was that paying enough to be on page 1 of the category, but not so little that I could get bumped off easily, was good enough. But for some reason my ad lapsed this week and I had to wonder what was wrong.... until I realized the error. I may let it lapse again, then pay just 50L for it. Or maybe 100L, and then I'll get a good count of the teleports.

From the blog:

"We are aware that land sales information is not up to date at present and this is affecting land searches as well."

Hm, I think that 'affecting land searches' means more than just land sales or searching for lands for sale.

This makes sense, but I'll have to look at it tomorrow to confirm that, well today is tomorrow now!

I have an ad that's similar (low in the first window full, but in sight straight away) in the Classifieds tab, but just off the first page in the All search. I was wondering what bumping it up to #3 would do. It'd cost a fair but to do that, but it's been crossing my mind.

If you mean that it's on page 1 (right column) in the All search, then what you find would be equally interesting.

This is what I meant.

lol. I don't make enough to make paying that much for an ad worth it. I am #1 for my desired keyword in new search of all classifieds, and am the first classified to appear in new search all for the same keyword. If that is going to be enough, then I'll be happy to trim my advertising budget. I have enough long term renters at this time to withstand this experiment... wish me luck!

I definitely wish you luck

Okay, I'm not seeing what has changed here. Cristalle and I are in the same spots we've occupied for the past month or so. Hers is 1st and mine comes 2nd in the "Search All" classified dropdown, although I paid about 3.5 times what Cristalle did. The only reason mine appears up there with hers is that I took all of your advice on how to craft the words in the ad.

The difference is that mine also appears 1st or 2nd over on that sidebar thing. My working theory since the new search began has been that you're getting pretty good value for your classified ad IF and ONLY IF you appear in the sidebar. If you don't appear over there, then you're throwing your money away.

This is only my guess, since I get at least the same amount of teleports as I did before the new search, and my occupancy is pretty high. It is quite possible, though, that crafting the keywords is getting me more hits than paying for the sidebar. So it's therefore very possible that I'm wasting a lot of money.

So what has changed here? Or did they "fix" it between the time this thread started and the time I tried it?

I've been messing with it for awhile now also. I can't see any change either. Maybe it's the categories I'm looking in.

Classifieds have become to confusing. I don't know how much to pay and how much I'm getting out of it. That's because I don't know how or why the ads get placed where they are and how many people are clicking them from where (Search all Classified or regular classified tab). I'm considering spending more Ls on other forms of more reliable advertising like maybe Second style and some blogs/resident run forums.

It's changed back, so those who can't see it, missed it Classified ads were appearing in the "All categories" search results, but they aren't there now.

Without doing any detailed examination, I'd say that the All>Classifieds results are ranked in the same way that the other categories are ranked; i.e. same ranking algorithm, but only paid ads in the results set.

Don't forget that ads appear for many different phrases that people search on. It's called the long tail in the search industry, and often produces the bulk of the traffic.

Example:
Although I haven't done any real tests, there have been times when I got the distinct impression that reducing my traffic figure by about 50%, because I no longer needed a higher amount to keep the #1 spot for my main searchterm, caused a decrease in sales while the traffic was lower. If it wasn't just coincidence, then I'd say that it was due to lowering my rankings for other searchterms that I don't even check on.