How Businesses can Mitigate Click Fraud: Noam Judah and TopRankings

• Click fraud has become an expensive irritation to business websites and online marketing.
• Noam Judah and TopRankings highlight that organic traffic can mitigate click fraud in this climate.
• Despite limited intervention of search engines, there are ways to prevent and supplement click fraud.

Digital advertising and marketing is currently the most viable and widespread form of marketing for businesses. However, click fraud has become an ongoing cause for concern amongst website owners. In an article, Hamed Haddadi states that, “Trained botnets and individuals are hired by click-fraud specialists in order to maximise the revenue of certain users from the ads they publish on their websites, or to launch an attack between competing businesses.”

Unfortunately, Google and other search engines have not been known to entirely prevent click fraud. There are premium subscription tools such as Clickcease and Click Guard that work to minimise click fraud, but ultimately, Google’s dispute process does not always yield rebates. Many speculate that search engines continue to allow click fraud, as they do not harm the engine’s profitability, regardless of their maliciousness.

Noam Judah, the director of the Melbourne based SEO agency TopRankings, is a seasoned professional in the SEO space. Judah argues that the best way to fight against click fraud is to utilise SEO and drive organic traffic to the business website. Click fraud is shown to deter the growth and prevalence of certain websites. Businesses need to become aware of how they can fight against click fraud, and what their available options are.

How to Mitigate Click Fraud

There are a few ways to mitigate click fraud, and each of them has their own set of benefits and downsides.

Internal Reporting and Analysis

Internal Reporting is important in the effort to mitigate click fraud, as it helps a business know if a click, or lead, turned into a purchase.

In order to effectively use internal reporting and analysis, a business needs to be aware of a few things: their IP address, user agent, and click timestamps. A click timestamp is the time in which a person enters the website after clicking the advertisement link. Businesses should also be aware of the IP addresses that are entering their website from their advertisement. This is good practice for internal reporting.

There are tools available for businesses to check the IP addresses that are entering their website. With these tools, businesses can better see if the IP addresses are fraudulent or malicious. There will always be instances where malicious behaviour by industry competitors is so detailed and well planned - that the user from an overseas country would use a VPN with a rotating IP address to target and burn the Ad Budget. It is this that has been the greatest challenge for genuine businesses seeking to embrace growth via advertising channels such as Google Ads.

Exclusions and Preventions

An effective way to mitigate and prevent click fraud is to be active in its exclusion and prevention. Many businesses choose to only advertise on high-profile sites, as these spaces are less likely to host click fraud. Lesser known, and less reputable, sites are more likely to allow and become a place for click fraud. This is one way to prevent click fraud.

Another way is to monitor which geographic location click fraud is coming from. If it is predominantly from one or two countries, it would be helpful to exclude these countries from the business website. Many cases of click fraud stem from something known as ‘click farms.’ This is where people are hired by fraudulent companies or websites to participate in click fraud. Often, click farms will be based on developing countries, where low wages are provided.

Businesses can also remarket their advertisements to a specific group of clickers. This means that trusted visitors are provided with new advertisements. In addition to this, many businesses purchase fraud detection software.

Organic Traffic

Noam Judah argues that one of the most effective ways of fighting against click fraud is to obtain organic and authentic traffic through the use of SEO. TopRankings is an SEO agency in Melbourne that focuses on customisable, diagnostic and strategic SEO.

The company priotises sustainable search engine results. This means that websites that turn to them will work towards consistent, but organic traffic as a result of sustained presence in Google rankings. Judah helps clients supplement their leads with a healthy mix of long term organic positions while also assisting with the management of their Google Ads Campaign.

Trusted consumers are more likely to click on links, and follow through to websites, if content is superior, and SEO is prevalent.

Watch your Competitors

Businesses should monitor their competitors’ websites for many reasons. It is useful for market analysis, and it is also a good way to grasp the nature of click fraud.

Businesses should closely monitor the keywords and SEO of their competitors websites, as this can indicate competitor click fraud. It is therefore important to use Google to search for keywords, and locate if a competitor is using the same, or similar, keywords to the campaigns the business is running.

In the same vein, businesses should look at relevant phrases that can be targeted, be it broader terms that attract a high search volume of qualified prospective buyers together with more granular terms that still generate qualified leads. A reputable SEO Agency would assist to narrow down and shortlist the right terms to consider.

Final Thoughts

In a study titled ‘The Current Digital Advertising Fraud Landscape,’ JuniperResearch found that, “the value of digital advertising spend lost to fraud will reach $68 billion globally in 2022; rising from $59 billion in 2021.” This is an effective illustration of the cost of click fraud. Businesses can lose out on significant revenue if close attention is not paid to the prevention and mitigation of click fraud.

There are a number of ways to work towards a click fraud free website. Businesses can work to actively prevent and exclude click fraud by monitoring their competitors, researching and analysing their website diagnostics, and increasing the organic traffic to their website. It is always useful in the case of click fraud to consider utilising an SEO agency to aid in the process of creating campaigns that are effective, and lead to authentic and trusted clicks and ultimately qualified new business leads.