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Every single search engine has, at the heart of it, a dynamic tension that must be respected. It needs to balance user experience with revenue opportunities. Getting this balance right is incredibly difficult, and it doesn’t just apply to search engines. Every website and mobile application must strike the delicate balance between relevancy and revenue. The problem is that often times what is the most useful for users makes the least amount of money, and what is bad for UX is great for our pocketbooks. It’s OK to make money off users, just make sure that you don’t sacrifice 80% of your traffic just to make 10% more revenue.
That may seem like strong numbers, but often it’s the case. You may tweak your layout or search results to increase clicks or conversions a small percentage, but in doing so decrease return visitors and time on site exponentially. A 2.5% click rate on 4 impressions is more revenue than 4% on 1 impression. Taking it one step further, begin thinking about if users would recommend your website to a friend, or more importantly to link to your website naturally. I would argue that backlinks are just as important as revenue over the long run of your website, and can be equally expensive if you tried to purchase quality links on the open market.
Always be testing, and don’t just watch gross revenue as a metric of success. There is always room for improvement…