Apparently, the blogoshpere is getting heated, especially in our small Northwest neck of the woods. There are a few agents who've started up condo blogs using very similar, and in some cases, the exact name as my blog. But, I'm more flattered by those than annoyed.  But, recently, things have taken a turn to the nasty as I found myself at the receiving end of another agent’s deceptive Google Adwords campaign.

In respects to blogging, my primary focus is The Seattle Condo Blog. The condo blog has risen to become one of the top condo websites in Seattle - #1 in Google’s organic search results for a myriad of condo related keywords and receives the most visitor traffic (per Compete, Alexa and Quantcast metrics) among Seattle-based condo blogs and websites. And, the exclusive partnership with King5.com is a testament to the blog’s reputation. Admittedly, it’s a nice position to be in.

Well, it appears an agent with a competing condo blog got a little envious and started to play dirty. The agent bought Google Adwords with my name as the keyword search term as well as the title of the ads themselves. Thus, if someone googled my name, the other agent’s ads would show up on the right hand side of the page with my name. As users click on my name thinking they were going to my site, they were instead directed to the other agent’s site. Here’s a screen print:

When confronted the agent removed the ads.  Of course, this agent claims no knowledge of this pathetic and unethical attempt to steal traffic and use my name to mislead the public. The agent blames the webmaster, who wouldn’t...but, then the webmaster is that agent's spouse. I’m convinced this was a purposeful act on the agent’s part and speaks volumes about this person’s character and trustworthiness.