Something as easy as:

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• Google comes out looking pretty bad. Either they don’t have adequate resources to recognize obvious black-hat techniques even when employed on a massive scale for a massive brand OR they decided to look the other way to protect an advertiser who spends over $2 million a MONTH in PPC ads. In other words, they’re either dumb or criminal (the EU suspects the latter).
• Any activity that falls outside of Google’s allowed SEO methods, runs the risk of getting your site severely penalized and is likely not worth it when viewed from a long-term perspective.
• JC Penney’s website brought in $1.5 billion in revenue to the company in 2009. Sounds like a lot until you learn that their catalog business brought in $4 billion back in the day. The lesson – even if you have the number one spot for “home decor” in Google, it won’t turn into actual sales unless your prices, your value, and your messaging resonate with the consumer.

Why did this happen? When the internet (then ARPANET) was born on just a handful of networked computers, the early architects of the system could never have predicted the proliferation and commercialization of their project. Back then computers were not common household items (despite being the size of refrigerators) so it was hard to imagine there would ever be a day when the limits of the current protocol (IPv4) would be a problem.

What happens now? Upgrades and lots of ‘em! Similar to the legacy code and systems that needed updating prior to Y2K, the low level routers, switches, and servers that make up the net’s backbone will have to be upgraded to understand the new IPv6 protocol (which is capable of handling 340 trillion, trillion, trillion unique IP addresses). Currently less than 1% of the internet is IPv6 capable, so the transition is likely to take a while.

So what’s this mean for you and your website? As it turns out, not a whole lot. The companies who actually host your website and the telecom companies who provide your internet access are going to be the ones shouldering most of the burden. Your customers may potentially experience occasional delays or hiccups accessing your website, but no more worse than they do now.

So where does all this leave the small business advertiser?

Well for those of you advertising only with the Google AdWords platform, I doubt you will see much in the way of change until late 2010 or early 2011, when Google starts to go head to head with Microhoo for your online advertising budget. Microhoo is expected to have the cost advantage (less $ per click), so anticipate Google to retaliate with additional tools, interface tweaks, or AdWords product integration.

For those of you who currently advertise on Yahoo, keep advertising if the ROI is there, but do yourself a favor and sign up for a Microsoft Ad Center account today. With even a small budget, you’ll see first hand how the differences between the two platforms effect your campaign performance and you’ll be ahead of the curve when the integration happens later this year.