• by Lynn Russo Whylly , December 29, 2006

Twenty-five cents per 1,000 keywords may not sound like a lot, but when you’re running hundreds of thousands of keywords, it can add up. Google has begun charging agencies and companies the fee for accessing its keyword quoting system to find out the latest rankings and bid prices of their keywords — a service that, until recently, was free.

“Google has decided there’s too much load on their database, so they’re going to start charging every time people access this XML feed that allows large buyers of lots of keywords to see how their words are performing,” says Bill Mungovan, Carat Fusion’s director of search marketing for the West Coast. Only large organizations such as Carat and eBay are affected, Mungovan says, since small shops don’t use the interface and don’t download large frequent reports.

To maintain real-time search-engine optimization, an agency such as Carat’s might check the system 100,000 times a day for each of thousands of keywords, at $25 for every 100,000 calls. Carat is passing the charge on to clients.

Alternatives? There aren’t any. But the fee is forcing agencies to make the most of their keyword strategies and use the database more efficiently.