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google gets tough on quality

Posted by simon ashwin On Tuesday 10 Jun 08

Advertisers who want to keep their costs down must keep the quality of their landing pages up. Nothing new. But Google recently reiterated their policies on the Inside AdWords blog.

What does Google reward? In both natural and paid search the answer is quality - from a customer point of view. Google rewards landing pages that are easy to navigate and transparent. I will add trust and credibility. Create landing pages and sites that provide a good experience (quality content) for searchers and customers and Google will be happy.

Google was clear about what is not considered quality. They will:

• get rid of squeeze pages designed to collect a name and email

• penalize arbitrage sites that are simply pages of ads

• eliminate sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software (malware)

Google specifically mentioned they discourage “get rich quick” sites, comparison shopping sites, and travel aggregators. This is where affiliates marketers gasp.

Google is serious about the issue. If your landing page gets complaints you could be kicked out of AdWords for those sites. Google also noted that they will no longer warn advertisers of updates, but they will be ongoing.

Affiliate marketers were hit especially hard. They are kings of landing pages. If affiliate marketers or any advertisers hope to survive the Google updates, they must add more content. Simple landing pages that are essentially just another advertisement will be penalized.

Why the changes? Customers are complaining and that could mean losing money. Google makes money...

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getting the most from google adwords

Posted by simon ashwin On Thursday 10 Jan 08

The buy-in for Google Adwords can be very low and yield massive results. This is the allure that has made their Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign so overwhelmingly popular.

But what seems simple at the start gets complex very quickly. The prices for the more popular keywords can be very high, and grow higher by the day. It is critical to ensure that the keywords your company chooses are both accurate and yet not too generic. Because the hidden algorithms Google employs are updated constantly, choosing the keywords is not a point-in-time solution but a process that evolves over time.

Similarly, the content of the ad that Google displays for your company should be carefully crafted. The right phrase can mean the difference of thousands of visitors to your site. Design elements like capital letters or ASCII art can also have a huge impact.
Packaging the right keywords with an attractive ad will reap huge traffic rewards, but may not equal success over time. Google is very concerned that the visitors that click on the AdWords get what they are looking for. They are also concerned that they get full value for the traffic they send your way, so they grade your landing page with something called a Quality Score. If your site has a low score, they may take away your keywords, a practice known as a Google Slap.

Keeping your website clear of the elements that could lower your score means staying current on Google’s...

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