Google's Response to the Uproar over Landing Page Quality Updates

Evroccck on Thu, 2006-11-16 09:23.

Search marketing

12 comments

Google has responded on the Adwords blog, to the uproar over landing page quality score update. I can summarize this in one word, horse-poop. If you do not conform to Google's standards for a landing page no matter what your conversion rate then you will be paying higher prices. The ppclab blog also adds "what Google is saying that one part of their algorithm is completely independent from the other and even though your ad has a huge CTR and a great conversion rate (see this threadwatch link), if you do not have enough content you will be penalized for having a low quality landing page."

Google's PR team is going to be kept busy this holiday season!

Comments

So what.. figure it out and

webprofessor on Thu, 2006-11-16 10:09.

So what.. figure it out and fix your landing pages.

Blow the Lid off the Quality Score Bullshit

graywolf on Thu, 2006-11-16 10:15.

You know I am seriously considering blowing the lid off the the entire "landing page" quality score bullshit

I'll help

Evroccck on Thu, 2006-11-16 11:23.

I've had a click fraud paper in the works now, I'm sure I could help ya out with the landing page report.

Not horse-poop

Amit Patel on Thu, 2006-11-16 14:01.

I can summarize this in one word, horse-poop. If you do not conform to Google's standards for a landing page no matter what your conversion rate then you will be paying higher prices.

The correct term to be used is Shit Load... of money that is.... for Google... obviously.

Happy holiday!

If there is a lid to blow

reesh on Thu, 2006-11-16 15:17.

If there is a lid to blow off that will actually effect some change at Google, count me in by all means. But this Quality Score BS is really no longer a wizard-behind-the-curtain thing. It's actually quite clear: it's Google saying we want more of your money. But is there any choice for advertisers but to comply? Sure we can advertise on other PPC networks (check, doing that already) and focus on generating traffic via other means (check), but the fact is that Google AdWords delivers more traffic than other PPC networks. As long as this traffic we're paying for delivers a positive ROI, we're going to keep paying for it. And as long as Google sees continued profit increases as they turn the screw on advertisers via this colossal red herring called the Quality Score, they're going to keep turning the screw. They'll lose money due to keyphrases which stop being profitable and which advertisers eventually have to turn off, but I'm sure they'll more than make up for it from all the other keyphrases whose CPC prices have been jacked up by this QS BS.

Standards compliance

hopeseekr on Thu, 2006-11-16 18:33.

If google made XHTML 1.1 mandatory (complete w/ application/xhtml+xml) for a $3.000 discount or something, i would personally buy some GOOG and even use AdSense.

if you knew me, you'd know how remarkable that statement really is. If YHOO did similar, i'd submit my employment app lol.

Its one thing

magicdan on Thu, 2006-11-16 19:02.

for us to know what the QS represents and have known for a while. But what annoys me is that Google keeps up this official line of bs quality nonsense. I agree that some landing pages are not good and that some additional checking is useful but by passing off a money grab as a quality control mechanism is the worst spin ive seen from them yet. If this is only about quality Google, try removing any refernce to bids from the equation to prove that your not interested in raising prices?

Did Any Google Insiders Buy Stock This Month?

scoreboard on Thu, 2006-11-16 19:42.

Or is this still the most egregious wealth generation scheme in history? I mean, lauding yourself as the servant aggregator of all the world's information because you can make it more efficient, assigning monetary value to freaking words, and then artificially manipulating that very "efficient" system...douchebags.

Google....where "Do No Evil" means "Zero Sum Buttfucking". Pardon my Texan.

Not only in AdWords

Amit Patel on Thu, 2006-11-16 21:16.

assigning monetary value to freaking words, and then artificially manipulating that very "efficient" system...douchebags.

Organic works the same way. It is all keywords. Everything.
See: IDcide Affair. Verifiable Facts.

Its only part 1 aswell......

screamingfrog on Fri, 2006-11-17 01:50.

I've outlined my thoughts here;

http://www.ppcblog.co.uk/ppc/google-answers-questions-on-landing-page-quality-update/

Can a page that has a high CTR or conversion rate be considered a poor quality landing page?

In short, yes. Though the Quality Score incorporates the CTR of your keyword, when our system is specifically evaluating your landing page quality, it does not consider the CTR of your keywords or any conversion tracking or Google Analytics data in the account. Instead, it's focused on the actual content and relevance of your landing page to a user who clicks on your ad and ends up on your site. It is well worth noting that not all ads with a high CTR provide a good experience for users. For example, an ad may promote a new home for sale in San Francisco for the query 'San Francisco homes', but after clicking on the ad, the user is taken to a page that shows houses in Seattle. This is not a particularly good experience for the user -- but the ad itself could still be highly relevant to the keyword, and thus is likely to have a high CTR.

I love the way they discussed CTR and yet missed out conversion.

ok so....

Gurtie on Fri, 2006-11-17 10:54.

the ad must deliver what it says
the destination site must be a good experience for the user

I hate to out these people but the ads been there for at least a week now
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=cushtie&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

1. It says 850% off retail price. This should surely raise a flag
2. you cannot actually buy the product on the destination site
3. in fact you cannot buy any product on the destination site despite the ad not specifying its a trade site
4. and their other site does sell the product to the public so would be much more suitable for this campaign.
5. And while GHN is certainly not the most widely read blog people from Goog do read it but clearly didn't think there was anything wrong with the ad when we featured it.

So where's the Quality Police now then?