Landing page design to keep quality score high for PPC advertising
25/03/2009
Websites banned from being advertised on AdWords
Landing page design to keep quality score high for PPC advertising
Google AdWords has a strict policy on which types of websites can be advertised with PPC advertising. So certain adult websites are not allowed to advertise and ads are removed if Google thinks they are breaking this policy.
But Google also penalises websites which it does not like. Ads may still run but at increasing costs and with less exposure. They do this via the Quality score. Some types of websites are particularly at risk and these include:
- Malware websites – websites which install software on the visitor’s computer. In fact if these landing pages are reported, these ads get removed immediately. But landing pages which Google detects can install software will get penalised by a low quality score. This affects advertisers trying to promote products through fee trials and downloads and needs considering when designing PPC landing pages.
- MFA (Made For Adsense) websites, sometimes referred to as ‘arbitrage’ sites. These simply show a list of sponsored ads back to the visitor. But what about genuine landing pages which carry a small section of AdSense ads? We suggest using with caution on landing pages. In fact any landing page Cornish design would always exclude any sponsored ads, and this is just one reason for doing so.
- Email harvesting websites or data collection sites. These are designed to generate email lists for resale to other companies, and may offer entry to a competition in return for email address. This impacts landing pages which offer a free report or contact form as part of a genuine service. So when designing landing pages for PPC campaigns, Cornish consider both maximising the sales conversion process (ensuring highest percentage of form completion) but also designing the page to maintain a high quality score within AdWords.
- Comparison quote sites which give the visitor very useful information comparing quotes from different providers. From experience Cornish have found these websites to be very variable when advertising on AdWords. When Google likes them the ads do really well and run with a high quality score. But sometimes something can trigger a low quality score, and it can hard to get this lifted without significant web development effort. It is therefore important to get the landing pages and supporting pages written to right at the start of the campaign to prevent any lowering of quality score.
- Affiliate websites have special rules with regards AdWords advertising. Cornish recommend getting advice from a Qualifies AdWords Professional or someone who really understands the affiliate rules before building your affiliate website, as this will have a great impact on the success of any PPC advertising.
The above shows two things:
- Google do attempt to remove offensive or unhelpful websites from their sponsored ads. But the rules they use can adversely impact many genuinely helpful websites
- Websites design for landing pages and associated pages must consider the above, to ensure the website does not appear to Google to contain something they do not like. Businesses getting landing pages redesigned should seek advice from a Qualified AdWords Professional before the website pages are created.
When Cornish WebServices manage PPC campaigns, then where possible we optimise the website landing pages and associated pages to get the best PPC results. Increasingly we design a different section of the website specifically to achieve high conversion rates from PPC advertising. The increased sales more than offset the additional design and development cost.
