Google Slap is a term which was coined by Adwords Advertisers when Google dropped the Quality Score of their ads overnight and deactivated their keywords until they pay the increased Cost-Per-Click or make the necessary changes to improve their landing pages’ Quality Score. It takes somewhere from 2 months to indefinite time to get “Google Un-slapped”.
In this post I will reveal 7 advanced tips on how to set up your Adwords Campaigns and Landing Pages to get a High Quality Score and prevent your ads from being Google Slapped ever again (or at least until the next time Google changes the rules).
1. Increase Your Click Through Rates (CTR Rates)
If your CTR rate is less than 1% then there’s a high chance you’ll get slapped. Make sure that the keywords you are bidding on are highly relevant to your Ad Copy. If your ads are not getting clicked on then Google gets a signal that your ad is Low Quality.
Content Network ads always receive a low CTR. You should keep that in mind and even turn them off to get more click troughs.
2. Keep Your Landing Pages Relevant
Make Your Landing Page relevant to your Ad copy. Use the same keywords in the title and content of your Landing Page as the ones you used in your Ad.
3. Keep Your Content Original
Create Unique and Original content for your landing pages.
It is very easy for Google to detect duplicate content on your landing page and slap you with a low quality score. If you are promoting a product as an affiliate, then instead of copying the entire company website, create something original.
Google Adwords never shows multiple ads that redirect to the same page at the same time. The same goes for pages with duplicate content.
4. Improve Your Loading Time
Google compares the loading time of your page with the average loading time of the website in your geographical location. E.g. If your website is hosted in US then its loading time will be compared to the average loading time of a Web Page in USA.
If your Landing Page is graded ”This page Loads Slowly” then it will put a negative effect on your Quality Score. You can reduce the Size of your Landing Page by using image compressors and avoiding pop-ups, flash and other unobtrusive elements.
5. Provide Useful Information
If you landing page contains only ads and/or all kinds of Get Rich Quick Schemes then it has a high chance of getting slapped. Even if you are using Google Adwords for commercial purposes, still, you need to provide useful information to your visitors for free.
You need to make your landing pages more useful by creating a balance between its informational and commercial aspects.
6. Standalone Websites
Standalone sites which contain only a landing page and are created to sell products or send traffic with your affiliate links are more highly to get slapped then websites with additional indexed content.
Your site should be a proper website with at least 15-20 pages of useful information on it. You should also link to other relevant information on your website from your landing pages.
7. Building Your Site’s Credibility
Your landing page should be able to create a trust factor among your users. Your business policies should be easily found on your site. If you need personal information from your visitor then it should contain a privacy policy which states that it won’t be used for any illegal purposes.
Go ahead and implement these 7 tips in your Google Adwords campaigns and report back on the results you get.
About the author: Gagandeep Singh is working as internet marketing expert on Landing Page Design and a Freelance Writer. He mainly writes on Landing Page Design, PPC, SEO, Web 2.0 and Technology.
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I don’t know but is Google the dowdy school head mistress wearing her thick stockings and sensible shoes looking down her nose through thick horn-rimmed glasses at the little pre-schoolers making them shiver in their knickers or what? Oh, wait! She’s getting out the ruler….
I hate all that slapping going on.
So, thank you for the tips, Igor and Gangadeep. I want to stay out of trouble.
Jan Middleton´s last blog ..Writing Short Blog Posts: A Brief Summary
The secret is to keep it very relevant and deliver
on your promise in the ad. Guaranteed to stay out of
trouble if you do that.
Igor
I hope to never get the infamous slap by Google. Thanks for the tips.
I quoted one of your posts on my site by the way
Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..One Step Closer To The Goal
Yeah, I noticed. Google Alerts informed me about it
Igor
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
Sure, feel free to do so.
Where are you from?
Igor