That's A Top Quality Landing Page, Guv. Honest
There's some confusion, as is enevitable, when Google release yet another set of oblique guidelines.
Which is, in many ways, a good thing. For us, anyway.
The more confusing the Adwords system becomes, the higher the barrier to entry. The advantage then swings to the pros. Assuming these changes aren't simply marketing spin, here's my take on what these changes might entail:
1. Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful and accurate information about the product or service in your ad.
Bringing all visitors in at the home page isn't going to cut it. Target specific product pages for better performance.
2. Ensure that your landing page is relevant to your keywords and your ad text.
Seems to imply that a spider compares ad-text with landing page text. Ensure subject matter matches up. BTW, I wonder if Google have considered what would happen if the landing page is cloaked, as some already are.
3. Distinguish sponsored links from the rest of your site content.
Hmmm. This is probably to prevent straight arbitrage between competing Ad systems. Advertisers should add value using further text/explaination/categorisation.
4. Try to provide information without requiring users to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.
Fairly obvious. Registration pages are, invariably, crap places to land.
5. In general, build pages that provide substantial and useful information to the end-user. If your ad does link to a page consisting of mostly ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), provide additional information beyond what the user may have seen in your ad or on the page prior to clicking on your ad.
This is an elaboration of point three.
6. Your should have unique content (should not be similar or nearly identical in appearance to another site). For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.
Google might be running duplicate content matching. Ensure landing content is unique.
More discussion: Threadwatch
Which is, in many ways, a good thing. For us, anyway.
The more confusing the Adwords system becomes, the higher the barrier to entry. The advantage then swings to the pros. Assuming these changes aren't simply marketing spin, here's my take on what these changes might entail:
1. Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful and accurate information about the product or service in your ad.
Bringing all visitors in at the home page isn't going to cut it. Target specific product pages for better performance.
2. Ensure that your landing page is relevant to your keywords and your ad text.
Seems to imply that a spider compares ad-text with landing page text. Ensure subject matter matches up. BTW, I wonder if Google have considered what would happen if the landing page is cloaked, as some already are.
3. Distinguish sponsored links from the rest of your site content.
Hmmm. This is probably to prevent straight arbitrage between competing Ad systems. Advertisers should add value using further text/explaination/categorisation.
4. Try to provide information without requiring users to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.
Fairly obvious. Registration pages are, invariably, crap places to land.
5. In general, build pages that provide substantial and useful information to the end-user. If your ad does link to a page consisting of mostly ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), provide additional information beyond what the user may have seen in your ad or on the page prior to clicking on your ad.
This is an elaboration of point three.
6. Your should have unique content (should not be similar or nearly identical in appearance to another site). For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.
Google might be running duplicate content matching. Ensure landing content is unique.
More discussion: Threadwatch
