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Sep. 19, 2007 at 8:49am Eastern by Barry Schwartz
Google: Got A "Bad" Site? Then All Your Landing Pages Might Be Poor Quality
The Inside AdWords blog has provided more detail into what makes for a low landing page quality score. Google also said they will now not pre-announce all quality score algorithm changes prior to implementation. In fact, Google details which types of sites can cause all your landing pages to be penalized.
The new FAQ describes these sites as "data collection sites" that offer free items in exchange for collecting your private information, arbitrage sites that simply show ads to earn ad income off of, and malware sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software on your computer. Those three types of sites can penalize your landing page quality score, according to Google.
Google also warns about specific types of businesses that might be more likely to be impacting by a quality score penalty. They include:
- eBooks that show frequent ads or install malware
- 'Get rich quick' sites
- Comparison shopping sites
- Travel aggregators
- Affiliates that don't comply with our affiliate guidelines
Google also said, "we will no longer post advance notice of upcoming updates" because they make regular updates to the quality score algorithm. They may inform advertisers of "significant changes" to the algorithm, but they will not announce every implemented change in the future.
I suspect a post like this will be discussed and debated in the various forums. Some types of debates might include the fact that there are many malware and arbitrage sites doing just fine in the AdWords listings. I am sure some advertisers will also be upset about Google not announcing every algorithm update.
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By Barry Schwartz
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Yep, that's very interesting that they are lumping in aggregators and comparison shopping sites with malware and get-rich-quick schemes. I think a well designed comparison shopping site can offer a lot of value to users beyond what they see in the SERPs.
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Comparison shopping sites named?.. Interesting.
I mean, they are arbitrage after all.
But the amount of £ they spend on paid search, you wouldn’t think Google would price them out completely... maybe just taking some of that margin.