Poor landing page quality scores have been a bit of a mystery for marketers using Google AdWords. A 1/10 score could mean the landing page was poor, by Google’s standards, or it could mean that it, or the site as a whole, somehow violated the company’s policies.

Today, the company has introduced changes to help people identify policy violations from mere poor quality.

If a page or the site violates Google’s policies, the status column on the keywords interface will show “Site Suspended.” A quality score is no longer calculated or shown, given the ads aren’t being displayed. Such a notice can warn a marketer that he needs to investigate Google’s site and landing page policies, to rectify the problem. For example, Google bans sites and landing pages that aren’t functioning properly, or those which are unclear about their billing practices.

Sites and landing pages that represent more serious violations of policies could result in the suspension of the entire account.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Top News

About The Author: Pamela Parker is a contributing editor for Search Engine Land and Executive Features Editor at Marketing Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. She can be found on Twitter as @pamelaparker. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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