Google’s Policing Of Duplicate Ad Sitelinks Extensions Misses Apparent Violator — Itself

AdWords advertisers know that Google has plenty of policies by which you must abide, like Ad Sitelinks extensions can’t have two links that point to the same page, and sitelinks can’t have the same destination page as the text ad’s headline. These rules seemingly apply to everyone except… Google itself. The rule-breaking was spotted by […]

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AdWords advertisers know that Google has plenty of policies by which you must abide, like Ad Sitelinks extensions can’t have two links that point to the same page, and sitelinks can’t have the same destination page as the text ad’s headline. These rules seemingly apply to everyone except… Google itself.

The rule-breaking was spotted by SEER Interactive’s Francis Shovlin, who noticed some pretty blatant examples on ads for certain search terms, and wrote about it on the company’s blog. Marketing Land has been able to replicate some, but not all, of what Shovlin described.

AdwordsSearch

Search for “adwords,” for example, and the top result is — unsurprisingly — a Google ad for its AdWords program. Sitelinks underneath seem to link to specific pages where users can “Lean How to Advertise on Google” or the “Benefits of Google AdWords” or about “Costs and Payment.”

In fact, all of those links lead to nearly the same page — the only difference between the destinations being that a different tab, below the fold, is open for each link. Meanwhile, Google’s own guidelines say “Tabs on the same page count as the same page” and “We recommend that 80% of the content on a page be unique for that page to count as a different page.”

LandingPage

Google in September announced it would start more aggressively pursuing violators of the duplicate sitelinks policy, but it apparently hasn’t investigated its own ads.

SEER Interactive also noticed sitelinks that included a phone number, also a violation of Google policy, but Marketing Land wasn’t able to replicate that result.

An additional query for “google adwords express” was riddled with a similar problem, with all sitelinks going to the same landing page. In that case, there aren’t even different tabs on the landing page.

We have an inquiry out to Google about the issues raised here but haven’t yet heard back. We’ll update this story if/when we hear back.

UPDATE: I’ve just heard from a Google spokesperson who provided this statement: “We’re reviewing these campaigns and making any adjustments necessary to ensure they’re compliant with our ads policies.”


About the author

Pamela Parker
Staff
Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

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