Have you Been Slapped by Google?

Posted by Justin Smith at 24 February, 2007, 12:07 am

Yet another post about search engine marketing… if you get tired of it please let me know!
Google releases huge updates so fast and so often, that they deserve proper attention. They are so funny about new releases… there is never any fanfare or press releases. They just keep on quietly making internet shaking improvements without so much as a peep.

Well, recently, it happened again, although this time it was much easier to notice… Ever heard the term Google Slap? On Feb. 16, Google released an Adwords update that most commentators are calling Google Slap 3.0, since it is the 3rd time something similar to it has happened.

Basically, Google has taken a few factors including: quality of advertisement, % of clicks on your advertisement, and keyword relevancy on your landing page.

Based on those factors, they rate each of your keywords with a “Great”, “Ok”, or “poor” score. And… here is the kicker, based on the keyword and your score, your minimum bid amount will change. If you have a very poor score on a popular keyword, your minimum bid amount could raise significantly. In some cases over $10!!!

To find out your score:

Login in to your adwords account
Click on a campaign
Click the Keywords Tab
Click on Customize Columns
Click “Show Quality Score”
View the score for each keyword

If you have been slapped with a “poor” rating, and your minimum bid has gone through the roof, try the following remedies:

Improve the language of the advertisement to better reflect that keyword
Create a custom landing page that includes the keywords you are targeting

This should clear things up for the most part.

I’m still unclear on how successful this will be… from an advertisers perspective, if you don’t have your ads in order, you may get a serious slapping. But if the content on your pages matches the keywords, you should be fine. There is no question that Google will make more money from this, but it should also help advertisers to target their ads in a more direct way.