Google Slapped? Here’s how to slap back…

If you are using Google Adwords and have gotten your minimum bids kicked up to $5 or $10, here is what you should do. Actually, this is best practice when starting ANY campaign, so you should ALWAYS follow this advice. Don’t settle for a quality score of 7, shoot for an 8, 9, or 10. Over the long run, this will have a HUGE impact on your bottom-line. How do you do this? Easy. Keep your CTR high, and follow these rules for your landing page:

• Keep ad copy relevant to the landing page, and include the bidded keyword on the landing page itself if you can. (You can use dynamic keyword insertion to automatically make this happen, if you use a program like Affiliate Prophet.

 

• Try to keep your keyword density over 2% if you can. You can check that at www.keyworddensity.com.

 

• If you have an affiliate link on your page, you should mask it.

• Have at least 5 pages on your landing site. Adding a simple blog with a few posts is a GREAT idea. Doesn’t have to be anything special, and just having a small link to it in your footer is good enough.

 

• include main keywords in the domain name itself if you can.

 

• Use meta tags appropriately and completely, but don’t keyword stuff.

 

• Link out to a couple authority sites about your topic, and get a few incoming links to your page. Simple blog comments and a couple links from articles will do.

 

• Submit a sitemap to Google.  www.xml-sitemaps.com

 

• Include business pages for transparency, like contact us, privacy policy, and about us.

 

• NEVER have a pop-up, exit pop-up, or pop-up of any kind on your landing page.

 

• Video, even a simple 30 second video, will boost your quality score AND conversions, so use it.

 

• Pictures: for any pictures that are unrelated to your topic, name them with a number. For pictures related to the topic of the landing page, and you should aim to have a couple, be descriptive with the title and include the keywords when you can.

 

It may seem like alot, but if you follow these rules when creating (or better yet, outsourcing) your landing pages, you will completely avoid the slap, and enjoy higher quality scores and lower costs over the long-run.