Landing pages for PPC need to have several elements in place, more so if you're using Google AdWords to send traffic as Google has strict quality control measures which are increasing all the time.
Google Adwords has a bot which will crawl landing pages and gather vital information. They use the information they gather to assign that landing page a quality score. If the quality score is too low, then the minimum bid for the keywords that get a lower score will be much higher. Sometimes this can add up to several dollars more per keyword!
When you make your landing pages, there are several things which you can do so that you have the best possible chance of getting a good quality score.
The first thing you should do is make sure you have the keywords you've chosen for your campaign somewhere on the landing page. Google needs to be certain your keywords are relevant, so they want to see the keywords you choose to have on the landing page you're sending traffic to.
You should also try to avoid sending AdWords traffic to a landing page with no linked content. Google often likes to send traffic to full sites and not just landing pages. You will get a higher quality score if you have several other pages linked from the landing page. These could be articles, product pages, reviews, editorial, links pages, or any other page that is appropriate for such a landing page. Remember, Google looks kindly on relevancy, so it is important to keep things themed properly to the niche you are targeting.
Google often likes to think that they are sending traffic to professional companies, so having a privacy policy and a 'contact us' page can help improve your quality score.
Your landing pages themselves should also have some content. You are unlikely to get a good quality score if your web page only has a single link to a sponsor or an opt-in box. Including even just a handful of relevant body copy will help to ensure you don't get penalized for not having sufficient content. Remember relevancy. Keep the text related to the niche you are wanting to target, and try to include as many of the keywords you're targeting as possible.
To summarize, try to make sure that you are sending people from the PPC ad to a genuine page on a genuine site. If you can say that the landing page would pass the test of a real human from Google approving it then the chances are that any automated bot is likely to approve of it too.
Copyright (c) 2008 Paul Smithson
In the past several years, the world of pay per click advertising has changed. Google's changes in policies mean that you can't just put a huge number of keywords into an ad campaign without thought anymore. At least, you can't do this if you still want to turn a profit. If you practice these types of methods today you will find your keyword costs will rise and your keywords will become deactivated. Basic keywords now cost far more than they did, which means you have to select them more carefully. It does not take much to do the small adjustments needed to make a successful pay per click advertising campaign. Just study the reasons that Google has to make its rules by. Then remember to make the right choices for keywords and you will create a successful campaign. Advertising is what makes the money for Google. The ads must be appealing to readers so that they will click through and Google will profit. This is why Google is very strict about what ads will be shown. For this reason Google is continuously working on quality. Getting rid of false information, spam, and worthless sites is their goal. Unfortunately many PPC sites fall into these categories. Be sure that Google views you as a worthy site with good ads, so that you can succeed. So what can you do? Add some more information to your site to make costs go down and your website quality goes up. All you need is a few additional pages to improve your standing with Google. An "About Us" page, a privacy policy on its own page, and a list of your terms and conditions of use will improve your quality score dramatically. Make sure that you have a contact page available that allows viewers to get in touch with you, too. Google views this as extremely important. These changes may not seem very significant, but they will do wonders for your ranking in the search engines and greatly improve your PPC campaign. Another thing that will help your site is to have an XML sitemap. An XML sitemap is basically a directory of site contents. Having one of these allows Google to easily see your site and be able to access it. You may have to pay for this but you will get a good return for your investment by saving as much as 35% on your bids. Impressing Google with your site and obeying their rules will do a lot to help your campaign. In fact you can test your keywords yourself by doing a search for them. After this find out about similar terms and then check the content and Meta tags on your competitors' sites. Never copy, just get an idea of what to do. Adding original content to your site will help to lower your costs and raise your quality rank with Google.
Both Paul Smithson & Brian Basch are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Paul Smithson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing and PPC Advertising. Paul Smithson is the founder and creator of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling web site development tool (. Paul Smithson's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.
Brian Basch has sinced written about articles on various topics from PPC Advertising, Investing and Trading and Adwords. If you are looking to hire a company to handle your , you should definitely check out ProPayPerClickManagement.com. Lead by Brian Basch and. Brian Basch's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.