Halloween is just around the corner and Google has unleashed another scary Quality Score update. Or has it?

This month, Google announced an update to its ads quality algorithm that increases the weight given to landing page relevance and quality in determining quality score and paid search rankings. This move is preceded by testing in Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

Then and Now:

Before this change, landing page quality was included in quality score but was only viewed as a negative factor. This meant that if you were running poor quality landing pages you might expect to see a low quality score (QS) or that you could see your landing pages rejected altogether.

Either way, having a fantastically relevant, unique and authentic landing page would have had no positive impact on QS.

Now, landing page quality will have a more positive impact on QS weighting it more strongly versus the usual factors of Click Through Rate and Keyword Relevancy.

What Does It Mean?

This means that if your landing pages aren’t in check you could be due a quality score ‘slap’ at some point in the next few weeks; your positions could fall and you could lose positions and traffic to competitors with better quality landing pages.

Also, because your quality score may have dropped versus the competition you’ll have to increase your CPCs to get back to the position that you already held!

What Can You Do?

There’s no magic landing page formula that’s going to guarantee great quality scores but there are elements that are taken into account when Google calculates landing page quality.

Clarity: When they land on your site, users very quickly decide whether they’re going to stay or go. It’s often said that the best effect is achieved by placing the heading on the top left of the page so that the eye catches it first.

Relevance: Wherever possible your landing pages need to closely match the keyword that the customer clicked. For example if a user is searching for ‘nike running shoes’ make sure that your landing page is all about Nike running shoes.

Uniqueness: Ask yourself: “what’s different about you versus the competition?”. Google loves good quality, unique content. If your landing page simply repeats product specs that can be found anywhere else on the web, you might benefit from adding some additional content that’s more compelling.

Call To Action: Is it clear what you want the customer to do when they land on your site? Make sure that there’s a clear next step from your landing page to the next part of the process. Also consider how clear the process actually is; does the customer know what to expect at the next stage?

Authenticity: Don’t try and dupe your customers. Google frowns upon suspicious scripts, popups and page redirects. In the most extreme cases this could land you a costly Adwords ban.

Speed: Page load time has been a factor of quality score for a while now but we all know how rubbish it is when a landing page takes ages to load. Make sure your site loads in good time and if its slow, find out why.

If you’re getting all this stuff right you’ll be reaping the benefits of better quality scores and higher ranked ads. Happy days! It’s no coincidence that all of these elements are the key to delivering the best conversion rates too.

Conclusion:

Lazy-linking and poor quality landing pages lead to a bad user-experience and for me success in search is about providing the right answers for the searcher. That means that queries, keywords, ads and landing pages all need to be considered.

This is a positive move from Google; rewarding advertisers that work hard to provide a totally relevant experience for potential customers.

I’m not scared.