Google Cracks Down on Arbitragers - Coming in for a Landing
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Google is aware of the problem. Not surprisingly, it has begun taking steps to correct it. Actually, it started making some moves toward fixing the problem a year ago, when it began using a quality score system to help calculate an advertiser's minimum bid for keywords. At that point, Google only figured in the historical performance of the keyword and the relevance of the ad's text.
That changed in December. At that time, Google started examining a site's landing page and considering its relevance to the keyword. The landing page's relevance then began to be factored into the quality score as well. Remember, this quality score was still being used to calculate an advertiser's minimum bid for keywords.
In mid-July, Google adjusted that algorithm once again. Unfortunately, it has provided few details as to what the change entails. In its "Inside AdWords" blog, the company would only state that "From time-to-time, we improve our algorithms for evaluating landing page quality (often based on feedback from our end-users), and...we're launching another such improvement. Thus...a small number of advertisers who are providing a low quality user experience on their landing pages will see increases in their minimum bids. It is important to note, however, that the vast majority of advertisers will not be affected at all by this change, as they link to quality landing pages."
The idea behind this tactic is to make it less profitable for those running MFA sites to continue using AdWords. If the price they pay to lure web surfers to their sites goes up, then they net less of a profit when the ads on their sites are clicked. Indeed, Peter Hershberg, managing partner at search engine marketing firm Reprise Media, figures that "The first advertisers that Google is going to focus on are the pages that only feature AdSense or some other contextual advertising product."
If Google does that, it may actually lose money in the short term. But the search engine is focusing on the long term, to judge from its Inside AdWords statements: "Although it is counter-intuitive to some who hear it, we'd rather show one less ad than to show an ad which leads to a poor user experience - since long-term user trust in AdWords is of overarching importance."
Some have suggested that there's a more sinister reason behind this change. At least one observer is wondering whether Google has tweaked the algorithm specifically to target sites that show ads from Yahoo or its other competitors. That seems unlikely; if too many advertisers who feature those kinds of landing pages found their quality scores going down, someone would spot a pattern. After all, SEOs and advertisers talk - and when the topic is changes being instituted by Google, you can bet they'll talk about all the possibilities, spinning theories like a team of science fiction writers working on a new TV series.
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