Google announced earlier in the month that they will be making some changes to their quality score algorithm. They say that overall relevance and the quality of your destination URL will contribute more to your quality score than in before. For the last 5 or so years Google has been making many changes to their quality score algorithm in regards to how much weight is appointed from the destination URL. The more relevant the landing page, the better the quality score resulting in a better performance from your account.
What will this do for My AdWords Account?
As long as you have been using relevant and quality destination URLs for your display ads, you should have nothing to worry about regarding your paid search account. Google says that relevant landing pages may even see a ‘strong boost’ when it comes to your display ads quality score.
As these changes roll out over the next little while some accounts may see some fluctuation in their quality scores. While things stabilize after a couple weeks most accounts will not see a significant change in the overall performance of their account. Now those with poor non relevant destination URLs will see either traffic deceases and/or their cost per click go up significantly.
Why Would Google Make These Changes to the Algorithm?
The main purpose of this algorithm change is to provide the people who click on AdWords ads, more relevant information. It appears that Google is going after those accounts that are not 100% relevant in the ads that they are displaying. Those accounts that have display ads with semi relevant destination URLs will have their quality scores go down so that if they still want their ads displayed it will cost them more.
Some people have expressed concern about these new changes, but we here at StepForth feel that our clients will benefit from these algorithm changes. We always use the most relevant destination URLs for our client’s AdWords accounts to make the account as productive as possible.
For more information you can check the AdWords Blogspot post about these algorithm changes here: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/10/ads-quality-improvements-rolling-out.html
Please take some time to contact StepForth to inquire about their paid search services using Google AdWords. We have created and maintained many different account styles in a many different industries for our clients, and can do the same for you.