Google Landing Page Optimization & The SLAP
The most recent change to the Google Adwords algorithm includes landing page relevancy when determining Quality Score. Google implemented this major shake-up of the paid search algorithm because they were noticing that the user experience was being negatively affected drastically by low quality, irrelevant paid search listings. In other words, the landing pages of ads were not relevant to the ad and keyword.
It s easy to determine if you have been affected by this algorithm SLAP because you will find that your minimum CPC jumps up to an absurd amount like $10.00/click. If you have noticed your minimum CPC increasing drastically, this is because your landing page does not meet the relevancy guidelines. You should never pay this much for a click, as it is almost impossible to make any keyword profitable at an inflated price like this.
Instead, you should learn how to follow Google's rules and build relevant landing pages. We have done a lot of research in this area, and have outlined how you can reach maximum results and get the lowest possible CPC.
While reading the following sections, keep in mind that the more relevant your Keywords, Ads, and Landing Pages are to each other, the lower your minimum bid prices will be.
Multiple Page Sites
Google is very strict on landing pages with only one page. Therefore it is a good idea to include links to pages within your site that talk highly relevant topics (optimally, the pages would include the keywords you are promoting).
We have tested a variety of single-page landing pages, and even though a page may be highly relevant and contain the keywords from the search, it may not lower your minimum CPC to an affordable level. If this is the case, we suggest that you build multiple pages with relative content within your site, and link them together. Google views multi-page sites as a better user experience, therefore grants a higher Quality Score for these sites.
Here is an example of a multi-page site layout:
www.yoursite.com
www.yoursite.com/reviews.html
www.yoursite.com/recommendations.html
www.yoursite.com/contact.html
www.yoursite.com/about-producta.html
www.yoursite.com/about-productb.html
If you can link all of these pages together, you are much more likely to adhere to the Google landing page relevancy guidelines.
Title and Headline
The title and headline of your page should always be highly relevant to the keywords that you are advertising. Make sure that you include relevant keywords within the title and headline of your page.
Google places a lot of weight on how relevant your title and headlines are when determining your landing page Quality Score. If you have something that is completely irrelevant within your title or within the headline of your page, then your will be awarded a lower Quality Score.
If you choose to use Dynamic Page Optimization to dynamically pass keywords into your page, you should make sure that you are using the PHP version that we have given you (see Dynamic Page Optimization). Google's bots can read your pages if they are.PHP, but if you pass the variables using JavaScript the dynamic keywords may not be recognized.
Relevant Domains
Having a relevant URL plays a role in your landing page Quality Score and you can increase your overall standing if you keep your domain names relevant. Obviously, this will not be practical for many people whom are reviewing multiple products across many different industries, but if you want to maximize your campaign potential, you will want to buy relevant domains.
For example, if you are promoting a product like Defeating Google Adwords, you could purchase the domains:
www.defeating-Google Adwords-review-site.com
or you could build something that is relevant to the industry, but not the product:
www.make-money-online-review-site.com
These will reach a higher Quality Score than a domain that is generic.
Note: This contradicts the ability to build multiple product reviews within the same site, but if you want to stretch the most potential out of a single campaign, a targeted domain may be a good option.
If you can t afford to have different domains for every product that you are promoting this is OK, the weighting on having a relevant domain name is very minimal, but we felt a need to mention it.
Keyword Density
Having a keyword density of 3-5% for your focus keyword will benefit your overall Quality Score. A focus keyword will generally be a highly relevant keyword or phrase that you want Google to think is the main topic of your page. For example, if you are advertising the keyword Defeating Google Adwords Review , on your website, you will want to have the exact phrase Defeating Google Adwords Review on your landing page with a density of 3-5%.
There are several free tools available that you can use to check your Keyword Density, but we recommend the following tool:
Also, including relevant text is very important to achieving a high landing page quality score. If you are promoting the keyword Defeating Google Adwords Review and you send visitor to your webpage that consists text relating to Defeating Google Adwords, as well as Google Adwords, making money online, Internet marketing etc., Google will determine that your page is relevant.
NOTE : Do not try to trick Google by using your focus keyword within your text with a bunch of non-supporting content. The Google bots are a lot smarter than you think and they can tell whether or not your content is relevant.
Build a Fresh Campaign
If Google has raised your CPC to a high level the campaign is Flagged as being irrelevant. This means that no matter what changes you make to improve your landing page relevancy, you will not be able to reach lower CPC.
To lower the CPC, you will often have to re-build your campaign under a new name, and pause or delete the old one. Doing this will clear the negative quality score of the old campaign and allow you to start out with a fresh campaign. It is important to note that this does not always work, but it should be your first attempt before implementing other more drastic changes.
Tip: Google has bots as well as real employees reviewing your pages for landing page quality. You are going to have a much more difficult time trick ing an actual person than an automated program, so be forewarned before you try to trick the system. Instead, build quality landing pages that are highly relevant. This will not only give you a higher Quality Score, it will result in much higher sale conversions.
Building a Fresh Campaign & New Domain
If you have been affected by the latest Google SLAP and are seeing outrageous minimum bid prices, you may need to scrap your old domain and build a new one.
The more research we do, the more evident it is that Google flags domains as being irrelevant. Once you change your landing page to be highly relevant and use multipages you still may have trouble getting your bid prices down. In this case you will need to build a new campaign, and at the same time, move your website to another domain. If your domain is flagged as irrelevant there is little that you can do to lower your minimum CPC. In all of our campaigns where we have been affected by the recent Google Slap, we have been able to get our CPC down to normal levels by rebuilding campaigns, and moving our new, more highly relevant pages to new domains.
The Google SLAP is not a bad thing though. It has single handedly knocked out a HUGE amount of competitors and Google is becoming more and more profitable.
Now that you are strapped with the knowledge of how to SLAP back at Google, you have a big advantage over many of your competitors with keywords that are inactive!
Analyzing Your Competition
Competition is not always a bad thing. You can learn a lot from your competition, especially those that are making money. Analyzing your competition is an integral part of any successful affiliate marketer's research, and it is a component that we suggest you consider adding to your routine.
There are many factors that make up a successful campaign, many of which can be found by looking at your competition.
Watching Affiliate Ads
You can learn a lot of information by keeping an eye on the top page of paid listings within Google. If an affiliate remains under a keyword for an extended period of time, there is a good chance that they are generating a profit from this advertisement.
What you want to do is build a list of the keywords and the corresponding websites that are within the top ten listings for a particular search phrase. To do this you can either build an excel spreadsheet, or take screen shots of the search results. You will want to then check back once a week and see if the same advertisers are still promoting under these keywords.
If you see new advertisers and new websites coming and going every week, chances are that the people advertising the keywords previously were not able to turn a profit from the keywords. These are keywords that you typically want to avoid promoting.
On the flip side, if you see many of the same ads week after week, there are good chances that these advertisers are yielding a profit under the keywords. You will then want to set-up an ad to promote these keywords, as they will likely be profitable to you.
TIP : There is a program available to members at WealthyAffiliate that allows you to watch competitor ads. Many people are claiming that this tool is literally worth thousands of dollars to them. Gain instant access to this tool by joining WA Today.
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