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Google algorithm changes upset advertisers
Google is making changes to the way in which its AdWords service evaluates landing page quality, to the frustration of some online advertisers.AdWords, which offers pay per click and site-specific advertising, is Google's main source of revenue and is used by countless advertising partners.
The algorithm used by Google to determine ad position is gradually evolving – something that the search engine says is necessary to improve conversion rates.
However, changes made recently have cause advertisers to speculate that Google may simply be trying to raise the value of minimum bids.
"We'll begin incorporating landing page quality into the Quality Score for your contextually-targeted ads, using the same evaluation process as we do for ads showing on Google.com and the search network," Google's partners were told.
"Advertisers who may be providing a poor experience on their site will notice that their traffic across the content network decreases as a result of this change … We're improving our algorithm for evaluating landing page quality and incorporating landing page content retrieved by the AdWords system."
Operators of poor quality sites will have to pay more for a minimum bid, in other words. However, this has caused consternation because Google has provided no specific information on how it grades quality. Webmasters may not know what to do if they feel their site has been unfairly labelled 'poor quality'.
Google stresses that it is focusing on landing page quality in order "to improve the experience of our users by providing high quality results not only in the ad text, but also once the user has clicked through to the site".
Google News posted on 24 November 2006
