Adwords Quality Score

by: Daniel J Thorley

Using Google Adwords as part of your marketing strategy makes a lot of sense. What makes less sense however is wasting your precious advertising budget on a poorly constructed campaign. "Quality Score" is one of the areas theat can help give you more bang for your buck.

Improving what Google refers to as your "Quality Score" in AdWords can help move your paid search ads up the page. This will improve their visibility and click through rates.

We've already mentioned your Quality Score rating in PPC but here is a reminder:-

The AdWords system calculates a 'Quality Score' for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. A keyword's Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

Google began calculating Quality Scores for AdWords ads for each consumer search in September 2008. Part of the Quality Score calculation is the page load time of the landing page your ad points to.

Page load time is the time it takes for your page to fully display in a browser after it is requested via a link clicked to the page. A page load is straightforward as quoted below:

1. The request for the page is made (e.g., a link is clicked).

2. The server performs any server-side processing, like dynamically generating content or accessing a database to get information. When the page is completely constructed, it proceeds to the next step. NOTE: Static HTML pages do not have server-side processing, only PHP, JSP or ASP.NET pages use server-side processing.

3. The server begins transmitting the response over the Internet/

4. The client computer (the one from which the click orginated) receives the response from the server.

5. The client computer's browser begins rendering the server's response (Web page elements) in the browser. Additional requests are made to the server to deliver Flash scripts, graphics and/or Javascript.

6. When the page is completely rendered and all other requests are complete, the page has loaded.

How Google actually determines page load time is not clear. However, what is clear that it is measured and is a component of your page's Google Adwords quality score.

Google has this to say about why it considers page load time:

Two reasons: First, users have the best experience when they don't have to wait a long time for landing pages to load. Interstitial pages, multiple redirects, excessively slow servers, and other things that can increase load times only keep users from getting what they want: information about your business. Second, users are more likely to abandon landing pages that load slowly, which can hurt your conversion rate.

Improve your page load time by:

1. Optimize your server-side scripting.

2. Get dedicated Web hosting.

3. Compress the size of your page.

4. Lose the Flash Animation.

5. Strip out unnecessary elements from the page.

6. Optimize your page.

Every successful business owner knows that using Google AdWords correctly results in better business. So leapfrog your way towards success and grab your FREE 7 part mini-course right now.