Hacks and myths busters are great to have around as friends. They tend to collect various types of information one can only imagine. Every topic has myths to bust and here are 6 myths about landing page and quality scores that will change how you view business models in general.
Today, landing page quality scores and pay per click ads (PPC) drive sales in online business. PPC ads is a marketing tool that digital marketers use every day.
Quality scores are essential for a landing page to effectively carry out its purpose- which is simply to get more traffic to your webpage.
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Although, there is still debates around the actual length of control that marketers have, most would agree that the quality of the landing page impacts its quality scores.
Let’s start with how landing page quality affects quality scores? According to Google – ‘Quality Score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.’ Quality of a landing page is definitive to e-commerce businesses.
Its purpose will not hold value with poor quality images and keywords which do not carry the value proposition of the service or product that any e-commerce business wants to display.
So, why is it so important to be aware of these myths regarding landing pages and quality score. Well, that the answer to that is quite straightforward. Because quality yields traffic and conversion rates are high. Since you paid for the ads, your efforts are beginning to reap the benefits of your ideas.
Here is why this myth needs a little busting. If your landing page is ‘spiderable’, and readable, you have pretty much followed every step according to the textbook. The ad copy is relevant, and quality score is high.
So is the navigation and the safety of the landing page. Why? PPC ads and keywords relevance will bring your quality score up as it is used to determine the maximum bid of your ad ranking. So begin by separating the facts from fiction.
Even if it means that the Google Ads will be significantly impacted, improving your landing page would mean using what is available in the system.
As digital marketers keep an open mind the risk-benefit analysis in most cases to achieve high quality scores would result in lower cost per click. It will lead to lower costs per conversion rate too. Which means you can earn more money or save more money.
Image: Local ranking factors
6 Myths Regarding Landing Page And Quality Scores
Let’s take a look at the top 6 myths about landing pages and quality scores. A few may need some myth-busting too.
1. Including the exact keywords in content is a must:
False, you do not need to use the exact words. Lexicons can do the job perfectly. Keywords play an essential role and there is no doubt about that. In fact, without the exact keywords, your landing page in Google Ads may experience a drop in quality score and therefore becomes non-spiderable.
Most marketers would check the quality score to look for improvement and see to it that the 1/10 grows. Here’s another way of looking at it. SEO (search engine optimisation) primarily works on semantic indexing. For example, you search for ‘cellular phones’ and your search engine directs you to pages for ‘mobile phones’.
Using lexicons are helpful in this search context. Hence, your search is not irrelevant and your quality score should not suffer either.
Image: Anatomy of landing page
What’s recommended is to use words closest to the theme of your landing page. Because if it is directed towards bringing you higher quality scores, you may as well use it. Google Ads does not understand context on images. Relevant ad text and keywords will be increase quality scores. Remember to add an offer that excites customers.
Therefore, as business needs to earn, you can always use keywords closest to your landing page and still get relevant consumers. It isn’t necessary to utilise the exact words to reach out, unless you want to increase your quality scores.
2. Images are bad for quality score:
Images and bad quality scores actually have no relation! Why? Because Google quality scores are based on the load time of the landing page. So, this is indeed a myth that your image quality is bringing down your quality score.
What’s important is to check is the Google Ads account load time, and if there are any underlying issues there.
Google says they will be adding and incorporating all the elements in the future. Why? Because Google Ads quality scores are based on Keywords.
Images, navigation and scripts are not a part of the algorithm. Keep your business transparency level up by including frequently used keywords and ad text on dominant and authority sites.
Google search engine trusts transparent high ranking landing pages on priority. But for now, your landing page needs to be optimised covering all checks which also constitutes images, files (everything else added to the landing page), scripts and Ads as well.
Therefore, in a competitive e-commerce landscape where business scenarios change by the minute it is advisable to plan a well thought out strategy to reach out to your customers.
Try not to depend on quality scores for every landing page you publish. Sometimes you can change the Google Ads and make your landing interesting enough for users to hit the CTA.
Image: Images are bad for quality score
Now that you know that images don’t count towards your bad quality score, you may want to revisit your plans are rethinking the idea of quality scores and Ads. It was never about the images you used.
However, try to use good quality images which are relevant to the CTA. The closer your images are to your CTA, acquiring users will get easier and conversions too will increase.
3. Affiliates will hurt the quality score:
There is one action which does hurt the quality score undeniably ‘ad blockers’. Adblockers is a valid indicator that users are not interested in viewing the landing page you are pushing. Often, one can run optimisation tests to reach out to their audiences with a better quality landing page to gain good quality scores.
Hence, the myth surrounding this is that Google is only grasping and noting that your users are blocking you and the quality scores tend to drop.
Image: Affiliate links will hurt the quality score
There are ways to bring about a higher quality score to increase traffic and get the right customers to visit your landing page by avoiding ad blockers such as rearranging and rewording the Google Ads.
Once you have restructured your content, you can go back to designing the landing page to become more relevant and reconnect with the target groups for the products you are about to launch.
Here’s another myth which most marketers need to know – Google does not hate affiliates. Google watches the user experience time consumed. If it takes a long time, Google will drop the quality score.
For instance, if you were marketing a product which does not need affiliates, do not use a user search experience because your CTA is just the merchant product page.
If you do want to use the search experience, let your customer go through the main web pages and make a well-informed decision. In such cases, going back to the same merchant page can be frustrating for a customer.
4. Good page-rank equals good quality score:
If you were using the exact words from your Google Ads in the landing page, ideally you should have a high quality score. Does this mean that good page rank equals to a good quality score? A good page defines the entire landing page which is carrying images, scripts, Ads, keywords from your Ads, and navigators.
All of these elements put together should bring a high quality score. Not true! Google is scoring you on the top Ads. The rest of the elements are yet to be added. It is only relevant so that your page is spiderable.
Image: Good page rank equals quality score
Now you know the benefits of how Google quality score works. You are also aware of the fact that quality scores often define your landing page quality. However, it does look at a specific criteria.
The best businesses are aligned with Google’s standards on quality scores. They link their keywords to the Ads as closely as possible.
Big brands which are dominant sites also have strong linkages to quality scores. It is simple textbook rules. But amongst smaller and medium businesses, where competition is high, there are multiple similarities.
Hence, it is a good idea to look at the real effects of the quality of the landing page, quality scores and transparency points.
Image: Landing page relevance
5. Adding a privacy policy will boost the quality score:
First of all a privacy policy is implemented if you are collecting personalised information from your users and customers. However, Google follows a set of guidelines in such cases, nation-wise. Hence, it is dependent on who and which nation you are addressing or instead who are target consumers.
Being specific is the right term here, that when coupled with transparency will earn ‘good quality scores’. This is because Google’s policy ranks transparency, highly.
The more your landing page is transparent, the higher your quality scores are on a scale of 1/10. It also gives your users confidence that you will refrain from selling information to the highest bidder.
Therefore, if you want to increase the landing page quality scores it is imperative you link your legal agreements as a landing page needs a visible privacy policy. It is essential for any business to maintain transparency and by doing so, you are gaining customer trust and loyalty.
There is also the significance of long term goals which are set with critical factors. Critical factors are directly linked to your revenue stream. Anybody in any business would tell you that concentrating on quality over quantity is a wise move in a competitive world. To meet these requirements, your customer must be aware of your company and about your business.
6. Adding an about us page is a must:
Not a myth and yes you must add the ‘about us’ page in the landing page. Because from what you have read so far, and it will help in building a better business module. Transparency is of utmost significance to Google and if you are looking to get out there and gain good quality scores taking your customers to through the ‘about us’ page is a good move.
Image: Adding about us page
For example, when a landing page does not carry any information or contains limited information about your business, you may lose out on potential buyers. On the other hand, if your landing page is transparent, it is in-line with Google’s aims and standards.
Another point to note here is that all ‘about us’ pages merely mention what your business is all about. Ideally, you should have detailed descriptors with meta descriptors and keywords all linked to your landing page because your business is complex.
Don’t try to hide on the internet. Customers sometimes are known to dig out information from various links and webpages. Why keep it a secret, anyways? Besides, there is a plus to making your business highly visible.
That will drive your traffic and conversion rates through your landing pages. Additionally, it will add benefits of serving a wider geography of users and customers.
In Conclusion
There is a possibility that digital marketers will continue doing a lot of things which require high quality score as their PPC ads are essential, and CTR is significant as well.
In the long run, you want your business to thrive. Myth busters have tranformed many bad businesses to good businesses through simple analytics and having a logical understanding of the sequence of events.
How you check landing pages on Google Ads that gives your business the boost that it needs says it all. Google quality scores rates the quality and relevance of the PPC ads and the keywords.
It will determine the CPC (click per cost) which is then multiplied by the maximum bid to establish your ad ranking in the auction process.
By optimising the quality score of your landing page quality, you are automatically setting higher ROI goals. This correlates to a lower click per cost and leads to a higher conversion rate. Now you have paved the way for your business to boom.
But, how does a good landing page quality helps in conversion? If your landing page does not meet the required Google parameters, you might begin from the bottom of the pile.
It must have originality in your relevance, the presence of keywords related to your Ads-bespiderable, have trustworthiness, easy navigation, and should entice a visitor to remain on your website for an extended period of time in order to explore.
Adding value will genuinely help in achieving the revenue that you envisioned. Success comes to those in search of the right combination of tools and by setting realistic goals.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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