Have you ever danced with a partner who suddenly made a move you didn't expect - and that brought you off balance for a while?
Well, that's how it is to dance with Google! They do it all the time.
I April many Google AdWords advertisers suddenly had their minimum bids raised by 5, 10 or a 100 times, because of Google AdWords Quality score.
And now Google is dancing again and causing a lot of discussions in AdWords forums. It seems that this time Google is targeting affiliate landing pages and squeeze pages under the parole "These pages are not adding any value to the user experience".
No one really knows what's happening - Google AdWords support can't really help you - not even if you're a big time customer using $300,000+ a year on Google AdWords!
Some junk Made-For-AdSense sites survive fine and a lot of legitimate online business have been hit by the "AdWords Landing Page Quality Score"-hammer. Right now the Google dancing doesn't really make sense.
There's an interesting discussion about this topic on Webmaster World. The discussion starts with a:
"Open letter to Google Regarding Changes to The AdWords Program" http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adwords/3003366-1-30.htm
(You have to register and login to read the discussion.)
One very informative email about this issue was send from Affiliate Classroom. They've send out a very good report about the current situation:
- Surviving Google free report http://www.jasmedia.com/recommends/survivinggoogle
Here's another quote from their newsletter:
"It seems that Google is targeting any sites that don't allow the searcher to purchase directly from the site they land on."
Here's a couple of the forum posts about that:
- Google keywords inactive? http://www.affiliateclassroom.com/x.cgi?id=1&a=t&tid=29
If you want some background information watch a 45 minute documentary about Google
- "Google behind the screen" http://www.guba.com/watch/2000796349
Really interesting - and a little scary.
Whenever Google starts dancing you might get into trouble - or new opportunities will open. Only time can show how these new Google AdWords changes will affect your internet marketing.
Google AdWords is a great traffic source, but don't put all your eggs in one basket!
Jan Sepstrup is the editor of the Google Smart Tools Newsletter at http://www.go-smart-tool.com/index-4free.htm. Newsletter, toolbar, ebook and videos for Google Adwords, AdSense profit and Internet Marketing.
