Completely invalid display URLs allowed

No TLD!

[jtara]

I just noticed a case where a completely invalid display URL appears in a high-ranking ad.

I did a search to find a list of the providers for my dental PPO.

(The organic search results are almost completely useless, with my insurance company's own pages ranking way low - but that's a seperate issue...)

Anywhere, there's an ad with a display URL that is simply the name of my insurance company, without a TLD (.com, etc.) In fact, there isn't even a "dot". Further, the landing page doesn't have this word anywhere in either the domain name or URL.

Surely, Google could apply a simple automated test to prevent such ads from showing. There's certainly no need for a "review period" as this sort of thing can and should be caught at the time of ad entry by the advertiser, and never be allowed to run in the first place.

Another example of Google outsmarting themselves by focusing on complicated, opaque solutions while very simple tests that could be done - aren't.

(BTW, clicking on the ad goes to a useless landing page, which displays a 404 error message, and three boxes saying "Error" "If you continue to receive this message, please contact Agent Support". Way to go, Google! That's real QUALITY!)

[Kobayashi]

yeah, Google could easily run a variety of checks on the display URL at the time of submit. In addition to checking for display domains lacking a proper extension, I wish they would check that display and final destination domains match as per their policy.

Not doing either at the time of submit puts greater and unecessary workload on manual reviewers who often don't catch them anyways. More importantly it allows these invalid ads to run until reviewed, which is a long time recently, causing competitors valid ads above theirs to potentially pay an inflated CPC and pushing ads below it into lower rankings.

[edited by: Kobayashi at 8:39 pm (utc) on Aug. 27, 2006]

[resham5]

totally agree.. Google should have some automated steps to check for the relation between the display and destination URL at the beginning rather than mid way and then everything comes to a halt.

[Kobayashi]

resham5, are you saying they already do check the display/destination domains for a match mid way through the ad creation process?

I see so many ads with different display and final distination domains I just always assumed they either did not check it at all during the ad creation process and those that I saw were running while awaiting review or slipped past the review.

[trannack]

I totally agree that this would be a simple thing for Google to check at the Ad creation stage. It was also be of benefit to a lot of people, as I know for myself, I have accidentally typed the incorrect url on more than one occassion, so a means of veryfying it would be really great.

I too have noticed a lot of unscrupulous people placing non-legit display urls, which is totally misleading to the serfer and surely a breach of TOS.

[vincevincevince]

Yep, invalid display URLs are just fraudlent and misleading. The display URL should be forced to match the actual URL in the domain name at least.

[jtara]

This ad is still there, and is now the #1-ranked ad for keyword "<my insurance company> <state> dental ppo". (Moved up from #2!)

The display URL consists of <my insurance company> with no TLD (.com, etc.).

The first line consists of: <my insurance company>

The ad still goes to a 404 error page with multiple blocks of poorly-formatted error messages.

What a joke!

I have no idea if they actually offer "instant quotes and plan comparisons", since you just get an error page...

Quality, quality, quality. Yes, that's what the latest update is all about! LOL!