Display URL vs. website URL

RANT: Another Google gotcha!

[starboy]

"Your Display URL must accurately reflect the URL of your website. If your actual Destination URL link is too long for your ad, use a shortened version (such as your homepage) that meets the character limit for this field."

So, G disapproved some of my ads that had a display URL that was forwarded to my Website. I don't see anything wrong with doing that. The display URL was the same business name that appears throughout my Website. I didn't use my Website URL as my display URL because it's a sub-Web with an unrelated domain name in front, and overall so long and ugly that it detracts from my ad. But to please the big G I have to use that crappy display URL.

Jeeez ...

[LifeinAsia]

because it's a sub-Web with an unrelated domain name in front

So why not just fix the problem and get a nice domain name?

[jtara]

The display URL was the same business name that appears throughout my Website.

I'm confused.

Is the display URL a real URL (with a real domain name) or not?

You can't just make something up. If somebody types-in the display URL:

- It has to bring up a web page, not a 404 error

- The site it lands on has to be the same one your ad lands on (but not necessarily the same page)

[starboy]

The display URL *IS* a real URL. That URL is forwarded to my Website URL that contains the landing page for my ad. If you type the display URL in a browser you get forwarded to the landing page URL. It's done that way because the landing page is in a subweb behind a crappy URL.

Anyway, I changed the setup so that now my Website is mirrored in the display URL. Let's see if that works better - a higher "quality" score perhaps?