Perhaps this sounds familiar to you:
I have 2 so-called mini-sites, just like so many people on this forum. <specifics removed>
I used to run an Adwords campaign that did really, really good - until one day - when my quality score dropped to 1 (one!) and the ads stopped working.
Now, Google is asking me to bid $10 per keyword or increase the score of my site.
So my dilemma is simple, yet the problem seems so overwhelming: how can I get around this problem? How can I pay a decent sum for my keywords and still be able to run my campaigns?
What really bafflles me is that I have seen websites just like mine that are constantly being advertised on Adwords. One example would be searching for a product title like <specifics removed>! And I can't imagine they're paying $10 per click. What are they doing differently?
So, does anyone know the solution to this mystery?
Thank you so much in advance!
[edited by: buckworks at 11:06 pm (utc) on Nov. 8, 2009]
[edit reason] No URL drops please; see TOS [/edit]
Will that guarantee a substantial increase in site score?
It will, if you borrow a car from Back To The Future. [imdb.com]
Joke onto a side - I believe that the number of sites (read URLs) that successfully recovered from low QS could fit two pairs of hands.
Google is very restrictive these days. I personally think that it "hates" one "looooong" page sites. Not sure if any of yours fits that.
Google wants content and that the site is useful to a user. Please don't ask me to clarify this further.
Google also does not like certain types of products, like some ebooks.
It may all be about what you offer... not really about site. Is it legitimate? Is it on the Google's black list? Have you searched through AdWords' help to check if your offer would fit into "no no" section?
The fact that you see similar stuff... It may just be that Google has not come to it yet, and it may never to some.
The amount of data that Google crunches every day is simply huge, which makes the system "lazy" in some cases.
g specifically says don't do this... so i'm gonna suggest not doing it.
i think the days of ppc'ing mini sites are long gone, but that's just a personal opinion really. my personal opinion is to consider either promoting with other methods or changing your biz model. i know, not very helpful - but it's honest.
good luck to you!
Usually Google gives you a 4 for a complete lack of relevance to the keyword. For example; "dog food" when you sell "cell phones".
I'd recommend deleting your campaign and hiring a consultant to give your mini-site an overview. There's nothing wrong with mini-sites. Google doesn't care about the size of the website. They only care about the quality.
Make sure you have a sitemap, a privacy policy, a contact page with real contact information (not a form), make sure your keyword density doesn't go over 7% (otherwise Google thinks your stuffing), and check to make sure you don't have hidden keywords (i.e. keywords stuffed into ALT tags).
Your page title, meta keyword and meta description should contain your keywords. Each ad group should only have a few keywords in each, and the keywords should be in the google ad. Have a different landing page for each keyword group.
Make sure your landing page was written for a human visitor, and not written to impress a web crawler.
Don't create a landing page designed to direct visitors to another domain. Make sure your landing page has value for the visitor and make sure you don't have forms anywhere on the website that ask for personal information (other then info needed for a purchase order). All your forms should be using HTTPS.
