Eventually I worked out this was becasue of I suddenly had a quality score of 1/10 and the message "landing page quality: poor"
" * Keyword relevance: No problems
* Landing page quality: Poor
* Landing page load time: No problems"
I have now tweaked and made what changes I *think* ought to address the issues but someone on the Google Adwords forum has said I that I am "obviously" an affiliate. They haven't yet clarified why they think that...
This would be OK if I WAS an affiliate - but this is not the case. I wrote and designed the products myself. So:
1. Do I really look like an affiliate. How so?
2. Is this reason for my page quality score? Is there another reason?
3. If so, then what can I change?
Many thanks to anyone who can help.
Cheers
Dr Paul
[edited by: engine at 8:42 pm (utc) on Jan. 18, 2010]
[edit reason] See WebmasterWorld TOS [/edit]
- the site has 6 pages in total (including about, privacy, contact, home page). More pages will help.
- no inbound links (while some may argue that this is more for organic side only, I'm sure it could only help with AdWords)
The title of your home page says "Home article". You should work on meta tags like title, keywords, description even that everybody claims some are not important today at all (title is for sure).
If you use WMT (Google web master tool) you'll find that your descriptions are too short (in HTML suggestions).
I would work on getting more content around two product pages (not necessarily on those two pages, but new pages pointing to them), have less "buy" buttons on each page, and work on linking from other sites, use things like Twitter, even run a group on Facebook, maybe submit articles around.
Also, more content on the home page.
Wait a bit, see if you get any ranking for your major keywords (you should write content around that), and then check if anything changed about yoru QS.
Note that QS 1/10 that has happened overnight - many of us describe as manual review - but no evidence. I say this as if it was manual action, it may never happen that your site comes back automatically.
This means you'll have to contact AdWords support and ask for manual review and wait. Don't go too wide in explaining anything, just work on your site, wait a bit and then ask for manual review.
Good luck.
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There's a possible answer...
I did not see the image caribguy talks about.
Adding more pages will not get your QS up and neither will inbound links. This is not SEO.
smallcompany does have a point about your page titles and description tags. They are not helping Google determine the theme of your pages and doing nothing for SEO.
Link your own site's buy buttons straight into paypal to get paid ..without going via your second site ..and you should be OK ..and your higher QS should come back ..
It's what caribguy spotted ..everything said by everyone else about your on page SEO applies too ..( put reading here ( at WebmasterWorld ) about SEO at number 2 on your to do list ..right after number 1 to change your own pay link to direct to paypal ) ..
Any transaction that starts at your site by clicking onto button or link, but then goes elsewhere may cause a trouble.
Nothing definite though, it varies from site to site.
The best would be if you run your own cart and all happens at single domain, or something like PayPal as others suggested...
Many Thanks
Dr Paul
I suppose th trouble here is that I am running a few different domain. The one we're talking about here is domain B, but I also have domain C and domain D which all sell electronic products which are handled by dlguard script which I have installed at domain A.
In the light of how absolutely killer this has been to my traffic - is this strategy unwise?
In other words, should I install a new download cart/download manager script on each domain that I'm selling from so that I do not appear to be an affiliate?
Trouble with that is that the license for my cart program means I can only instal it on 2 domains (I think).
Although I presume there would be some kind of cart system that I can just plug into Joomla and match up with Paypal...?
I think it might be good for your users, too. I know I would be a little disconcerted if I bought something from one domain and suddenly got redirected to another one I wasn't familiar with.
There are plenty of shopping carts out there, but if you like the one you have and need more licenses, then you need more licenses.
Fair enough netmeg!
Ogletree - the different domains are because the products I'm selling don't fit on to one domain. The idea is to create an easy experiece for users by not burying them with more info than they really need.
Obviously this is not the only way to do things (I'm thinking Amazon!) but I want each of my domains to be aimed at a particular type of customer and I tihnk it will make things better for me in the long run (and make it easier to sell each domainfor what it does).
Selling eBooks?
Its e-products for sure but not exactly e-books.
These are quiz games. download and print = everything you need for a quiz party. Very Good.
How do you mean anyway? Do you mean that e-products are also not good for Google? Are Google not serving ads for people selling downloads?
Google does not seem to ban all affiliate websites. They seem to mark many as QS 1/10 but some do get thru. The factors determining what is acceptable are debatable. Personally I feel, luck may also play a big part..in as to who reviews the site.
What is a squeeze page? Is there a difference between a sales page and a squeeze page. I have sales pages for sure but I really believe its a decent e-prodcut and I have plenty of satidfied customers.
Are you saying selling e-products is a no-no for Google?
I'm using a "return code" at Paypal so that if someone wants to quit from Paypal's payment page, they can hit a link that says "return to Quizmedia Ltd" and they will be taken back to the sales page.
Alas - I have only just noticed that I had incorrectly entered the url and have been sending people to a similarly named but totally different quiz site. Doh!
Does anyoen know if this could this have contributed to the 1/10 QS?
I highly doubt it.
1. Search Google for "What is 'Quality Score' and how is it calculated?" Read this page thoroughly.
2.Follow the link on the link on the bottom of the above page titled "detailed instructions on optimizing your account."
3. There are several links on each of these pages and you'll need to follow them all, especially read "quality of your landing page".
Although I haven't seen your many websites I'll assume their appearance is similar. This is a huge problem for Google and the QS.
Here's some insight into what Google expects from each of your websites.
"Originality:
* Feature unique content that can't be found on another site. This guideline is particularly applicable to resellers whose site is identical or highly similar to another reseller's or the parent company's site, and to affiliates that use the following types of pages:
o Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company
o Mirror pages: Pages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site; your site should not mirror (be similar or nearly identical in appearance to) your parent company's or any other advertiser's site
* Provide substantial information. If your ad links to a page consisting mostly of ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), it must also provide additional, unique content.
It's especially important to feature original content because AdWords won't show multiple ads directing to identical or similar landing pages at the same time."
I hope that helps you out some but you will need to focus on selling your product with more then just a few pages. Fluff pages don't count for anything to Google, you'll need real content.
To be more specific I suggest you have at least 10 pages averaging 700 + words per page of sales copy using the keyword you're trying to target in a natural way. Hire a writer to do this if you can't do this yourself (Hire theme from Craigslist Los Angels as there are tons of pro writers freelancing in the Gigs section). Once you do that wait for a few weeks and recreate your campaign, your Quality Score will go to normal and be sure to make each of your website's separate and 100% unique from each other in every way.
Don't link to your other website's, linking to them is for customers to do not you. I tell clients to checkout Apple.com, look at how they sell their iPhone or Mac Book Pro or any product on their website. Apple also features several videos about each product and you should do the same, use your cell phone and Youtube.
Finally if you're using Joomla install the Virtue-mart Component it's a free and Open Source Ecommerce System and you can setup PayPal by entering your email address. Also be sure that your email addresses are all set to the domain name that you're using for each product, don't use one for all of them, this is far more professional. Use Thunderbird to manage multiple POP3 accounts for each domain and you'll have no problems.
You're not as far off as you think you are, you'll just need to put in some more work and you'll be profitable soon.
Thanks
Virgil Lee
Two of my websites use the same theme/template in Joomla but apart from that they really are quite different with different target readers, different content and different products for sale.
I did look at Virtuemart the other day but was somewhat put off by various comments from people saying they thought the code was a "nightmare" and that configuring it was a "nightmare", understanding it was a "nightmare", etc.
You wouldn't agree with these comments I preusme and maybe the people making them are trying to do quite complex things with memberships and so on whereas I am simply trying to sell individual downloads.
The 10 pages x 700 words advice might not be an issue. I have another site which is literally one page of sales copy for one product and Google gives it a QS of 7/10.
Again - thanks for taking the time and I agree that I'm not that far away... I think.
I know you'll have great success!
Perhaps you can help me find how to add downloadable products VM seems to do able just about everything else...
And am I really going to have to ask customers to REGISTER before selling them a download?
Check out the manual here for setting up downloadable products [virtuemart.net...]
and here for silent registration [ogosense.com...]
I recommend that you read the entire manual before launching your ecommerce website since it's your store and there are tons of configuration options which must be well throughout.
Have fun!
