A continuation from
10 Ways To Increase Your Adwords Quality Score Part 1 of 2
Landing Page Factors That Affect Your Campaign:
An overview:
(6) - Getting Indexed & SEO
(7) - Keyword Density
(8) - Split Testing Landing Pages
(9) - Meta Tags
(10) - Essential Site Pages
6) Getting Indexed & SEO
Google Adwords favors non spammy landing pages, ones which actually serve a purpose rather than just driving up the quality score with loopholes and keyword stuffing. As a result, having a page that is indexed and Search Engine Optimized (SEO’d) can significantly prove to Google that your page is more than a middle man between You and some Affiliate Link.
This can also benefit you with FREE traffic by targeting long-tail phrases with implementing your SEO techniques.
7) Keyword Density
The keyword density of your landing page can significantly increase your Quality Score due to its use in determining your page’s theme. Since search engines are limited by their ability to crawl sites based on a set criteria coded by their creator such as Google, having the “perfect” keyword density will help in increasing your Quality Score as well as help achieve a higher search engine position.
Keyword density can be a very tedious task to determine on your page, if not properly balanced your page could be flagged for “keyword spamming - on the other hand if used effectively, it could make the difference between a Good Quality Score and a GREAT one.
There is no golden rule while determining your optimal keyword density percentage. Many factors can come into play such as the length of your keyword as well as the extent of the niche you are attempting to target.
Example:
General keywords such as “acne” can attain much higher densities than a key phrase such as “how to get rid of acne”. This is due to the fact that those general “seed” keywords can be easily incorporated in a variety of phrases on your page such as “get rid of acne”, “treat acne”, “adult acne”, etc. without coming off as “spammy”. Again this will all vary depending on the niche you’re attempting to rank for or the targeted level of PPC traffic you’re optimizing for.
Since the main goal of this post is to increase your Awords Quality Score, here is a simple code to sprinkle onto your PPC landing page to increase the density of your targeting words.
<?php
echo “$_GET[offer]“;
?>
How do you use this?
This method is commonly known as Dynamic Keyword Insertion, and if used properly it can make a significant difference on your landing page Quality Score.
After developing your landing page, simply go into the coded view and paste the above code anywhere such as the title of your page, meta keywords and description, as well as anywhere in the body of your landing page.
*Tip: while in the coded view you can paste this code as a substitute in paragraphs of text to further incorporate the targeted keyword into your page and increase the viewer’s experience (Google’s model). If your keyword list includes “adult acne, blackheads, and acne scars”, then a sentence such as “how to cure <?php echo “$_GET[offer]“; ?>…” would result in the viewer seeing “how to cure adult acne…” (or blackheads, or acne scars - pending the clicked PPC keyword).
Be sure to save your landing page as .php after implementing this code.
The final step in DKI is formatting your ad’s URL correctly. The URL should look like http://domain.com/index.php?offer={Keyword:Default} for Google, and altered if necessary based on your choice of PPC engine.
This URL utilizes Google’s Dynamic Keyword function, where the Keyword is the Keyword clicked for the and in turn will be carried through the URL onto your .php landing page. If the Keyword gets defaulted, than the Default (such as “acne”) will be carried through.
Again if used properly Keyword Density (as well as DKI) and significantly make a HUGE impact on your landing page’s Quality Score, while at the same time if abused it could bury your account by being flagged for spam.
8) Split Testing Landing Pages
Similar to the Ad Copies of your PPC campaigns, its always good to constantly split test your landing pages to optimize your conversion rates. Google Analytics has a very in depth coverage of 5 actors that affect your conversions:
- Custom Landing Pages - Add a Personal Touch
- Images - Size Really Does Matter
- Confidence Messaging - Counter the Fear Factor
- Registration Forms - Don’t Scare Them Away
- Newsletter Subscriptions - Keep Them Coming Back for More
9) Meta Tags
Meta Keywords: To list keywords the define the content of your site.
Keywords are used by search engines to properly index your site in addition to words from the title, document body and other areas. This tag is typically used for synonyms and alternates of title words.
Example: <META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”oranges, lemons, limes”>
Recommendation: Use with caution. Make sure to only use keywords that are relevant to your site. Search engines are known to penalize or blacklist your site for abuse. This tag also exposes your keywords to your competitors. Five hours of keyword research can be hijacked within just a few minutes by your competitor.
Meta Description: To give a description of the document.
This tag consists of a short, plain language description of the document, usually 20-25 words or less. Search engines that support this tag will use the information to publish on their search results page, normally below the Title of your site.
Example: <META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Citrus fruit wholesaler.”>
Recommendation: Always use this tag. Make your meta description as compelling as you can, as your description often is the difference between getting your listing clicked in the search results. This tag is particularly important if your document has very little text, is a frameset, or has extensive scripts at the top.
The above 2 are the most common uses of Meta Tags for landing pages, and can also be used in conjunction with Dynamic Keyword Insertion as explained in the previous factor.
10) Site Essential Pages
If you take a look at many full blown (and well indexed) sites on Google you’ll find they have a few things in common - a group of links anchoring the page which is often found in the footer. By spending an extra 30 minutes compiling an essential pages such as Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, Terms of Use, Contact, and About, you can easily put the icing on the cake in convincing Google that your page is more than just a portal for an affiliate link.
You can often save a lot of time by copying the policies, disclaimer and TOS off the merchant’s site and hosting it locally on the landing page domain.
With these essentials, it has also been a common practice to include 1 or 2 authoritative link to anchor your landing page with a targeted yet general key phrase. This can easily be sourced by a quick search on Google for some top ranking sites in your niche.
Conclusion
Increasing your Quality Score and optimizing your PPC campaigns is an absolute MUST for campaigns to effectively maximize your ROI and increase conversions. Although factors are constantly changing as more and more users abuse the fundamentals of affiliate marketing, the 10 factors covered in this 2 part series still remains the core of building a quality landing page. Although Google was used as a primary example for mutliple factors, the criteria and basics behind it all can be applied to other PPC networks as well.
By spending a little extra time and covering the mentioned factors, you can be running an ROI maximized campaign with a GREAT Quality Score in no time!
Leave a Reply