Google Slap Ongoing??

[thrigrri]

Hey all

I just checked my Google Adwords campaigns and got a shocked that Google suddenly stopped all my campaigns stating the reason "Rarely shown due to low quality score"..

Some of these campaigns I have been running for more than 2 years already! And they are having a CTR of between 3% and 14% and my Quality Score all along has been 7 out of 10...

Anybody out there can help me out on this? I would really appreciate it...

Thanks!


Regards
Jun Yuan

[KenThompson]

Hello Jun Yuan,

First, as you well know there's no arguing with them. So just try working
with it. You said they only stopped your campaigns which implies they
didn't close your account. So that's good, at least.

Sounds to me like they want you to increase your quality score. I would
think 7/10 isn't low, but it can be improved. Also, if you improve it then
you cpc's should become lower.

You can try two things:

1. Contact them and ask for suggestions to improve your quality score. Not
sure how that will go.

2. See what you can do on your own to improve it. There must be some
concrete steps you can take in that area.

Since they stopped your campaigns, that implies they may want to do a
manual review before they'll restore your campaigns to active status.

Not the end of the world, annoying - but you're not shut down. Just try to
improve your QS and good luck.

Ken

[stevecl]

How many pages does your site have?

[thrigrri]

Hi Steve and Ken

First and foremost, thanks so much for your reply... I really appreciate it...

My campaigns are this - I have been running them since early 2008 till date... And all my landing page consists of the main page (which consists of a review of the product which I am promoting... With contents written by myself) and at the end of it there are links to Privacy Policy, Disclosure Policy, Terms of Use and Disclaimer, and finally, a contact me page, where visitors can contact me if they have any questions.

I have optimized each landing page to 1 keyword - Which resulted in my QS being either 7 out of 10 or 10 out of 10... And it has been as such since I put up the campaign in early 2008 till today...

I have been checking back these campaigns there and then and everything remained unchanged... In fact, a few hours before Google displayed a "Rarely shown due to low quality score" for all my keywords (that I have bid for) for all my campaigns - Not only that, they have reduced all my QS for all my keywords in all my campaigns to just 1, everything seemed fine (with my QS unchanged and all).

Right now, there's nothing I can do with this account - I can't increase the cost per click... The only thing I can do is to delete the entire campaign...

I'm really, really puzzled as to what happened... 'Cos it has been years that I have been running these campaigns and nothing happened until a few hours ago - Which is really shocking for me...

Could this be what they call "the Google Slap"? Seems like in this situation there's nothing much I can do, can I?

Really appreciate your help... Thanks so much!


Regards
Jun Yuan

[Domenic Carlson]

This is really strange. It does happen though. I've been in a situation where we started at 7/10 and then got dropped to 1/10 or 2/10 for seemingly no reason at all (within 2 months of launching the account.

Then we did everything we could to make the QS jump back up - we A/B tested SEOing the pages or not. We tried testing whether more or less text would work. We tried linking or not linking to 3rd party pages. More or less pages. We seemingly tried everything and nothing proved definitively worthwhile. Then, out of nowehere, we checked back and all fo the keywords got bumped to between 3-6/10. This was for keywords that we tempered with and ones we didn't touch - same thing for landing pages.

There is almost no rhyme or reason to these things.

Also, Google is really frustrating to talk to because they will just send you generic links to their self-help pages which didn't help in the first place (or else why would we contact them?)

[stevecl]

Do you only have one page of content which you are sending the traffic too? or do you have some articles linked on the page?

If so the problem can be that google just see your page as a bridge page with no useful content for the end user. You may need to add more relevent content [articles] and then contact adwords to get them to look at your site.

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by thrigrri

Right now, there's nothing I can do with this account - I can't increase the cost per click... The only thing I can do is to delete the entire campaign...

A QS of 1 is the off switch. So increasing bids has no effect because your campaign is not even running.

Whatever you do, don't delete the campaign. I assume you are thinking of doing so and starting anew. That doesn't solve the underlying problem.

Although you don't say, you probably have a poor landing page quality score. This means you are violating the policies. The solution is to fix whatever policy you are violating. In my experience, the vast majority of people this happens to is because of having a bridge page.

Running a campaign with no problems for years does not mean you won't have problems in the future. If you do everything "by the book", you'll never have problems of this sort. What happens is that the robot makes some initial decisions. Google also improves its intelligence and now it finds you are not following the rules. A human will also check your site, which can be months or years after setting up your campaign, and come to a different conclusion.

[tryinhere]

tell me what is the subject matter? 10/1 it is a non G approved subject. these are not new rules but enforcement of existing ones.

[Harlan]

First, if you're site was slapped - expect zero support from Google.

They will NOT tell you wants wrong.

They will babble about user experience.

If you want to know what's wrong PM me your url and I'll tell you.

And despite what others have said, delete the campaigns from your account immediately.

You can download them first with the Google Adwords tool but get them OUT now.

Been there. Done that. Got the scars.

[thrigrri]

Hey Guys

Thanks so very much for sharing your insights... I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, and want to say a big thank you for your time in helping me out in this issue...

I find it really frustrating, because some of these campaigns I have been running them for like... More than 2 years, and all along, the QS has been around the range of 7 - 10 and also the CTR also has been around the range of 5% to 15% for most of the keywords I bid for... And all of a sudden, this happen... I'm really surprised as to, if there is a problem with my landing page, then why Google only stopped my ads 2 years later?

I'm really puzzled... I tried emailing Google but to no avail (kind of expected it).

Maybe for discussion purposes I place a link to my landing page here and then maybe you guys can help me pinpoint what possibly went wrong?

secondchanceromance [dot] getdiscounthere [dot] com

I am not sure if I can do a hyperlink within a post (as though I have joined the forum for quite awhile, but I am pretty much new here) so I decided to just put it like this (without the hyperlink - If it is not permitted, appreciate it if you could let me know and I'll remove it off this post) But I want to say that I am putting up this landing page that I've made in public 'cos I know that there are many other Adwords advertisers who are also having similar problems that I am facing now and are looking for answers... So it's for the benefit of everyone...

And I feel that by doing so, everyone can learn from my mistakes and so the exact same situation won't happen to them... So, I sincerely hope the admins will not mind if I were to put up 1 example here in public...

This page is basically one campaign that I created - I only target 1 keyword, and that is "second chance romance" - and the QS for this (as given by google) is 10 out of 10 all along but all of a sudden I was shown the "Rarely shown due to low quality score" and the QS that was given was just a lowly 1.

Really, really don't know what went wrong... Why QS can go from 10 all along and one fine morning it suddenly dropped to 1...

I also spoke to other Internet Marketing friends regarding this and I was advised to set up a totally new account and put up these campaigns again... While some of them told me to give up Adwords totally... What do you guys think?

Appreciate your help...

Thanks!


Regards
Jun Yuan

[tryinhere]

OK out of the gate you have done nothing wrong per say, this is happening to others, look at the topic, = love doctor and the big G is all out of lovin of this type of site, it falls heavily into the snake oil, witch doctor , any back yard yobbo giving out advice category. (not personal @ you / your site)

nothing personal and it probably has always been in g rules with their snake oil policies.

my guess is move onto other sources of traffic gen and delete you campaigns in full.

Others probably will advise otherwise, and it will be your call, but it would be fair to say based on the numbers all reporting the same problems with these sites it is close to the money.

any person peddling love doctor, snake oil or make money in minutes are probably looking like shaky ground.

you are just one of many and not a single case, sorry / hope it helps.

[thrigrri]

Thanks for the info, Pete... Appreciate it...

This is just one of the offers that I am promoting... I have also created similar landing pages to promote other products in other niches (such as forex, self-improvement, gaming, health and fitness, etc.) but they all got into the exact same problem... Which is why I am puzzled...

Right now I'm looking outside of Google - Other than Adwords, are there any PPC Search Engines out there that you would recommend that would get good quality traffic?

Appreciate your help. Thanks!


Cheers
Jun Yuan

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by thrigrri

Thanks for the info, Pete... Appreciate it...

This is just one of the offers that I am promoting... I have also created similar landing pages to promote other products in other niches (such as forex, self-improvement, gaming, health and fitness, etc.) but they all got into the exact same problem... Which is why I am puzzled...

Right now I'm looking outside of Google - Other than Adwords, are there any PPC Search Engines out there that you would recommend that would get good quality traffic?

Appreciate your help. Thanks!


Cheers
Jun Yuan

Jun, first get some other people to look at this, it may be a simple fix, but from what you say other than forex which ? should be OK but again that might fall under the make a gazillion in one minute banner ? the others do seem to fall into the love doctor , snake oil categories, and although i am not the judge the reference is in general to any health related / exercise type set ups / weight loss / fitness /

gaming should be fine ? so maybe get that URL up or pm it through for some people to look at.

as for alternatives / well first get some other ideas , views / perhaps take up harlans offer.

other than that i will go out on a limb well in advance and say any search engine that may still show these types of sites will follow googles lead and ban them sooner or later as well.

I say this because G are right on the money with what they are doing, they are now providing good instant results based on a search, that results in visitor use which equates to good business, if the others ignore it and do not play along they will just become spam dumps that no one will use.

So even though you could use them for now as a stop gap, it would be an overall traffic solution that would probably work well long term, just a guess is all on it and i may be wrong.

[thrigrri]

Thanks for the advice once again, Pete... Appreciate it!

Yeah... I'm still looking to get more input from others... Hopefully can derive with something so it will benefit everyone as well...

I know for Google, promoting campaigns relating to adult offers, tobacco related, or offers that may be illegal (such as modifying game console sets, membership sites that allow people to download musics, games, etc.)

But the thing is this - If these campaigns are not allowed, then why did Google approve it in the first place, and only banning them after a couple of years after the campaign was started? This I'm really scratching my head and trying to find answers to...

And the thing is that these campaigns that I have set up have CTRs of between 5% and 15% and also the QS is from between 7 and 10 for the keywords I'm targeting... So I'm really puzzled...

Anyways thanks so much for your advice Pete... And you have a great day!


Cheers
Jun Yuan

[Lucid]

I don't think it's the subject of your site. It's the confusion of what you are making people do if they want to buy from you.

I clicked on your link to download the product. I was presented with another sales page (on another site, the affiliate). That's what the problem is because that's what Google doesn't want and having to read/look for the Add to Cart button again which is bad user experience. If you understand this and correct, you'll never have any problems. Once you do and Google sees you are now back in their good books, your campaign will be restarted. No need to delete anything.

[FlashDriveDT]

"Google slap" usually refers to your website dropping from the SERP rankings, often several pages. But I guess one can get "google slapped" in all kinds of areas.

[fairlights]

First I've heard of Google Slap being used in this type of context, but it makes sense here too.

[Alex Lin]

I have the same problem. Now my account got disabled due to low QA. Before that I just deleted the bad campaigns but that doesn't help keeping my account. What google want to see is the QA going up. Don't expect for any suggestion or support from Google on how to tweak your LP. In fact, they have no idea on how to improve your LP and they think it is your job, not theirs. Adword has monopolized on PPC, they do what they want. Luckily, I didn't put all my eggs in one basket, it only contribute 20% of the traffic. Let's focus on SEO instead.

[thrigrri]

Lucid >> Thanks for your reply... Appreciate it... So you suggest that I change the words and then contact Google again to get my ads approved? 'Cos right now they can't even let me do anything...

Alex >> Yeah... I am also doing some SEO work to promote products and services as an affiliate and managed to get some decent results - Though the results do not come as fast as compared to using Google Adwords... But I still think that it is important to make sure that our site is Search Engine Optimized so as to gain maximum visibility on the search engines, which also results in more people being able to see it and click on it and we get more traffic...

[tryinhere]

Yuan, it would be great to get a follow up / for all to see how this pans out, wish a good outcome.

[thrigrri]

I'll think about it Pete... Thanks!

By the way, do you know of any good PPC sites, besides Google Adwords, that I can do PPC? Would really appreciate your recommendations...

[thrigrri]

Hey Guys

I have just stumbled upon this particular post by ClickBank themselves, and within this post, there are 2 videos that's recorded by their community manager on how to avoid the Google slap... Thought I would like to share this particular post with everyone here:

Avoiding the Google Slap | ClickBank Blog

After going through these 2 videos, what I can deduce is that, the reason why my campaigns were "slapped" was probably because of the fact that Google no longer fancy a simple landing page... They favor sites that is filled with content... So a simple landing page to promote a particular product will no longer work anymore... I guess what they want is like... A site that is built toward a particular niche with lots of unique information - And not just a simple site with nothing but a simple landing page to promote a particular product...

What do you guys think? Any thoughts?

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by thrigrri

what I can deduce is that, the reason why my campaigns were "slapped" was probably because of the fact that Google no longer fancy a simple landing page... They favor sites that is filled with content... So a simple landing page to promote a particular product will no longer work anymore... I guess what they want is like... A site that is built toward a particular niche with lots of unique information - And not just a simple site with nothing but a simple landing page to promote a particular product...

What do you guys think? Any thoughts?

your site although thin would probably just pass, all be it those support pages should open in the same window.

you could add more pages but i will stand by that the site will never run on adwords again as it deals with the love doctor topic.

I know other may say just kick it here or there and I seem a loner on this one and i might be wrong and why i asked to share you findings as you move forward.

Not against these types of sites nor say anything bad about them, its just reading the G and the way they play it.

How about those that say it just needs a tweak jump in and see if they can pump some life back into the heart of the lovin doctor ? as a challenge as i very much doubt it will be brought back to life, or if it does come back to life i very much doubt for long.

as to the Q re which other ppc , there is yahoo and bing as the main players and would be your call on these then you start dropping down the ladder further.

i suppose this is time i hope i am wrong for those people with these sites, happy to say i was wrong if so.

[thrigrri]

Hey Pete... Thanks for the advice! You mean even if I open up the Privacy Policy, Disclosure Policy, Terms Of Use and Disclaimer pages in different windows Google would regard it differently as compared to opening in the same window (as far as Search Engine Optimization and determining the QS is concerned)?

I agree with you on your opinion of G... Well, I must say that it is a very tough network to be in... And as far as affiliate marketing is concern using Adwords, I think I have seen quite enough and would prefer to concentrate on putting my efforts in other PPC engines where I don't have to put in so much effort just to test campaigns, and when I get profitable campaigns finally, the next thing I find out when I get out of bed is that I got "slapped" and everything goes back to square one again...

I've heard that Yahoo and Bing - Where PPC is concerned, and they are going to make quite a lot of changes... I've read about it before and if you are interested, here's the link to the article that I've read about the merger (and the changes):

Details on How the Yahoo/MSN Merger Will Affect Your PPC Campaign - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

Pretty interesting article... Maybe you might be interested in taking a look at it...

Thanks so much for your help these few days! Really appreciate it!


Cheers
Jun Yuan

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by thrigrri

Hey Pete... Thanks for the advice! You mean even if I open up the Privacy Policy, Disclosure Policy, Terms Of Use and Disclaimer pages in different windows Google would regard it differently as compared to opening in the same window (as far as Search Engine Optimization and determining the QS is concerned)?

not sure how they would see it, just from a personal view point only as i hate multiple pages opening up for the same site, annoys the crappers out of me.

back on topic i also have a similar type set up site as yours where i am building along the same / similar lines and there is no way i would even bother to float my own site on G (in this topic) , but lets see what others think, or if they can fix it.

[sree94]

Originally Posted by FlashDriveDT

"Google slap" usually refers to your website dropping from the SERP rankings, often several pages. But I guess one can get "google slapped" in all kinds of areas.

Actually, the drop in the serps is known as the Google "Sandbox"... or being "sandboxed". The slap refers to Adwords

Are there any other PPC engines that work? In my experience, no. I get 1/50th the business from Yahoo and Bing I got from Adwords, no joke