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I can't Seem to Get Around the Quality Score Issue

by kenc138
12 replies
Hi Warriors

I can't seem to get above a 5 on my quality score. I write relevant and pick 10-15 keywords and I get like 3's and 4's. I've read google's terms ad nauseum and I don't understand what makes them tick.

Do they actually expect me to make full blown developed websites for my landing pages? That's what it seems like they want. When I am lucky enough to get some air time, they charge me like .50 a click and I'm not making the conversions to cover the cost!

How are you all getting around the QS issue?

Thanks,
Ken
#issue #quality #score
  • Profile picture of the author kenc138
    Just found a new approach. If it works, I will post here to help out!

    Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author Kenster
    Please post your results.


    Remember to look at your page and your campaign through Google Goggles. That what I like to call it at least.

    I just posted something similar, but I will repeat. Google is looking for relevance and good user experience. Make sure your site has content, make sure that content is relevant and has your keyword all over it. Make sure it has the typical seo basic stuff like meta tags backlinks, etc

    Do all this and you'll be fine. And remember that quality score is something that has to be worked at. Increase click throughs and relevance and your quality score will creep up slowly. This takes time and patience.
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    • Profile picture of the author kenc138
      HI Ken,

      Thanks. I've been reading a lot of stories about people getting banned for having low quality scores and similar things and it's got me a little paranoid with all the crap scores I've been pulling lately.

      Just wanted to make sure the resistance I am getting is normal for a new guy.

      Thanks again...
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      • Profile picture of the author Kenster
        You have to be worried about getting banned if you are violating terms of service, not necessarily having low quality scores. Low quality scores mean Google doesnt think your ads are that relevant to the keywords you are bidding on. They wont ban you, just make you pay an arm and leg for clicks

        If you are getting a low quality score because they slapped you for violating TOS or just being fishy...thats another story. Then do be worried about getting banned.


        Play within the posts and you'll be fine!

        good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author TimScott
    Thats your problem right there, is that your sending them strait to a landing page. If you want a higher QS then you have to build at least few pages of content. It's a major pain in the ass, but trust me when I say, you 'll be glad you did in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    OK to boost your quality score for a keyword, create a new website with a theme around that keyword. That means this particular keyword is in title tags, H1 tag, subheads {h2, h3}, ALT tags, picture name, caption name, file name, anchor text, bold text, and body copy.
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    • Profile picture of the author kenc138
      Typically what I'll do is create the landing page and base it around one keyword. What I mean by this is that I usually will write one, maybe two 6-700 articles that are unique and original that weave the keyword in every 100 words or so. I include the keyword in the page Title and in H1 tags (to be honest, I have NOT been using the keyword to name pictures, anchors, ALT tags and bold text). Then I might put a video or two in with some meaningful graphics that have value to support the article and keyword. I have never written more than 1 page though. Maybe this is where I'm getting screwed. I also block my pages form search engines to prevent indexing and noindex all my posts.

      After this, I'll write the PPC ad using the keyword in there, then I'll use [keyword] for the campaign. Then I notice that I get a QS of 4 for that keyword and a 6 for some other keyword I didn't even focus on.

      Then I also read, "you are not allowed to create a landing page whose sole purpose is to drive traffic to another url". I interpret this as not being able to use affiliate links in your landing page.

      I always thought the point of landing pages was to provide some value, and drive the sale. If you aren't allowed to put your affiliate links in there, how do we drive the customer to the business we are promoting without some cumbersome, drawn out process? Better yet, how will the business we're promoting know they came from us since most of the tracking my companies I use are based off of the code in the affiliate link? Maybe I'm lacking creative juices at the moment.

      This is why I find PPC CPA so confusing. I've always used the method Ezine article -> presell containing affiliate link. PPC seems to be different in that you can't follow the model PPC ad -> presell with affiliate link. How do we get the person to our affiliate site from our landing? What am I missing here? Do I just need to build a multi-page landing and put my affiliate links on any page but the first?

      Apologies for the noob questions, but there just seems to be so much misinformation out there and I don't want to pay for it by losing my adwords account out of personal ignorance.

      Thanks so much guys.

      Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author webdango
    This is a problem for me as well and I've yet to figure a way to get around it. I'll even throw up a recent example: CoffeeClubHQ.com

    I built this site to push the Gevalia coffe club offer. This site is built usinf Wordpress. I aggregated all their offers on the home page. I built 7 unique content pages pages, including Coffee recipies, how to clean your coffee maker, about gevalia, how the club works, etc....

    I'm running Caffienated Content in the blog portion, auto-posting a new post every three days (pulled frm eZineArticles). I added an RSS news feed in the side bar. I have AdSense in teh blog posts, but not on the pages. I waited until the site was a month old before I started PPC on.

    I started PPC on 1 Sep. The site ran great until last Thursday 22 Oct. Thursday sales were low, but slow days happen. Friday was low too, but two slow days happen as well. Then Sat evening with low sales I"m thinking WTF? So I log into AdWords and see all my keyterms have the "rarely shown due to low quality score". I went to Statcounter and sure enough, traffic dropped off Thursday morning.

    Back when I was running mini-site landers (2-5 pages), I'd grab a new domain, throw up the same site, and run it again. But I wanted to get away from having to clone a site every 1-4 weeks, hence the much more content rich Wordpress site.

    So now I'm bumming becasue I've been using this Wordpress model exclusively for a while now in the hopes that I could build up a network of permenent sites I dont' have to clone 1-2 times a month.

    Wanting to test what was going on, I registered another domain, GevaliaCoffee.info. I pointed it at CoffClubHQ, not with a redirect. So when you go to GevaliaCoffee.info you get the same site as CoffeeClubHQ, bt the domain stays GevaliaCoffee.info.

    Sunday, I deleted the CoffeeClubHQ campaign and built a new one with the same keywords and ad, this time pointing to GevaliaCoffee.info. The ad went under review (because it had the word Gevalia in it), but was live Monday morning. I got exactely 8 click out of it before the dreaded :rarely shown..." message wiped it out. So now, instead of taking 1-4 weeks to review my cloned site, Google had wacked it in a matter of hours.

    Wanting to repeat the test, I registered yet another domain, CoffeeClub.info and resolved it to the same site. Deleted GevaliaCoffee.info, added new campaing, same keywords. Did all this Tuesday night. Monday morning when I checked it, all the keywords were already "rarely show". WTF?

    For quality score I had:
    Keyword relevance: No problems
    Landing page quality: poor
    Landing page load time: No problems


    The only thing I could think applied was:
    "Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company "


    But this is exactely what aff marketers do!


    So now it would seem the previous method I used to stay ahead of Google (and wanted to get away from to build reliable income) doesn't work anymore. I'm pretty much at a loss now as to how to build a squeeze site to push an aff offer that Google won't wack.

    I still get traffic from Bing and Yahoo, but as we all know, it's very hard to be successful when you can't get on Google. My sales are at about 20% of where they were.

    I thought for sure the Wordpress method would get around the whole problem with mini-sites, and for almost 2 months there, things were good. BTW, three other sites were wacked as well, but they weren't making much (they were wacked from the content network, I was trying some arbitrage). Another site campaign, built around the same time as CoffeeClubHQ but in a different niche, is still running.

    If I want to run an ad in the paper, they don't send an inspector to my store to decide if my store is "good enough". They take my money and run the ad. If my store is ****, people show up, don't buy anything, and never come back. Guess what? I don't make any money and don't buy anymore ads.

    It infuriates me that Google has set itself up as the gatekeepr to what is essentially 60-70% of the traffic on the Internet. If I build a site, PAY to drive traffic there, and peope aren't complaining, what business is it of theirs what kind of marketing I'm doing? And there's NOTHING I can do about it. If CoffeeClubHQ can pass Googles "real site" filter, what can?

    So what's the answer? Anyone have suggestions for getting around Google's bull**** insistence on "inspecting" our sites?
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    I make $2,000 - $3,000 a month and YOU CAN TOO
    Get the exact methods I use in my No Joke Guides:
    How to Build Income Earning Websites
    Search Psychology and Keyword Brainstorming
    How to Find a Profitable Niche
    Read more tips at my NoJokeGuide blog
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    • Profile picture of the author Cash37
      Don't use Google.

      I have saved you hours of frustration you can spend doing other profitable things.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cash37
      Originally Posted by webdango View Post

      This is a problem for me as well and I've yet to figure a way to get around it. I'll even throw up a recent example: CoffeeClubHQ.com

      I built this site to push the Gevalia coffe club offer. This site is built usinf Wordpress. I aggregated all their offers on the home page. I built 7 unique content pages pages, including Coffee recipies, how to clean your coffee maker, about gevalia, how the club works, etc....

      I'm running Caffienated Content in the blog portion, auto-posting a new post every three days (pulled frm eZineArticles). I added an RSS news feed in the side bar. I have AdSense in teh blog posts, but not on the pages. I waited until the site was a month old before I started PPC on.

      I started PPC on 1 Sep. The site ran great until last Thursday 22 Oct. Thursday sales were low, but slow days happen. Friday was low too, but two slow days happen as well. Then Sat evening with low sales I"m thinking WTF? So I log into AdWords and see all my keyterms have the "rarely shown due to low quality score". I went to Statcounter and sure enough, traffic dropped off Thursday morning.

      Back when I was running mini-site landers (2-5 pages), I'd grab a new domain, throw up the same site, and run it again. But I wanted to get away from having to clone a site every 1-4 weeks, hence the much more content rich Wordpress site.

      So now I'm bumming becasue I've been using this Wordpress model exclusively for a while now in the hopes that I could build up a network of permenent sites I dont' have to clone 1-2 times a month.

      Wanting to test what was going on, I registered another domain, GevaliaCoffee.info. I pointed it at CoffClubHQ, not with a redirect. So when you go to GevaliaCoffee.info you get the same site as CoffeeClubHQ, bt the domain stays GevaliaCoffee.info.

      Sunday, I deleted the CoffeeClubHQ campaign and built a new one with the same keywords and ad, this time pointing to GevaliaCoffee.info. The ad went under review (because it had the word Gevalia in it), but was live Monday morning. I got exactely 8 click out of it before the dreaded :rarely shown..." message wiped it out. So now, instead of taking 1-4 weeks to review my cloned site, Google had wacked it in a matter of hours.

      Wanting to repeat the test, I registered yet another domain, CoffeeClub.info and resolved it to the same site. Deleted GevaliaCoffee.info, added new campaing, same keywords. Did all this Tuesday night. Monday morning when I checked it, all the keywords were already "rarely show". WTF?

      For quality score I had:
      Keyword relevance: No problems
      Landing page quality: poor
      Landing page load time: No problems


      The only thing I could think applied was:
      "Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company "


      But this is exactely what aff marketers do!


      So now it would seem the previous method I used to stay ahead of Google (and wanted to get away from to build reliable income) doesn't work anymore. I'm pretty much at a loss now as to how to build a squeeze site to push an aff offer that Google won't wack.

      I still get traffic from Bing and Yahoo, but as we all know, it's very hard to be successful when you can't get on Google. My sales are at about 20% of where they were.

      I thought for sure the Wordpress method would get around the whole problem with mini-sites, and for almost 2 months there, things were good. BTW, three other sites were wacked as well, but they weren't making much (they were wacked from the content network, I was trying some arbitrage). Another site campaign, built around the same time as CoffeeClubHQ but in a different niche, is still running.

      If I want to run an ad in the paper, they don't send an inspector to my store to decide if my store is "good enough". They take my money and run the ad. If my store is ****, people show up, don't buy anything, and never come back. Guess what? I don't make any money and don't buy anymore ads.

      It infuriates me that Google has set itself up as the gatekeepr to what is essentially 60-70% of the traffic on the Internet. If I build a site, PAY to drive traffic there, and peope aren't complaining, what business is it of theirs what kind of marketing I'm doing? And there's NOTHING I can do about it. If CoffeeClubHQ can pass Googles "real site" filter, what can?

      So what's the answer? Anyone have suggestions for getting around Google's bull**** insistence on "inspecting" our sites?
      I dont know what fantasy world some people in this forum live in with Google. This right here is your typical Google experience. No matter what you do, you are going to get slapped. Unless you are signing I/O's with Google, you will be slapped randomly, with no rhyme or reason.
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  • Profile picture of the author webdango
    Wow, two helpful posts.... NOT
    Signature
    I make $2,000 - $3,000 a month and YOU CAN TOO
    Get the exact methods I use in my No Joke Guides:
    How to Build Income Earning Websites
    Search Psychology and Keyword Brainstorming
    How to Find a Profitable Niche
    Read more tips at my NoJokeGuide blog
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnSuitcase
      I'm new here, but I have some experience with google, and all that.

      I looked at your site and it reads like an ad for Gevalia. I can see why it got a low quality score, you're not giving any info that's not on the Gevalia site, and it's formatted like a big ad.

      A better approach might be to write an honest blog about your experience as a Gevalia customer. You could write about the cool things you've received, your feelings about the different blends, etc. Include some of the recipes you've tried and your feelings about them. You have to write something that at least sounds sincere and like a first person account, not a cut-and-paste copy of the Gevalia website.

      If you're not a customer of the club, you probably oughtn't be trying to promote it.

      From Google's perspective, your current page doesn't add value to the customer's experience, it just puts you in between them and Gevalia so you can collect a little commission.

      The sites that get good placement on Google ads and that appear to convert well are those that feature actual reviews, and info from someone who speaks like they have first hand experience.

      Go on Google and look at the landing pages of the ads that come up in the top few spots. You can assume that they are doing something correctly, especially if they're there for a long time.

      Good luck, try to promote products you really believe in and have first hand experience with. And do whatever it takes to convey that experience.

      I think being honest is the best way to get people to check it out. Say something negative about the product, too. Nothing deal-breaking, but be even handed, not a salesman.

      Also, when you place a link, be honest. Say "I have had a good experience and am an affiliate of theirs. If you join after clicking my link, I make a small commission, thanks!"
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