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Landing Pages Are Slapped As Bridge Pages

by snapper
7 replies
Hi, I have noticed a number of people that promote a landing page that they claim will never be slapped by the Big G. I read all of the material and built pages that I believed followed the criteria that never would be slapped...Guess what - yep this week my quality score fell from 7s & 8s with the occasional 10/10 back to a blanket 1/10.

Upon finally getting a response from G they advised that they considered my pages to be bridge pages, that is they are solely used as a bridge between the ad and the parent company's website, which is absolutely true.

My question is...isn't that ultimately what affiliates are trying to do - direct searchers to the vendors sales page?

I would appreciate any suggestions on how I overcome this?

Getting back to my pages - they were clean, had unique video that I had made, had unique copy and also had a button above the fold. They were not overly long, had testimonials on them and also photos.

I was advised by G that they had to be unique or offer multiple competing offers from different companies...a la review sites I guess.

As stated I would appreciate any thoughts on how to get around this?

Regards,

Steve
#bridge #landing #pages #slapped
  • Profile picture of the author washoutinc
    Hey Steve...

    Here are my two cents to help you because when I use the big G I typically never has a QS issue.

    One thing that most people forget about is your account history. So when a guru tells you to do something it may not work because their account history is so strong that they can get away with a lot more.

    But you should build a real site in the background. I like to use WP and build a blog around that niche. I just take content from article sites but I also make sure I have the privacy policy, contanct, disclaimer, about, etc...

    Link back to that site with your LP and you should be good. Where you doing this already?

    If so try getting some links back to the site from hub or stumbleupon.

    Not sure if that helped but there you go!
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    • Profile picture of the author snapper
      Thanks washoutinc,

      I have a 'complete' site with a home page and then approximately 10 different pages - each for a separate related niche product along with a privacy, contact, tos etc.

      I had an adwords campaign for each page, but also had built links from blogs etc back to the pages. I don't think that the Big G care about the links with adwords, that is more for the organic but I am not 100% on that.

      Bottom line is that I had good history with Adwords, had what I thought was a reasonable landing page but Adwords consider it a bridge page.

      I think I understand what you are doing in regards to a blog, but wouldn't adwords look at your blog page and consider that to also be a bridge page? Does it make any difference whether the landing page is a blog page or a page on one of your own domains?

      I don't know how to direct searchers to the parent company via any other way that adwords wouldn't consider to be a bridge page.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    It sounds like you did everything right, Snapper.

    have you tried adding extra "external" links to those pages so there's no longer 1 bridge?

    Obviously, put the links somewhere non-intrusive.
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
      Originally Posted by snapper View Post

      Thanks washoutinc,

      I have a 'complete' site with a home page and then approximately 10 different pages - each for a separate related niche product along with a privacy, contact, tos etc.

      -------------snip-------------------

      I think I understand what you are doing in regards to a blog, but wouldn't adwords look at your blog page and consider that to also be a bridge page? Does it make any difference whether the landing page is a blog page or a page on one of your own domains?
      he's saying build some actual content with the blog, and link to the blog from your landing page..

      I was advised by G that they had to be unique or offer multiple competing offers from different companies...a la review sites I guess.
      unique? was your page mostly a rehash of the sales page?

      funny - they want "competing offers". Seems even google is duped by the affiliate review sites showing "my top 3 picks picks".
      Signature

      -Jason

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      • Profile picture of the author edwellman
        Google wants the pages you send people to to have unique and useful content, that could stand on its own. And they have to be highly relevant, of course.

        Sometimes Google can just be fickle.....

        Keep trying new things and you'll hit the right combination.
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  • Profile picture of the author whmarketer
    You could use Yahoo PPC and MSN PPC, you might get as much traffic from those 2 combined as you are from Google.
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    • Profile picture of the author snapper
      Thanks everyone...

      I had written the copy for my landing pages based on the products sales page, but it could quite easily have stood on its own. What I am trying to say is that it was 'unique' but was loosly based on the original sales page.

      If the Big G continue down this path (and they will!!) I can see a lot of affiliates will have struggles further down the track as G gradually weed out the 'bridge pages'

      I was surprised that they were actually advising me that one option was to do a review page. Personally I would consider a review site is the same as a landing page but with 2 -3 options. I haven't seen too many review sites that give a fair unbiased review of 2 - 3 products - rather the product that converts the best or has the best commish gets the best review. My landing page was in essence a 1 product review.

      I have begun to use Yahoo and have had some reasonable success, but it is still about a 1/3 of the sales that I was getting with G.

      Anyway thank you for your response...I will work my way through this and come back with bigger and better sales.
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