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Do outbound links have a tiny effect on Quality Scoring?

by Shiraha
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Most of the more publicized information around state that the vast majority of the Adwords Quality Scoring system is made up of:
1) How relevant your ad is to your keywords to your landing page. A 3 way circle if you must
2) How tightly themed your ad groups are
3) A MAJOR part of QS being affected by historical CTR

However, we do know for a fact that Google did not reveal everything about QS. I've read from places like Affilorama and some others that even OUTBOUND LINKS have a small effect on QS.

Can anyone else confirm this? It's something completely new to me for sure.
#adwords #effect #links #outbound #quality #quality score #scoring #tiny
  • Profile picture of the author Lucid
    I don't believe so and here's why. The only way Google can judge quality is by CTR. In other words, searchers are effectively voting on the ads. If your keywords are relevant to the search (ie, you don't bid on "cat food" when the search is on "dog food") and that the ad is attractive to the searcher, your quality goes up because more people click on it.

    CTR is about two thirds of the QS score, about another quarter is relevancy which leaves only about 10% to other factors. One of these other factors, and perhaps the only one, is page loading time. If there are other factors, their weight is small and there's no way they can increase your QS a significant amount.

    Outbound links is surely not a factor. It is not a quality that can be measured as related to your ad. Adwords is not SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Adwords is all about click-thru rate.

      Your ads have got to be spot on for the searches you are bidding for.
      Your pages have to be spot on for the searches you are bidding for.

      You have got to test ads, keywords, etc. Kill the ones that hurt.
      Boost the ones that help.

      And be sure to be aware of negative keywords. They can be killers
      to your ctr.

      The stuff on your page is what google will either approve of or disapprove of.
      But they would do this up front most likely and you would know.

      The caution here is having outbound links to banned or crazy stuff, boosting
      your quality score, then having google find out and kill your account.

      Like I always say, if you have ask, don't do it. Err on the side of caution.

      So, they won't affect qs, but may eventually get you slapped.

      And don't think about adding them later, just because you think the
      heat is off. The heat is never off.

      Improve your ctr and everything else becomes a dream come true.

      paul
      Signature

      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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