Redirecting AdWords Display URLs
-
I feel it's a best practice (from a user experience POV) to create a 301redirect when using a fictitious display URL in your PPC ads. And according to the AdWords help page (http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175906&rd=2) Google doesn't have an issue using a redirect. "Redirects used for tracking purposes are fine as long as the final landing page has the same domain as the display URL."
I'm curious if there is ad score penalty if one does not ionclude a redirect - i.e. the user types in your display URL and gets a 404. Has anyone seen an evidence of this?
-
Thanks for the reply. As managing web production is one of my responsibilities reducing the number of 404s for a 600K site has priority (for me - hence the question). Our company has 40 plus active campaigns and countless ad groups - and therefore thousands of display URLs. My motivation in asking this question is to reduce 404s - if I can convince our paid search staff that there is value (other than less work for me) to following a best practice, then I might expect a degree of buy-in on their part.
As Pashima alludes to below, from a conversion standpoint making your landing page relevant to your ad and search terms would seem the goal for a company like Google that professes to be all about the UX. not to mention your own internal ROI tracking.
-
That's no longer accurate as of recent changes to the QS algo. Goole announced that LP quality and UX will play a larger role in the calculation of your QS. (http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/10/ads-quality-improvements-rolling-out.html)
I'd bet that the quality of your LPs will become even more significant as our web space and Adwords matures.
-
My ads that have fictitious display URLs that are specific to the keyword I'm targeting tend to have higher CTRs, so they get clicked more, which is good for keyword quality scores, so really you're rewarded for it, not penalized!
People don't visit those display URLs very often. However, some of the fictitious display URLs pop up in Webmaster Tools from time to time... it looks like Google finds them on sites that scrape Adwords ads.
-
In the grand scheme of things, with all of the different things that as search marketers we have to worry about, this is WAY down on the priority scale. Specifically when looking at AdWords, the idea of landing page plays a small role in quality score.
Check out this from Google's Chief Economist, Hal Varian who breaks down quality score. I would say it's a slight over simplification, but he's saying quality score breaks down as the following:
60% is CTR
30% is 'Relevance'
10% is Landing Page
-
THX for your feedback Pashima - we actually have seen a few cases of it (I would believe from users that remember a display URL for later use). But as a percentage of all visits it's infinitesimal.
I actually misstated the adscore question, as of course Google has no idea if the URL was manually entered. I should have asked "Does Google check to see if the display URL actually goes to a landing page and if not, is there an adscore penalty". -
There is no penalty. If someone manually types in your redirect URL, they've broken the connection from the Adwords ad completely. On the other hand, Google does track 404 errors on your site, and any 404 error will affect your SEO and overall site rankings.
While I agree it makes for nice UX, I think creating a 301 redirect from the fictitious display URL to the actual landing page is overkill. I have never seen any 404 errors in my logs of a person manually typing in a display URL. People are inherently lazy. They will mouse and click.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adwords disapproving ads with the word "Jewish"?
Hi guys, I do marketing for many nonprofits, and one of my clients is a Jewish women's organization. In the past week or so, Google has started disapproving ads and keywords that have the word "Jewish" in them. I know Facebook got called out recently for allowing people to target based on anti-Semitic sentiments, so I'm wondering if this is just Google's terrible execution of caution. It's telling me that keywords with the word "jewish" in them (like "jewish women's organization in boston" is derogatory or dangerous). I've asked for Google's help, and they've been incredibly slow to respond. Is anyone else facing this with other religions or content? Natalie
Paid Search Marketing | | newwhy1 -
Adwords Express Vs Adwords for small business
Hi there I specialise in helping Local businesses with their online visibility through SEO. More recently I have been thinking about delving into Google AdWords so i can offer an additional service to my small business owner but was wondering what the best approach would be.
Paid Search Marketing | | coolhandluc
Should I use Google AdWords express or just Google AdWords? Should I set up individual accounts for each of my clients so they are somehow "portable" or should they all sit under the same master account? As you can see my knowledge is somehow limited and any help would be welcome. If you can point me in some easy to follow tutorial directly aimed at PPC for small businesses that would be awesome. Many thanks0 -
Set-up remarketing through Analytics or Adwords?
I am setting up a remarketing campaign and wonder if anyone has any thoughts on whether to do this via Analytics or Adwords? Doing it through Analytics appears to be more straight forward - and I like the idea of broadening the data set that comes from an Analytics report. I therefore I wonder if it comes down to personal preference? Would be grateful to any thoughts for or against.
Paid Search Marketing | | E2E0 -
Name of Reliable, Cost Effective Service for Setting Up Adwords??
Could anyone suggest a reasonably priced service for setting up an Adwords campaign? My monthly advertising budget is no more than $2,000 and the objective to target Google Adwords and Yahoo/Bing. There are companies providing this service but they seem to require fees of $750 to $1,000 per month for their services for a six month commitment and a mimimum advertising spend of $5,000 per month. Certain tools like Wordstream are available for around $300 per month, but I am not sure how much value they add, if in fact they facilitate the process. Also, I am not sure if advertising spend is completely wasted unless I create special landing pages just for PPC. My category, commercial real estate in New York City is very competitive with keywords ranging form $5-$15.00 click. I would greatly appreciate some advice regarding PPC. Thanks, Alan
Paid Search Marketing | | Kingalan10 -
Why do some Adwords agencies insist on setting up Adwords in their own account?
I'm an online marketing consultant and I work with a variety of agencies who handle Adwords. I keep running into an issue where agencies want to set up Adwords in a proprietary account for my clients rather than in the client's account and manage it through MCC. I have just run into again and this time the agency claims they are protecting their Adwords "secret sauce" but that the client will still have full access to keywords, negative keywords, Ad copy, etc. It just doesn't pass the sniff test with me. Can anyone tell me if there are some legitimate reasons for an agency to do this other than to simply try to hold data hostage so that clients can't leave them without loss? I am inclined to tell my client they should run away screaming, but thought I would bounce it off you smart people first. Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | farlandlee1 -
CPC or CPM for Google Display Network?
HI all I'm setting up my first Remarketing campaign on the display network. I'm targeting those that have visited a specific product page at the moment and therefore there won't be a massive amount of traffic to remarket to - roughly no more than 50 clicks/day. My question is - what is the best bidding option for a campaign like this? Not sure whether to go for CPM or traditional CPC. I have previously found CPM much better for Facebook but obviously thats very different to Google. All help appreciated!
Paid Search Marketing | | SamMaley0 -
Adwords Quality Score Help
Hi, I have (well I though I did have) a well optimised landing page for Google Adwords for the keyword Sonos Play 3, but yet my quality score is 3/10 - 4/10. It has been like this for a while now. You can see the landing page here If you would like to see the Add Content let me know. (attached as an image) I appreciate any and all help I receive. Thank You Rick hdxKq.jpg
Paid Search Marketing | | Lantec0 -
Do Google Autofill and Instant Search affect Adwords' Keyword Tool reports?
While performing keyword research around the term "windows", I noticed the keyword "windo" gets 18,000 global monthly searches with .23 competition. Why is this? Do y'all think the Google Autofill and Instant Search features affect reports generated by using the Google Adwords keyword tool? For example, if a user starts typing a search query only to find the site they were looking for before they finished typing the search query, does Google count the partial keyword the user never finished typing into the Adwords Keyword report? I've always wondered about this. Sometimes I find it tempting to attack a misspelled keyword because of the massive search volume and low competition for that keyword. I realize that many consumers may not be very good at spelling, and this may reflect a large search volume towards a misspelled keyword. On the other hand, I see this trend of high volume, misspelled keywords many times while performing keyword research for a variety of clients. Thanks.
Paid Search Marketing | | GlobeRunner0