Will Google penalize a text ad if the display URL goes nowhere?
-
Today I had a colleague ask me if Google Adwords will penalize text ads that have display URLs that land on 404 pages. I fully understand the policy that the domains in display URLs and destination URLs have to match up or Google will disapprove the text ad. However if the display url contains the proper domain (and a target keyword phrase for a file folder) will Google penalize the text ad quality score if the display URL lands on a 404? I had trouble finding specific evidence for this.
-
Just to be clear, when you say display and destination urls need to match -- you're referring to the domain correct? There is no rule that says display URLs & Destination URLs need to be the same other than the domain.
For instance, I have made ads that have the following display URLS:
Thing.Domain.com/KeyWord-Thing
domain.com/Keyword
domain.com/Thing.Keyword.Stufffor URLS that looked like this::
domain.com/20141231/31/nerwal-things/keyword-never-in-the-url
domain.com/stuff/cart/keyword
whyasubdomain.domain.comSo there is definitely no correlation on the Google side about keeping display URLs and Destination URLs the same beyond domain.com
Also, as far as QS goes -- Google wants you to have the best CTR you can get and suggests regularly to try testing different display URL sequences and words with each adgroup (assuming you have very well segmented adgroups). So yes, your Display URL will impact your QS, so test some changes
-
so just to be clear, this is the display URL I'm talking about not the actual destination URL. The destination URL is working fine.
-
I am no expert when it comes to paid ads but one thing I am sure is that Google will turn down your ad if the display URL will land to a 404 page and the reason is because it hurts the user experience of the people who are clicking on that ad which also increases the frustration level.
One of the reasons why Google encourages people not to have a 404 page on their website (when SEOing your website) is the same, they want visitors to have a smooth user experience!
Adding my 2 cents!
-
No. Display url are just for "display".
Google adwords will calculate your quality score based on your destination URL. Therefor if you destination URL is a 404 page you quality score will be affect.
Your quality score has a direct effect in how much you per click. (check this image http://www.wordstream.com/images/quality-score-cpc-savings.jpg)
You can check your current quality score by:
- Click the Campaigns tab at the top.
- Select the Keywords tab.
- Look for the **Qual. score **column in the statistics table. If you don't see this column in your table, you can add this column by doing the following:
- Click the Columns drop-down menu in the toolbar above the statistics table.
- Select Customize columns.
- Select Attributes.
- Click Add next to Qual. score.
- Click Save.
I hope it helps.
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
-
How would you respond to this doctor who demands to see his ads?
I work work for a health care system in the Midwest. We have a doctor in our transplant division who whenever we're in a meeting pulls out his phone and types in "kidney transplant" and ridicules me when our hospital is not on the page. I've long since given up trying to explain search intent to him (all the SERP results are showing information about kidney transplants, not information on where to get a transplant) along with trying to explain all the reasons why our ads don't necessarily show up on his phone despite us having a daily budget for that keyword. Without trying to explain how SEO or advertising online works, what would you do? I've toyed with eliminating advertising from the hospital zipcode so that I can just say we don't advertise in this zipcode at all, so of course our ads wouldn't pop up. I've also toyed with creating more informational content just so perhaps we can show up on the page, even though it's largely irrelevant (but I doubt we'd ever outrank the national brands that have written extensively on this). If someone types in "kidney hospital" or "transplant center" or anything relevant, we're instantly at the top of SERPs. But none of that matters to him. He only cares about showing up for "kidney transplant."
Paid Search Marketing | | Patrick_at_Nebraska_Medicine1 -
Managing negative keywords when multi ad groups trigger for same keyword
Hi Mozzers, I have a lot of ad groups - hundreds! Without negative keywords, multiple ad groups in my campaign could trigger for the same keyword. For example, a search for crm software could trigger the following ad groups: Ad group 1 (the ad group I want to trigger) - CRM Software
Paid Search Marketing | | Zoope
Ad group 2 - Best CRM Software
Ad group 3 - CRM Software Solutions
Ad group 4 - CRM Software for Small Business
etc. So I handle this situation by negative keyword matching the words 'CRM Software' in ad groups 2, 3 and 4. However, this is a very manual and laborious activity when I have 900+ keywords in my campaign, with 150+ ad groups. Does anybody know of any tools that might automate this process, or any techniques for making the process easier and more accurate? Thanks!0 -
Using + in Adwords URL
Hi. I am using keywords in my Destination URL in Adwords. So http://example.com/?football+boots+supplier This was done by someone else and I am trying to understand the full meaning behind this. If I go to the page it links to, it is just the homepage of the website but obviously shows up in Analytics as a landing page that stills out from the general landing page of homepage / Is that the reason so its easier to track the data? I would have though using the Paid referral in Analytics does this better? Any help be great. Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | YNWA0 -
Google Giving 404 Errors to Working Pages
We have a problem that just came up out of the blue with Google, in particular Webmaster Tools & our Merchant Center. We're getting a 404 errors for 1000s of pages in both of these applications, but the pages are working just fine. Our shopping campaigns have been hit hard as many of our top products have been suspended from our merchant feed. Webmaster tools is giving us 1000s of 404 errors to product & category pages alike. But every page returning a 404 error is working. We've contacted Google and they mention that they are not getting a 404 error, but their crawler seems to be. Has anyone ever experienced this? What could be causing this? Thanks for any input.
Paid Search Marketing | | paulcorrado30 -
Best practice to separate paid from organic conversions in Google Analytics
I have a PPC campaign for a client with standalone landing pages with a form, not reachable from the website (although in the same domain). I've added the AdWords conversion code to the "thank you" page and I also added a Goal in
Paid Search Marketing | | DoMiSoL
Google Analytics whose counter is increased every time the thank you page is reached. This way I can track conversions with both AdWords and Analytics. Is that correct? Should I import back in AdWords the goals from Analytics, as suggested in the AdWords account? I have another landing page with a form in the website, where I send users coming from
organic search, so I set up a second goal in Analytics for the thank you page of this form. Is this the reason why I am supposed to import in AdWords the analytics' goals, so that I could see both kind of conversions in both accounts? But the most important question is: If I send both PPC/organic visitors to the same landing page is there still a way to separate PPC from Organic conversions? Thank you very much for your advice. DoMiSoL Rossini0 -
Display advertising - targetting
I am looking into running adverts on the display network and see there is a range of options available for targetting potential customers I see that the list includes the following: 1 placement targeting 2 contextual targeting 3 interest category targeting 4 keyword targeting 5 demographic targeting Can anyone tell me what the best option or combination of this options is? The product I am selling is a weight loss product targeted at women. There are a few companies currently selling this product on the market and we are not the cheapest. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards Pete
Paid Search Marketing | | Hardley1110 -
Can I pass keyword match type through the Adwords dest URL?
Hi guys, I'm currently using duplicates of the same keyword with different match types, and I'd like to pass the keyword match type through the query, the same way I can pass the keyword and creative. ie. http://my.site.com/?kw={keyword}&kwmt={matchtype}&aid={creative} As far as I can tell, Google allows you to pass the keyword, creative (ad id), network and a mobile flag. Microsoft allows you to pass the match type and and ad id, and I want to be able to do the same in my Adwords. Is this is possible, or is the only way to create different ad groups for each match type and pass a custom query? Cheers, Jez
Paid Search Marketing | | jez0000 -
Google PPC - coupon balances
So, I know that you can't simply transfer a coupon credit in Google AdWords to another account. My question, if anyone knows, is there a way to do this using My Client Center? We manage multiple accounts, and have another coming on board that has a pre-existing coupon credit. We were going to set up a new account (which we would handle billing for and just invoice) for the client. But, that would leave them unable to use a coupon code. If it's managed under MCC, is there a way to work around this?
Paid Search Marketing | | DeliaAssociates0