Google has recently implemented “Quality Score”. It measures certain factors of your AdWords ads, along with your landing page, assigns a score for each keyword, which in turn affects the placement of your ad for that keyword.
One factor of this score is landing page quality.
We have always had the long-standing opinion that landing pages should be carefully crafted around the message of each ad. Our research has shown that while home pages work in some cases, for many products and services individual landing pages are far more effective.
Here are some tips to creating landing pages that Google will love:
- Make them fast-loading by using CSS layout, minimizing graphics, and keeping content down to the bare minimum.
- Use relevant , ORIGINAL content that contains keywords and phrases similar to your ad.
- Include clear navigation and a highly-visible call-to-action.
- Stay away from using popups, browser un-friendly scripts, or anything else Google may find tricky, misleading, or just sloppy coding.
- Include a link to your privacy policy, terms and conditions, company address and phone number.
Google’s Quality Score is a huge bonus to advertisers who take the initiative to provide a quality website to its users. It’s also a great opportunity to move your ads up on the page, without increasing your bid amounts. Take advantage of it and watch your click-throughs soar.
Dave Rosowsky is Senior Client Services Manager for Theorem, Inc., and heads the creative division 
Down Times are the Best Times for Innovation
So it has been a long time since my last post, but there is a reason for that.
Our company we started in 1999, WebPencil.com, was acquired last December. We had built a team of really talented designers, and had some top tier clients, but we where having trouble taking the business to the next level. We decided it was time to try something new, and jumped at the opportunity Theorem offered us. We have kept the original design team together, added some new talent, and now operate under the name Theorem Creations (www.theoremcreations.com). It is an exciting time for us.
We will remain in Las Vegas, right by the strip, so if you are in town, give us a buzz and come stop by our design studio.
You might be wondering what got me back on the blog. I have been reading so many doom and gloom stories lately about online advertising. Many of them sound like regurgitated stories from the dot-com bubble burst days, with familiar taglines like ”the banner is dead” and “banner blindness”.
Like I said then, and like I say today, this simply is not the case. Banner advertising remains strong. Virtually every site on the Internet offers banner advertising space. Click through rates remain steady when ads are properly designed and targeted. Innovative concepts like Google’s display ad builder, Tumri’s audience segmentation, and Brash Insights Feedback ads (to name just a few) are hitting the market every day. Big brands are pushing the limits of their rich media ads and the technologies driving them are constantly evolving.
In times like this, they key to maintaining growth in our industry is one word, INNOVATION. The next great thing in digital advertising could be right around the corner. Maybe a new format that outperforms anything we have ever seen. Maybe a new way of viewing web pages were advertising and content are better balanced.
It makes no sense to predict failure for an industry still in its infancy, that so clearly is proving to be robust in such difficult times.
So to all the naysayers, I say, spend the time dreaming up the next big thing, because it will happen, and you might just get left behind.
There are a lot of blogs out there that inspire me, I wanted to note one here. If you have some free time, check out http://wheresfreeman.blogspot.com/.