Recently, many users of Google AdWords have been shocked to find their price per click increase dramatically or find their ads dropping back into third or fourth page in the results. Yet this is not necessarily all bad news.


To followers of Google's progress recent events have not come as any surprise, as Google's intentions were well trailed last December. Specifically, they are targeting certain types of landing pages to which searchers are taken when they click on one of Google's AdWord advertisements.

Google AdWords are those small classified adverts you see on the right hand side of the page, when you use the Google search engine. Sometimes more "sponsored links" appear at the very top of the page. You will also come across Google AdWords, when visiting one of the thousands of Google's webmaster partners, who host AdWords on their web sites, under AdWords's sister program, AdSense.

Google has come from nowhere to set new standards of internet search quality in just seven years by strict adherence to its core values. Their success, founded on their twin mantras of "quality and "relevance", is a master class on the proposition that excellence is good business.

Once you understand these twin objectives, you begin to see the rational behind Google's recent actions and also draw valuable lessons from which your own web sites can profit.

These are the types of landing pages being targeted:

Squeeze pages: so called because they squeeze the name and address out of the visitor, who is obliged to type these details into the landing page before they are even permitted to view the contents of the web site.

Mini sites: these consist of just a single page sales letter.

AdSense only sites: due to the booming popularity of Google's own AdSense campaign, many web sites have been created purely to take advantage of the prospect of a "fire and forget" income these virtual shopping malls offer.

Some operators even set up so called "arbitrage web sites" profiting from the difference between the cost of the AdWord traffic and the income generated by the AdSense advertisements on the site. The profit thus generated by these hollow web sites is then multiplied by the ease with which hundreds -- even thousands -- of sites can be created with web site generating software.

Affiliate sites: some can be little more than a redirect, where the AdWords visitor is bounced from the landing page, via an affiliate link, straight to the actual provider of the product or service.

The common thread of all these types of landing pages is the arid experience they provide for the visitor. Judge for yourself, by putting yourself in the position of the visitor.

They come to a search engine because they are looking for a solution to a problem. They see an AdWord on Google with a tempting headline, that seems to fit the bill perfectly, and so they click on it.

Then -- instead of the information they expected -- their name and address is demanded by the squeeze page, almost in the manner of a highwayman, before they can follow up the promise of the advertisement's headline. Worse still, is their experience on the, so called, "arbitrage sites", where they end up on a unedifying merry-go-round of clicking one AdWord box after another!

It is that poor customer experience Google seeks to eliminate, not least because it reflects on the reputation of their search engine and AdWords program.

The irony is, Google are actually doing the squeeze page advertiser a big, big favor.

Why is that?

Here are some figures I have on conversion rates for squeeze pages:

Of visitors referred to a site (via affiliate's personal recommendation), 51% give name and address and 49% logged off, unrecorded.

Of visitors arriving from an organic search of search engine or directory, 39% gave name and address and 61% logged off.

Of visitors arriving via a pay per click advertising, only 18% gave name and address and a full 82% logged off.

As you can see from these bald figures, having a pay per click and squeeze page combo is a very bad idea anyway! So Google is actually doing those advertisers a favor by making them rethink their marketing approach. You also notice, when visitors come to the site with some prior knowledge -- even if only on an affiliate's recommendation -- their response is to be nearly three times better, even when faced with a squeeze page.

In fact, when visitors come to my site, having read an article of mine first, and are then faced with a squeeze page, over 70% of them are happy to enter their details.

What conclusions can we draw? This: just like going on a blind date, a visitor needs to know a bit about you before they will commit themselves.

So if you intend to use AdWords successfully, you must bring your visitors to a visitor friendly landing page, with some content (not an in-your-face sales page) that immediately chimes with the promise of the advertisement they have just clicked.

Take this simple step and your visitor will be pleased they've found what they were seeking and will be far less likely to leave your site. You too will be delighted with the increased response, when you eventually invite your visitor to give you their details.

And, on top of that, Google will reward you for becoming imbued with the Google ethos of providing relevant, quality content and the internet will take another tiny step up that long staircase to quality heaven.

Copyright 2006 Paul Hooper-Kelly and InternetMarketingMagician.com

Paul Hooper-Kelly owns http://www.InternetMarketingMagician.com/ helping people achieve their dream lifestyle by creating automated websites that provide passive incomes.