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Landing
Page and Site Quality Guidelines
As part of our commitment to making Text Ads more effective
for everyone, here are some site-building guidelines to better
serve our visitors, advertisers and web site owners. We find
that when advertisers' sites reflect these guidelines, two important
things happen:
- The
money you spend on text ads is more likely to result in better
qualified visitors to your site.
- Visitors
come to trust in the positive experience provided after clicking
on text ads (and this results in more targeted leads for
you).
These
guidelines are not hard-and-fast rules. They're not exhaustive
or definitive. But they do reflect the site quality principles
that affect matters like ad approval and quality ratings.
Provide
relevant and substantial content.
If visitors don't find what they expected when they clicked
on your ad, they'll quickly abandon your site in frustration
– and may never return to your site or click on your ads in
future. Here are some guidelines to make sure that doesn't happen:
- Link
to the page on your site that provides the most useful and
accurate information about the product or service in your
ad.
- Ensure
that your landing page is relevant to your ad text and the
visitor's interest and expectations.
- Distinguish
sponsored links from the rest of your site content. Do NOT
present them with a "link farm".
- Provide
information without requiring visitors to register.
Or provide a preview of what users will get by registering
and explain the benefits they'll enjoy.
- In
general, build pages that provide substantial and useful information
to your visitors. If your ad links to a page consisting of
mostly ads or general search results (such as a directory
or catalogue page), provide additional information that will
meet the visitor's expectations from your ad or from the page
prior to clicking on your ad.
- Provide
unique content, not "me too" sameness. It
should not be similar or nearly identical in appearance to
other sites.
Be
up-front about your services and offers and how they are provided.
Starting with your ad, each contact you have with your potential
customers should help you build a trusting relationship. To
avoid leading misleading them:
- Visitors
should easily find what your ad promises.
- Offer
information about your business. Clearly define what your
business is or does. For example, if your business doesn't
actually provide a service but refers clients to another business,
say so clearly.
- Honour
deals and offers promoted in your ad. For example: if you
advertise an offer for a free product or service, users should
not have to jump through hoops or make another purchase in
order to receive the offer.
- Deliver
products, goods and services as promised.
Treat
a visitor's personal information responsibly.
Most internet users are concerned with understanding and controlling
how web sites use their personal information. In order to build
an honest relationship with them, providing clear answers to
these questions on your site is a must:
- Why
are you collecting personal information? (This is especially
important if you collect information soon after a visitor
enters your site.)
- How
will you use, or eventually use, personal information?
- What
options do users have to easily limit the use of their personal
information? Example: If a user could receive promotional
emails from multiple businesses, give the user the option
to decline emails from all businesses, some businesses or
none at all.
Create
an easy-to-navigate site.
The key to turning your visitors into customers (and making
your ads pay their way) is to make it easy for visitors to find
what they're seeking. It's not enough just to arouse their interest.
You need to guide them through the process. Here's how...
- Provide
an easy path for visitors to purchase or receive the product
or offer in your ad.
- Avoid
excessive use of pop-ups, pop-unders and other obtrusive or
distracting elements throughout your site.
- Avoid
altering visitors' browser behaviour or settings (such as
Back button functionality, browser window size) without first
getting their permission.
- Use
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines for more detailed recommendations
(which will help your site perform better in Google’s search
results as well).
- If
your site automatically installs software, consider adopting
Google’s Software Principles.
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