Google AdWords Landing Pages - how to build a page that won’t get banned, with examples
There has been a bit of chat on various forums over the last couple of days about Google AdWords tweaking its landing page algorithm, see here and here.
So with that in mind I thought I would publish a guide on how to create a landing page that will comply with Google’s guidelines. I’ve been marketing online using landing pages and Google AdWords for around 6 years now. Over that time I’ve seen many developments and changes and have been in constant touch with various members of the AdWords team directly. Below are the results of my experiences. They may work for you and they may not, but if you follow them, you should be able to market effectively using landing pages.
First things first though, experience tells me that landing pages are no longer an effective way of marketing on AdWords. So why am I writing this then? I hear you ask. Well, traditional landing pages that contain a few links, a paragraph or 2 of pre-sell text/product reviews are dead and buried. Don’t even try it, Google will catch up with you eventually and raise your bids to silly prices. Take this example of one of my old landing pages, Google banned this about 18 months ago.
If Google thinks the only reason your landing page exists is to funnel users to another site then its a landing page, and they will penalise you accordingly.
Landing pages now have to be incorporated into a fully functioning web site with lots of original content. So yes, you can still market with landing pages but the landing pages must be within the context of a full site. Here’s the rules as I see them:
Your landing page website should contain the following pages as standard:
1. Sitemap - this should be accessible from all pages of your site.
2. Privacy Policy - lots of resources on the web to create one of these, just Google “privacy policy”. If you are in the UK then consider applying for the Data Protection Act. It only costs around £35.
3. Terms and Conditions - as above, here is a good resource.
4. Contact Us - with full physical postal address and telephone number.
5. About Us - description of what the purpose of the website is and the business operating it, i.e. you.
OK now that you have these basic pages, consider adding these pages too:
1. News - add a page where you regularly update with newsworthy stories related to the niche you are promoting.
2. Blog - like a news page but you can also add editorial comments here and opinions.
3. How To or What Is Guide - pages/pages with detailed unique content describing the product/service you are promoting and how they work. I.e. if you have a coupon site then add some pages describing what coupons are and how they work, an idiots guide really.
4. FAQ’s - think of every question related to the product/service you are promoting then list them and answer them here.
5. Glossary - every industry has its own terminology, create an A-Z of industry specific jargon here and define it.
6. Deals/Offer pages - again everyone has specific deals and offers, so list the ones relevant to your product/service on their own page.
7. Individual product/pages - likewise the chances are that your product/service will have different components. I.e. a certain brand of credit card will have a gold card, platinum card, reward card etc. So build pages for each product containing very detailed information, more so that you would find on a traditional landing page.
8. Submit your review - offer your users the opportunity to submit their own product/reviews. Not only does this create stickiness but it gives you free content.
So, you now have the structure of what the site should look like. Now for the landing page, first thing to do is to look at the AdWords guidelines for landing pages, it contains some good advice:
Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful and accurate information about the product or service in your ad.
If your site displays advertising, distinguish sponsored links from the rest of your site content.
Try to provide information without requiring users to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.
In general, build pages that provide substantial and useful information to the end-user. If your landing page consists of mostly ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), you should provide as much information as you can beyond what your ad describes. For example, if your ad mentions <’Free travel information,’ your landing page should feature free travel information (versus links to other sites that do).
You should have unique content (should not be similar or nearly identical in appearance to another site). For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.
So, if you follow my suggestions above and Google’s own advice then you should have the perfect landing page website. As long as you have all of this structure in place then the actual landing page itself shouldn’t present a problem, here’s how to structure it:
1. Create unique product/service reviews for whatever you are promoting. Do not just cut and paste text straight from the merchants site.
2. Include some users reviews on the page too, as well as your own.
3. List some comparable products/services from competitors.
4. List some special offers, unique discount codes on this page. This is perceived as extra value to the visitor.
5. Add some links to other products/services that are related but not the same as you are promoting. So lets say you are promoting Plasma TV’s. Add some links to DVD players, specialist cables, remote controls etc.
Thats it really, as I have said there is no magic formula and the landing page doesn’t have to be that complex. It simply must contain original content and be of value to the visitor. So a landing page with the above 5 elements that is presented within a full site of other original content will withstand the Google AdWords algorithm. Noy only that but you will have actually built a decent quality website that you can maintain and build up with content for years to come. You never know, it could even end up being indexed well with the natural serps so you don’t even have to rely on AdWords for traffic!
Almost forgot, with regard to affiliate links and masking them, my advice is to always mask them. The main reason for this is to avoid certain anti-virus software which has been known to make them invisible. I don’t think it has a major effect on the AdWords algorithm but I would say to mask them, just in case.
Below is a screen shot of my broadband providers site. Despite not containing all of the elements I mentioned above it has been passed by Google and meets all of their landing page guidelines.
I do hope this guide has been useful, please leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or further ideas on how to make a successful landing page for Google AdWords.
What I’m listening to right now: Digital Underground - “Doowutchyalike” - anyone remember this from 1999?
Popularity: 18% [?]
Saturday, June 9th, 2007 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Google AdWords. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 9th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Great article again Kieron. Really good list of what to include.
Interesting that you still call these ‘landing pages’ when they’ve evolved into a fully fledged content site.
How much time do you spend each month on updating a site like that?
June 9th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Hi Stephen, thanks for your comments.
The point of my post was really to say that landing pages as we know them now just aren’t enough to get passed by AdWords. The landing page has to be part of a larger website offering unique content that is of value to the user, otherwise it will be penalised.
Ideally I should be spending a few hours a week updating a site like that, doesn’t always happen though
June 9th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
[...] full article is here, you should read it to understand what each of these elements [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Great post as usual Kieron, i have to agree the days of throwing up 1 page and tweaking to improve CTR is long gone.
June 9th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Do you create the landing pages yourself, if so, what software do you use to create them?
June 9th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
[...] but what choice do we have? Kieron Donoghue has written an excellent guide to landing pages here: http://www.here.org.uk/2007/06/google-adwords-landing-pages-how-to-build-a-page-that-wont-get-banned... It is well worth taking a look [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
New Adwords Affiliate Algo Update - Were you Google Slapped?…
If you got Google slapped you are not alone. Heres a roundup of all the discussions and a great solution. If you do affiliate PPC and use landing pages better log-in to your Adwords account and see what’s up
……
June 9th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Affiliates New Adwords Algo Problems & Solution…
Hope none of you got Google slapped but if you did you are not alone. If you do affiliate PPC and especially if you use landing pages, as that’s what seems to be affected the most in this update, you……
June 10th, 2007 at 1:43 am
[...] has now kindly written an article on his blog about how to create adwords landing pages that won’t get banned. Nice [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 2:47 am
[...] Now on to the big issue if you did get hit by the change… Well here are two Great posts to read that should help, CPA Mini Landing Page Sites and Building a Landing Page. [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Great post. I must confess, all my own landing pages aren’t as good as what you describe here… but they haven’t been affected *yet* and I know exactly what I have to do, so I am working towards it.
I find it amazing that people on the thread you posted to simply don’t want to listen to your advice. If it’s not what they WANT to do, they ain’t gonna go there. Google is wrong, not them. Time for a reality check people. Either shape up to the new regime or ship out.
More room for my ads that way, lol
June 10th, 2007 at 8:07 am
I think this is good advice for any website, although I haven’t bothered doing it on my own sites. BTW, I like the new blog design.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:44 am
nice article indeed!
June 10th, 2007 at 9:22 am
[...] massive thread and checks that he posted in the SitePoint forums long ago, has responded and made a very nice blog post detailing more or less exactly what you should be putting into a landing page to ensure it is [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Great article and great advice
June 10th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Very helpful guide. Something I will very likely use myself and have linked too from my blog also.
I’ll add this blog to my reader.
Josh.
June 10th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Remeber me http://www.here.org.uk/2007/01/nice-suprise-in-my-inbox.html
well google has just slapped £5 a click on all my top keywords
i was spending £7000 a year to make £25000 with google the keywords were only between 0.03p - 0.06p
and i had no compertion
now its goner overnight to say im gutted is a understatement.
looks like im going to have to try and work hard on seo.
and look for a job
sadly its all agency factory work. back to a 40 hour week for peanuts.
im not giving up its just made me realise not to put all your eggs in one basket and put your trust in google
June 10th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Very nice simple guidelines for an effective site you listed, would be great for newbies and experienced people alike to create a template framework for future sites.
June 10th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
[...] will be as handy as ever. Kieron Donoghue over at Here.org.uk has just done a great post entitled Google AdWords Landing Pages - how to build a page that won’t get banned, with examples. Now, like I mentioned before, I do not do PPC at the moment but this is a must read for every [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I have just been “Google Slapped”. Is there a way back by using these guidelines or should I start a new site?
Does Google check for these items on a site using a bot or is it manual?
June 10th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Are they trying to bite off the hand that feeds them, they must earn millions from affiliates and now if they put us out of business or make it hard for us to operate, how are they meant to get our money? I understand that they want people to go directly to what they are searching for, but on spelling mistakes etc. that just may never happen, we help the customer get what they are looking for, google should be in favour of our actvitys.
June 11th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Nice summary Kieron.
Here is a summary i did sometime ago about how to improve your adwords quality score, it maybe of some help:
http://dfinitive.com/blog/ppc/10-easy-ways-to-improve-your-quality-score/
June 11th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Superb article Kieron!
I’ve had a few of my landing pages hit and to be honest they are lacking having an SEO’d site behind them and are pretty much just landing page.
I obviously need to get these now fully owrked on and up to standard, you got any idea on when have sorted them how long till they will be re-checked and bids to sensible price?!
June 11th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
[...] written a great guide about how a landing page, if you can call it that anymore, should be made. Click here to read it. Heres the basic step by step to making one: Your landing page website should contain the following [...]
June 11th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
[...] enough I just blogged about this. Let me know what you think. Cheers!! __________________ Play Poker Online | Read my blog here [...]
June 11th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Wardy, if you have an account manager at AdWords just call them and they will get them reviewed in a couple of hours. Even if you don’t still call up and hassle them to review your site, they will
June 12th, 2007 at 1:33 am
I wrote up a case study you might be interested in here:
http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/10-ways-to-increase-your-adwords-quality-score-a-mini-case-study/
June 12th, 2007 at 5:27 am
[...] the Google test. The person mentioned a lot of good tips. You can read Keiron’s full article here. Some I felt were unecessary, as many of my campaigns did not include some components of the [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Kieron,
do you think single page websites are dead and buried as far as Adwords is concerned? I notice that some of your own sites are quite sparse in terms of their content eg. http://www.mothersday-flowers.org.uk/
Are you able to run PPC campaigns for these sites?
June 12th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Dazza, I ran a campaign for that site earlier this year and it worked fine. However it would probably get banned if I was to try it again now. But like everything with Google there will be sites that slip through the net and may last a while before getting banned. My advice is to follow the steps I outlined above and plan for the long term.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
[...] Read this post about google adwords monetization [...]
June 13th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Nice article. I must say that as much as I am annoyed at Google’s interference, I am much more tired of going to MFA sites that offer absolutely no useful content. I will not be sorry to see them go. I will also not be sorry to see sites with small articles that aren’t even human readable because they are so keyword stuffed. Enough of this crap. Put up a good website, spend some time researching, email your list when you have new news(weekly or so) and you will do well and provide a service to the community.
Best Regards,
TomG. - CEO, TMG Computers, Inc.
June 15th, 2007 at 12:23 am
[...] Donoghue has a magnificent post up both on his Blog and at the Digital Point forum wherein he makes a valiant attempt to explain the workings of [...]
June 15th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Kieron,
Congrats on this article.
This is a great summary of landing pages how to.
One quick comment though, the landing pages guidelines change by language, and while your article is correct for English, I know that some parts of this are not checked for Hebrew landing pages at all.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Great post and I’m now applying your suggestions. Will see how it goes. Thanks!
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:19 am
Hi Kieron
Just would like to ask what would be the effect if we were to include some of the standard items listed above? Would google approve it?
Thanks
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:42 am
Goh - yes they should do but chances are that without all the elements I listed then you will get banned pretty quick.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
Just to update, on a coupel of my sites that were banned I did complete change and phoned up for re-review but got a negative response back.
What I have done now is to leave one of the sites as it is on the same domain with all the new content and see if it does naturally get re-reviewed and then on another site I have re=-created it with all the new content on a new domain. Currently the site on the new domain is getting listed but will be interesing to see if the one left on the original domain recovers or not.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:50 am
[...] Page Found this blog, thought it may be useful for those who intend to start their adword campaign. __________________ [...]
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:51 am
Thanks for your quick reply.
July 5th, 2007 at 7:25 am
This is some very good advice you’ve provided here. Thanks ALOT for this as this post has given me quite a handful of ideas to increase my quality score.
July 8th, 2007 at 4:31 am
Google is overstepping its mark by trying to build the web in its image. And an inconsistent image at that.
If I search for a product I don’t want to delve through pages of padded out trash made to please Google. I know what I want, just show me the damn product & the price.
What next, fluffed 3 pages of content to sell a tap washer? All to please Google. No thanks.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:58 am
[...] couple of weeks ago I blogged on how to build landing pages/sites that will pass all of Google’s quality score [...]
July 10th, 2007 at 5:47 am
This post was very helpful. I did have a lot of out-dated information on creating landing sites but just hadn’t tried it yet. Thanks for the info.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:05 am
great article! my one question is, what are the chances of the google police actually finding your landing page? Is there a monetary trigger for the adsense folks look into who is making all this money?
July 31st, 2007 at 12:07 pm
[...] Google AdWords Landing Pages - how to build a page that won’t get banned, with examples [...]
September 1st, 2007 at 12:59 am
[...] mate. To be brutally honest there isn’t much you can do quickly to get it back. Follow my steps here and basically build a bigger better site. __________________ Bingo | Poker | Credit Cards | Toys [...]
September 5th, 2007 at 7:17 am
[...] issues and move forward. Nobody can tell you about that better that Kieron in his article about creating iron clad Google Adwords Landing pages. It’s really, really important not to stick your head in the sand when you hear them [...]
September 5th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
What if I use a page within my blog as a landing page?
Will that work?
Is still better to have a separate website for each affiliate campaign?
Thanks for the advice.
Francesco
September 10th, 2007 at 3:01 am
Hi Kieron,
Good post. I think Google would be pleased this sort of discussion is going on. If landing pages need to be ‘real pages’ then that is a good thing for the Internet in general.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Hello
Very interesting information! Thanks!
Bye
September 28th, 2007 at 5:36 am
This is probably a stupid question. I’m not an affiliate marketer, and I’m just getting started using adwords. Can’t an affiliate just put in their affiliate link into the ad rather than use a landing page? What is the point of a landing page?
October 14th, 2007 at 9:37 am
do you suggest just throwing up a CMS system? Seems like the easiest way to go. Use drupal or something similar. Can get what you’re up describing up in a matter of minutes other then the unique content. Ugh I hate making unique content
Also are you testing stuff before you put up a site of this capacity? Seems like a lot of work to put in for a niche you don’t know is going to convert or not.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:03 am
[...] of the Google Adwords Landing Page Algo and need to work out exactly how to build those killer Landing Pages Google won’t assign to Google-Slap oblivion as soon as your local friendly Adwords Robot pays [...]
October 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Applying the landing page commandments right away…
Vijay
CodeSaint