Google Charges More for Poor Quality Landing Pages

As Josh pointed out last year, when users click on a link in a search engine, such as Google, the page they end up on is likely not to be the site’s home page.

Users are finding, in many instances, sponsored links (such as Google’s AdWords) don’t actually bring you to a page that has the information you want. When users encounter these links, they lose their confidence in the mechanism and stop paying attention to the ads.

That’s why it’s in the best interest of the folks selling the ad placements to ensure the advertised links actually deliver on their promise.

To this end, Google has upgraded their pricing policy to charge more when the landing page quality is poor. Advertisers who direct users to pages with little or no relevant information are penalized for doing so. Interesting move on Google’s part.