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January 4, 2008

Google AdWords Ads Live While Site is Offline

It really isn't cool when you're busy entering tons of data for Google AdWords and your site goes down. Consequently, Google cannot verify the site and cannot check your landing pages and your quality score probably is not where it could be. That's what happened to a WebmasterWorld members, who writes:

So I check the URL during the ad creation process to make sure it is up and it is but by the time I submit it the URL is down. So since the landing page could not be accessed all the quality scores on the keywords are terrible causing high minimum bids ($5 - $10).

While this is a bit worrisome, I'm sincerely hoping that the guy's website does not go down when people are actively surfing. It wouldn't be cool either if you're paying for clicks and your site is down when the visitors are clicking on ads. I'd think, first and foremost, that focusing on a solid uptime (and decent host) is probably a better investment.

But in any event, a forum member suggest that it may be a good idea to change your landing page destination URL first. If that fails, change the domain name. According to the user, "My understanding is the QS will get updated if the destination URL changes, but am not sure if you have to change the domain too."

If you have any additional feedback and recommendations for the advertiser, you can contribute to the discussion at WebmasterWorld.



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posted Tamar Weinberg in Google AdWords at January 4, 2008 9:59 AM Comments (3)

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Comments

Thanks for this heads-up!

-Joe

 

Posted by Joe Salcedo at January 4, 2008 10:23

Down time issues are usually tied to some changes in the site. Often, the changes are not intented to take down the site, and IT folks will not mention this activity. Unfortunatly, when we ask IT about the site, the response and question comes around 'planned down time.' Instead try to obtain a schedule from IT of when they will be making changes. Most IT groups have well defined times of activity around the production environment. They know well in advance when development work will be pushed.

Then, load camapigns during times of no activity. While it won't stop all the problems, it will eliminate the most likely causes.

 

Posted by steve haar at January 5, 2008 09:43

Owch! That has got to hurt!

I know for sure that I have clicked more than one google adwords ads over the years that did not bring a page up.

I know there was one place recently that had an ad up for a customized product that I had never heard of before. I clicked the ad and the link timed out. I tried to search for the product in the organic listings and it didn't come up at all. I tried the ad later in the day and it still didn't come up.

I gave up on it after two tries because I felt sorry for the company. Wouldn't you know it, the next day it was no longer listed.

Not only did they waste money on ads, but they lost me as a potential customer because I don't recall their domain name any longer. :(

 

Posted by John at January 8, 2008 03:39

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