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Want a quality score of 10? Here's an easy way to do it. On Search Engine Watch forums, abbotsys explains the procedure that was attempted.
Take a 2 word keyphrase (e.g. word1 word2). Register a domain with word1word2 in the name, like word1word2.com. Build a simple page for the domain with word1 and word2 in the title tag. In the actual content, talk all about word1 and word2. When abbotsys says simple, he means it: there are no ads, no navigation, and absolutely no links.
Run that page as the landing page for the keyphrase with word1 and word2.
What happened next? Google gave abbotsys a 10/10 quality score and the ad cost a mere $0.01 per click!
Will that perfect quality score last forever? The next step is to see whether the quality score of the landing page, with zero incoming links, will be reduced over time.
Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.
Comments:
tony
09/17/2008 04:32 pm
Ha! Piece of cake if you are "putting the cart before the horse" but try beating this. In my adwords campaign I have a single word, broad match, keyword that is the niche brand I sell and appears all over my site, in the file names, urls, alt tags, you name it. I have another two word, broad match, keyword that couples that same word with another name that <em>does not appear anywhere</em> on the site (does not even exist in any file on the server!) and is not used in any of my adverts. In fact, it has nothing whatsoever to do with my site. (And, btw, it is not even a common associative phrase, e.g. Ford Mustang.) What are their quality scores? Yep, the single word scores 8/10 and the second scores 10/10!
tony
09/17/2008 10:58 pm
P.S. Forgot to say the 8/10 QS keyword costs me £0.02 and the 10/10 costs between £0.20 and £0.50 depending on the weather - or something equally esoteric since I have yet to make any sense of the way it jumps around. So, I guess the question then becomes, who needs 10/10 QS keywords anyway? Certainly, it seems, they may not be worth "busting a gut" over
Federico
09/18/2008 08:03 am
Nice experiment, and quite educational indeed, so you know how the quality score algorithm works, but my question is: what is the use of a landing page without any link in it? if this is the way to get a perfect 10/10, I guess that none will actually reach it
tony
09/18/2008 11:42 am
If anybody does know how the QS algo works perhaps they could explain why a correctly spelled keyword (as it appears all over my site) is only rated "OK" but a misspelling that appears nowhere is rated "great"?
Nick
09/18/2008 06:32 pm
Maybe that works for a 2 word phrase, but for single words that match the TLD this rarely works. Seems like others have had the same experience. I've had plenty of disputes with Google reps of all levels over this and never gotten a clear anwser...mostly because they have no clue what really goes on in the Google dungeon. The experiment seems dated already...who knows what's going to happen with the new Google QS rollout?
dan
10/18/2008 04:33 am
While your tactics are sound, you can't discuss a quality score without revealing the keyword. Since the CPC bid affects the quality score, you may be able to get 8/10 or 10/10 in keywords with little competition. But for competitive keywords, 6/10 or 7/10 is good. Google even tells me to "keep it up" with 6/10. So the answer to Tony is that the misspelling has no competition and he able to get a better quality score for his CPC.
Chris Pallé
10/25/2008 02:21 am
Maybe I'm missing something here, but why would I want a page that has zero interactivity or connectedness?
C Smith
11/09/2008 05:02 am
Our quality score is 7/10 which Google says is good. But for ad showing it says "Although your ad is showing, its rank is not high enough to place it on the first page of search results." The key word is 'craft ideas' and the site is http://www.favecrafts.com/Christmas-Crafts - - can some one help me understand and explain. Thanks!
Sahaj
11/21/2008 02:57 am
Hi Good that you got a 10/10. But did the score go down or stay the same. Also i have written about quality score <a href="http://www.pitstopmedia.com/sem/google-refines-quality-score">Google Quality Score</a> Take a look and please let me know what you think.
TraiaN
12/02/2008 08:25 pm
@ C Smith - Quality Score doesn't necessarily translates into top positions. There are other factors like how many competitors and their actual bid.
Florence
12/22/2008 12:38 pm
Many thanks for the mention !
No Name
01/26/2010 05:51 am
How will a Google Quality score of 3 affect the rest of my campaign? Is it going to drag it down?
Mellowkilo
08/07/2011 10:01 pm
It will most likely affect the cost. The lower the Quality Score, the higher the CPC.
Greg Hyne
10/10/2011 08:03 am
Unless you have landing page issues, by far and away the most important factor is relative CTR. Relative that is to other advertisers bidding on that keyword.