In case you missed it, on the Google blog Thursday, and inside Adwords crew member named Vivian posted that Google (NSDQ:GOOG) is about to change the way they measure the Quality Score by starting to include the load time of landing pages.
The measurement will be how long it takes a landing page to load after clicking the ad.
Here are the two reason given for implementing the changes:
"First, users have the best experience when they don't have to wait a long time for landing pages to load. Interstitial pages, multiple redirects, excessively slow servers, and other things that can increase load times only keep users from getting what they want: information about your business. Second, users are more likely to abandon landing pages that load slowly, which can hurt your conversion rate."
The blog said that sometime in the next couple weeks, they'll be adding the load time measurements to the Keyword Analysis page. Once that happens, webmasters will have a month to make the changes needed to keep their Quality Scores from dropping.
While other factors concerning Quality Scores will be retained, the blog post said slow landing pages could definitely make an negative impact on your Score, and could result in lower Quality Scores and higher minimum bids.
Information Week said they received an email from Google saying "that Quality Scores are relevant only for advertisers and do not influence organic search placement."
There's no doubt that we need to revisit the loading time of our landing pages and make sure they're not too large.
Other suggestions from Information Week were to "consider include using fewer redirects and smaller images, giving up interstitial pages, and reducing the use of iFrames, which bring in content from elsewhere." Good advice to follow.
We may have to even take a serious look at our hosting company and the type of servers they have. If they're too slow, it could make a negative impact on our Quality Score as well.
The griping has already started concerning the changes, but it's going to happen whether we like it or not. We need to take action and adapt, rather than just wasting time ranting about it. It's Google, they're going to do what they want.
To get more information on the coming change, go to the Adwords Help Center and read this article.
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