So, after playing with Google Adwords for quite a while now I found that I was getting low quality scores assigned when a landing page contained too many images and when the ratio text to image was equal or less (less=less text compared to the images and how much space they used). As you probably know Google assigns a quality score to each keyword when bidding on Google.com with Adwords. The better the keyword matches the topic, the URL, and the landing page, the higher the quality score will be and the lower your minimum bids will turn out. If a website is mainly made out of images Google has difficulties determine the quality score and results are usually negative for the advertiser. The more text enriched with the right keywords is on a landing page, the better the quality score rating. I did a lot of testing lately with different versions of my landing pages and noticed that if the page content (especially the part above the fold) contains more images than text that the quality scores were always lower and the minimum bids were higher accordingly. As a test I build 2 landing pages. They both had the same amount of text, but on one I added a large, descriptive image – above the fold. Even though that landing page contained the same text as the other page, the quality scores dropped from “great” to “good” across the board. The minimum bids went from $0.05 on average to $0.15 or higher. It did not help to use proper ALT tags with matching product keywords.

I think that’s where Google needs to improve the ratings. The landing page was extremely targeted and the image improved visibility of the product I was promoting significantly. It does not make sense that the same keywords now are rated differently and that I would have to pay more per click even though several people confirmed that the page with the image looked more appealing. Well, there is not much I can do about it, but it helps me to plan my landing page design accordingly. Here is my future approach: The area above the fold has to be 1/3 images and 2/3 text. The area below the fold has to be 50% text or more and only a smaller place for product images. Following this rule of thumb combined with keyword enriched links and dynamic keyword insertion into ads great quality score ratings should be the norm and not the exception.

What is your experience with landing pages and Google Adwords Quality Scores?