The problem is it seems certain sites are hit while similar sites are not and Google’s lack of clarity can lead to conspiracy theories and more. I understand the broader aim but Google appears to be stomping out the little guys which helped build it’s business while giving big spenders like ebay a free ride. “User Experience” can just be a catch-all for whatever policy they want to enforce which just leads to frustration. Clear guidelines would help because at least a marketer would know where they stand when suddenly their business was yanked out from under their feet.

The problem is it seems certain sites are hit while similar sites are not and Google’s lack of clarity can lead to conspiracy theories and more. I understand the broader aim but Google appears to be stomping out the little guys which helped build it’s business while giving big spenders like ebay a free ride. “User Experience” can just be a catch-all for whatever policy they want to enforce which just leads to frustration. Clear guidelines would help because at least a marketer would know where they stand when suddenly their business was yanked out from under their feet.

I think the end result will be that people focus on smaller campaigns, which are more manageable for them, and conduct a lot more web analytics with products like Urchin.

The main impact of this landing page quality score was on Click Arbitrage sites, and these have largely been dealt with.

We need to understand that Google deals with problems of quality by writing algorithms. Sometimes the law of unintended consequences take place. These algorithms are by design, meant to remove a certain “genre” of sites, but given the way it is written, it always has a further reaching effect.

Google does not want to deal with quality issues manually - it’s not scaleable for them.

As an aside, our company has been largely left unaffected by the changes - in fact our revenues are up this month, given our focus on relevancy - even with the 20m+ keywords that we are currently bidding on Google.

I think the end result will be that people focus on smaller campaigns, which are more manageable for them, and conduct a lot more web analytics with products like Urchin.

The main impact of this landing page quality score was on Click Arbitrage sites, and these have largely been dealt with.

We need to understand that Google deals with problems of quality by writing algorithms. Sometimes the law of unintended consequences take place. These algorithms are by design, meant to remove a certain “genre” of sites, but given the way it is written, it always has a further reaching effect.

Google does not want to deal with quality issues manually - it’s not scaleable for them.

As an aside, our company has been largely left unaffected by the changes - in fact our revenues are up this month, given our focus on relevancy - even with the 20m+ keywords that we are currently bidding on Google.

i agree completely with you on Google’s intentions with this move. although i am starting to see problems with their execution, as usual. too often they are throwing the baby out with the bath water. i think that many mom and pop advertisers won’t have the resources to obtain the guidance needed to adjust their campaigns properly. i posted adwords screenshots from a brick and mortar real business on my site as an example. they’re not arbitrage or affiliate focused. anyhow, from what we’re seeing most of the fundamentals to counteract the quality score changes are similar to basic seo fundamentals. i don’t think search agencies will go under from this, i just think they’ll be more important than ever.

jeff

i agree completely with you on Google’s intentions with this move. although i am starting to see problems with their execution, as usual. too often they are throwing the baby out with the bath water. i think that many mom and pop advertisers won’t have the resources to obtain the guidance needed to adjust their campaigns properly. i posted adwords screenshots from a brick and mortar real business on my site as an example. they’re not arbitrage or affiliate focused. anyhow, from what we’re seeing most of the fundamentals to counteract the quality score changes are similar to basic seo fundamentals. i don’t think search agencies will go under from this, i just think they’ll be more important than ever.

jeff