Google AdWord’s Pay Per Click (PPC) Quality Score is a rating system that determines the relevancy of your ads using factors like landing pages, keywords and search query. For those who use AdWords, a good Quality Score can mean better positions and lower cost per click. It’s Google’s way of rewarding quality ads and making it easier to enter the bid auction and get better placements at a lower cost. So how can you improve your PPC Quality Score?

AdWords Quality Score

First, it’s a good idea to check your current PPC Quality Scores to identify which ads need improvement. There are two ways you can view your Quality Score at the keyword level:

Checking the status of an individual keyword:

1. Navigate to a campaign and click on the keywords tab
2. Hover over or click the speech bubble in the status column next to any keyword

Adding a Quality Score Column to your reporting options:

1. Navigate to a campaign and click on the Keywords tab
2. Click on Columns in the toolbar
3. Click Customize columns
4. Select Qual. Score under the Attributes metric
5. Save

Quality Scores in the 7-10 range are ideal. AdWords even gives you an idea of where your ads excel or fall short for three categories: Expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. If your PPC Quality Scores are less than satisfactory, don’t worry! Here are tips to help you make improvements for each category and increase your Quality Scores for PPC:

• Improve Click-Through Rates – If any of your keywords on the Google network are getting less than 1% CTR, you may want to consider pausing or modifying them. Here are a few things you can do to help improve click-through rate:

Try changing your match types to target a more select group. By using exact match or phrase match, you are able to filter out traffic that may not be relevant to your ad.

Modifiers can give you more control than broad match, but don’t restrict your traffic as much as phrase match. Use modifiers as another option for targeting more relevant traffic.

Make your ad copy more appealing by changing the wording and including a strong call to action.

Use dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) to highlight certain keywords in your ad.

• Tighten up Your Themes – Make sure your ad groups are tightly themed by keeping similar keywords in the same ad group to better ensure your keywords match your ads. Create a new ad group for every keyword that doesn’t jive with the rest in the group, and also – if you’re bidding on misspelled keywords, you’ll want to place those in their own ad group as well. Keeping your ad groups organized by theme will not only help improve your quality score but makes it easier to navigate your account and judge performance.

• Sync Your Landing Pages – If your landing page doesn’t correlate with your ad, or the bounce rate is fairly high, that could affect your PPC Quality Score negatively. Make sure your ads relate closely to the pages they land on by using the same verbiage and keywords in your ads that users will also see on the landing page.
  If you have any questions on Quality Scores for PPC or AdWords in general, feel free to contact us!

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth

Today is Google’s 15th birthday and to kick off this milestone, it’s only appropriate that the search giant announces a new algorithm!

This announcement, along with a few others, took place at a sentimental birthday celebration in the garage where it all started.

The new “Hummingbird” algorithm, named for being ‘precise and fast’ is an entirely new algorithm that focuses on conversational queries. While Panda and Penguin were updated to an already existing algorithm, “Hummingbird” is a new algorithm altogether.

Hummingbird has essentially replaced the older algorithm, but it still incorporates some important aspects of the previous algorithm, as well as some new ones. One of the biggest changes is the ability to parse more conversational and complex queries. For example, if you search for ‘places to buy flat screen TVs’ Google will try to decipher the meaning behind your query to come up with results that are more relevant to your location and what you are looking for.

Should I be concerned about my rankings?

While the new algorithm was announced today, it was actually rolled out last month. The change was so seamless that most websites suffered no ill effects. The ‘Hummingbird” algorithm doesn’t indicate any drastic changes for websites but instead offers a more efficient way for individuals to search on the world’s largest search engine.

After 15 years of search, Penguins, Pandas, an overdose on caffeine and now Hummingbird, we can honestly say we’re excited about the future. Happy birthday Google!

If you have any questions about Hummingbird and how your site may be affected, please contact us below.

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth

Google search has taken another step towards social (or should we say Google+) integration with the recent launch of SEO hashtag search.

Now, when you search certain hashtags in Google, you may see a stream of related Google+ posts on the right-hand side of the page. The posts will scroll automatically, but you also have the option to manually scroll with the up and down arrows provided. If you click on any of the posts, you will be directed to a Google+ search splash page for the hashtag you have just searched.

Of course, it’s not social integration without some of the other big social networks. So to play nice and avoid any negative publicity from social media’s biggest players, Google has also added links to other social networks where you can continue your hashtag search.

Currently, this update is being rolled out to English language users in the U.S. and Canada on google.com and google.ca.

What this means for you

To say that hashtags are important is an understatement. SEO hashtag search has been adopted across all of the largest social networks and is now integrated into search itself. This is a big eye opener, as well as a big opportunity for brands.

To increase the chances that your brand posts will show up in searches on the social networks (and now Google!) it is important to:

1. Have a Google+ page

There’s no denying it now, Google+ is a key network since it is so heavily integrated into Google search. Now that hashtags are supported in Google for users who are logged in or not, it is more important than ever for brands to be active on Google+.

2. Use relevant hashtags

Hashtags are like keywords, so use rich, relevant hashtags that you would want associated to with your brand, products or services. In this case, broad is better since it increases the chance that someone is searching for that hashtag.

3. Stay on top of what’s trending

Trending hashtags, while more competitive, have extremely high volumes of searches. If you can utilize trending hashtags and still tie them into your brand message, it can create great opportunities for exposure.

Updates like this stress the importance of social media, and Google+ in particular. It also creates huge opportunities for brands to leverage hashtags for their own advances, so savvy marketers take heed.

If you have any questions about Google hashtag search or how to better leverage hashtags in your social media SEO strategy, contact us.

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth