Google's New Landing Page Quality Score Algorithm

I suspect there'll be a slew of new questions in the AdWords Help groups as Google rolls out its new landing page quality score algorithm. At least they've announced this update. Important points:

• Landing page quality is now relevant to contextual advertising
• Landing page quality evaluation algorithm has been "improved"

I think the contextual advertising change will boost Google's revenue. Most advertisers now have the default settings for ad distribution (Google + Search network + Content network). If they currently have low quality landing pages, their ads might be "inactive for search" but still run on the content network. Now, they'll have to increase their content bids. With all the concern about click fraud, I think Google should worry more about an algorithm to detect the quality of content partner sites. Such an algorithm could block ads from running on low quality sites. Again, though, how is quality determined? That's going to be more difficult to assess on the content network versus the search network.

I'm more concerned about the improvements to the landing page quality evaluation algorithm and how that will impact search ads. The latest Inside AdWords blog post is rather vague stating that "there's no one-size-fits-all approach to best create landing pages. We therefore encourage you to focus on building landing pages that are best for your users, whether they come from AdWords or other sources." How does an algorithm determine what's best for a given advertiser's users? They aren't "users" anyway, they're potential customers. Only a potential customer knows if a landing page is useful for them. Is Google taking automation too far?

BTW, do you like how I've sprinkled some links in this post to the AdWords Help Custom Search Engine? These CSEs definitely are handy.

Technorati tags: google ads, inside adwords blog, landing page, quality score, search engine marketing, contextual advertising, sem, custom search engine