I’m often asked things like the following about Quality Score in Google Ads.
- Can you SEO our landing page so it improves the quality score in Google Ads?
- We optimized our site, so why isn’t our quality score better?
SEO Does Not Fix Quality Scores
While optimizing a page for organic search can have the side effect of improving the quality score for specific keywords it does not necessarily mean it will be good for all keywords. Or that it will help at all.
Many people seem to get this confused, but SEO or search engine optimization and Google Ads Quality Score are different things. I guess people are actually confused with the idea of optimization.
optimization (noun)
op·ti·mi·za·
tion | \ ˌäp-tə-mə-ˈzā-shən: an act, process, or methodology of making something (such as a design, system, or decision) as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible
To be truly masterful at Paid Search management and improving Quality Score, you need to optimize the whole system. Landing page optimization is only one part of the system. There are several factors that need to be taken into account when looking at the Paid Search campaigns.
Optimize the Whole System
- Keywords – Choosing the best keywords and match types for the thing or topic you are promoting.
- Keyword organization – I.e. Adgroups with similar keywords. This means you need to careful group keywords so that they are very similar in theme.
- Ad Text – Is the ad relevant. If someone is searching for cat food, does your ad copy provide a solution or answer the question that the searcher has.
- Page Relevance – The page is relevant to what the person searched for and it provides a good experience. The copy is clear it helps them accomplish what they are looking to do.
- Metrics are talked about less and are often less clear
- Click through rate – What is the ration of views of your ads and the number of people that clicked?
- Overall account quality – Do you have a bunch of bad campaigns and ads in your account? Or do you have hi quality campaigns that perform well?
- Historical performance – Has your account performed well in the past
of do you have a history of bad campaigns/
Quality Score is About the System as a Whole
In the end, optimizing Quality Score is really about optimizing your Paid Search campaigns as a system. Not just a quick fix to your landing pages.
Does the path from keyword -> to Ad copy -> to the Landing Page all line up an create a good experience for searchers? The better you can align this, the better your Quality Score will be.
