Google Drops the Hammer on Landing Pages

Words Of Wisdom from Perry Marshall this July 17, 2006

Last Week a whole slew of advertisers woke up
and saw their 5, 10 and 25 cent clicks go up to
$5.00 and $10.00.

Reactions to this were typically curses and
statements like "This is totally asinine" and
"Who do these people think they are, totally
screwing up my business and giving me, like,
no explanation whatsoever?"

Welcome to the land of Google, who pretty
much leaves it to others (like me) to explain
to their customers the logic of what they do
and how their system actually works.

I picked up the phone and start comparing notes
with Bryan and some of my coaching members....
Plus we had a Round-table meeting Thursday and Friday.
By Thursday afternoon we'd pretty much cracked the
code on this thing.

I sent a detailed update to Renaissance Club
members on Friday morning, and got even more
confirmations, based on a lot of experimentation.

-->Here's the deal:

If Google thinks that your website in general has
"a lot of content" or "a fair amount of content" then
you probably didn't get whacked.

If Google thinks that your website in general has
"very little content" or "no content" (as defined by
what their bot thinks when it spiders your site),
then they just jack your bids way, way up.

The easiest workaround is just put your landing
page on a different site, i.e. one that has a lot of
articles and stuff on it, and normally they'll accept
your bids. Instantly, if you do it from a different
Google account.

If your landing page has no links on it, which is
generally the best way to make a landing page,
it might also be good to add some. (Not that
those links need to be obvious to the naked eye.)

If your site has no content, then.... you'll need
to add some. Surely this can't be terribly hard!

The overall picture here is that Google wants the
right (paid) side of the page to deliver an experience
more like what they already reward on the left (free)
side of the page. Which, I guess, is a whole bunch
of free information and not asking people to do anything,
like opt-in, register or buy. Google's guidlines say this,
too, BTW.

Now when I'm advertising and paying for the clicks,
I prefer to decide what the visitors get. And you should
too. But at the same time, Google gets to decide what
the rules are and they don't even even have to tell you
what they are.

Hey, at least I told ya. And remember, you can have
plenty of content on your site and still maintain control
of the user experience from the landing page. This you
must do.

--->Is Google Evil?

On this change in particular I've seen a LOT of
people angry about Google's attitude that they
think they own the world.

The reason Google has this attitude is... because
they DO own the world. At least a big part of the
Internet world. Right?

If I were you I would not expect Google to get any
friendlier anytime soon.

What you can expect is that the game will
get more mature with time, that it will be harder
for new people to enter markets easily. And people
who continually sharpen their axe will win big.

Remember this: Every time Google makes a
Big Change, the weak-willed get thrown off the
bucking bronco and the strong become stronger.
You get to decide which you are.

Meanwhile you need to diversify your advertising
strategy (Overture is still important, and MSN is
finally becoming a real player) and you need to focus
on increasing your conversion rates and improving
your sales copy. You need to own the customers
and prospects, not be solely dependent on Google
to bring you new ones.

Renaissance Club members get the inside scoop
faster than everybody else. And if you'd like to get
$500 of bonuses just for taking my $29.95/month
subscription for a test drive, get in on it here:

The Perry Marshall Renaissance Club

Rap soon,

Perry Marshall