I don’t really see how it could be true, but I found an interesting topic in our forum where Tom Hale, a local Portland PPC expert and SEMpdx member said this –
“…I have a hunch best practices for Page Rank may have a relationship to best practices for Quality Score…”
and I’ve got to say I’d be surprised. Tom also first points out that Google’s answer would be “no” and that was my initial answer too, but I’m really not so sure… Read the thread
Has anyone else suspected this before, or seen any evidence of it? I’m not saying Tom’s wrong, not at all, and in fact I’m wondering aloud if he may be right?
What else might explain the screwy Quality Score? I’ve seen some total Bulls*** high prices required for zero and low competition keywords, and that’s WITH with decent landing pages. However, they had the misfortune of being on brand new domains, so prices are inexplicably high. What’s that all about?
I don’t have anywhere near enough data to know for sure, nor do I have the time or energy to sift through it if I did. I’m looking now at the PR of some landing pages that got dinged with ridiculous bid amounts, and can’t tell anything other than “this sucks”.
Anyway, I also doubt it because otherwise it would seriously affect multivariate testing, A/B testing etc. wouldn’t it?
As landing pages are tweaked and tested on new url’s, then your best converting offers might be the newest pages, with no links, i.e. no Google PR.
If Google PR were a determining factor for Quality Score (i.e. how much Google charges per click), then that might be considered evil… 😉
Scott Hendison is the CEO of Search Commander, Inc. and a recovering affiliate marketer. He is also one of the founding board members of SEMpdx. Find out more about him at his website, SearchCommander.com.
I may have been a bit sloppy here Scott, First of all being a PPC guy, as opposed to an SEO guy, I do not even know what the current state of Page Rank is. Other than some indication of search juice.
Second I have no reason to think Page Rank is in fact a hard factor in determining Quality Score. The point I was trying to make is that Search Best Practices tend to cross pollinate.
Don’t you thing more concise, targeted, informative, easily navigated website content benefits Page Rank, Quality Score, link-building and overall Search Juju? My point was more, don’t worry about Page Rank or Quality Score. Incorporate general Search Best Practices and all that extraneous mystery stuff falls into place.
-T
Tom Hale
Internet Strategist – AdWords Specialist
https://ThomasCreekConcepts.com/
https://forum.sempdx.org/
I don’t think you were sloppy at all, and you made me think!
I believe you just said what many silently suspect – and I’m sure not calling you out on this, Tom, in fact I’m more suspicious now than an a hour ago!
As a PPC guy, doesn’t it seem like there’s no rhyme or reason sometimes for outrageous charges forced by the QC?
Anyway, speculations fun, but doesn’t pay the bills today – i’m up against the clock, and likely wont answer again for a day or so…
“As a PPC guy, doesn’t it seem like there’s no rhyme or reason sometimes for outrageous charges forced by the QC?”
It certainly does seem that way sometimes, but I also have a healthy respect for the enormity of the problem.
Here is the problem as I see it, how do you maintain the integrity of the model? How do you keep bad players from buying up all the prime search real estate in a reckless attempt at short term profit while the PPC model goes in the toilet?
If the searchers are not finding what they are looking for when they click on those ads the whole thing slowly dies. Simple “market forces” are not enough. Too many new players doing too many ignorant things. By the time they all go broke and washout, so may the PPC model because searchers will have no confidence that ads will take them to a place where they are looking to go.
So we need Quality Score. How does a Search Engine determine what site deserves a Quality nod over another, I guess that is the crux of Search Engine Marketing in a nutshell.
for a related(but dated)piece:
https://www.thomascreekconcepts.com/adwords-strategy/adwords-quality-score-what-beginners-need-to-know
I ask prospects, what makes you think you deserve that prime real estate? Willingness to bid your brains out is not enough.
I trust Google understands what is at stake and is attacking the problem with ingenuity and integrity, but they have a long way to go. So I agree, at times, Quality Score makes no sense. I also think it can be more transparent, without giving too much away to gamers, cheats, the black-hat crowd.
Search Best Practices are basic, give the searcher what they want, how they want it, when they want it. Determining what “that” is, and how to implement that determination, is where the fun, and the competitive edge, comes in.
Quality Score, Page Rank and the ilk can be real red herrings, focus on the searcher’s quest.
But like you say Scott, the grindstone calls, back to work 😉
-T
Tom Hale
Internet Strategist – AdWords Specialist
https://ThomasCreekConcepts.com/
https://forum.sempdx.org/
Well put, Tom 😉
Hi guys this is quite interesting.I am still new to the web world so I would appreciate if someone could give me a few tips on improving my PR.Thanx
“Improving your PR” can only be done by obtaining links from other sites with PR, and that way some of their “link juice” (PageRank) filters into your site through the link.
I am wondering this right now.
My logic would be that they might include PR in the QS algorythm, but I have seen no one prepared to confirm this…