Google AdWords Judging System Changes
Google recently announced (Sept. 16, 2008) that they would have a new judging system for AdWords. AdWords of course, is their PPC (Pay Per Click) system that generates them billions in annual revenue.
Google changed the way they calculate the Quality Score and that they will analyze the landing page less frequently then before. They are also opening up ALL keywords for bidding, whereas in the past they restricted it to more “active” keywords.
The most significant change was that they are now replacing what used to be “minimum bid” prices, with “first page bid estimates” which will likely result in higher prices as lack of clarity on bid position and will “force” uneducated bidders to run the bids up.
It will take some time to see the impact as advertisers absorb the changes. However, this is an example of how Google is squeezing everything it can out of PPC. PPC is a great tool to generate traffic to your web site, but only a few businesses can make it. These changes will make it even harder.