Google’s AdRank Blurs the Line Between PPC and SEO
It may seem like a discussion of paid advertising is outside the realm of “SEO for Law Firms“… after all, paid advertising is, by definition, the opposite of “natural” search engine optimization. But Google’s AdRank rating system (along with the “AdsBot” content crawler accompanying it) has brought good SEO practices to bear upon the success of your PPC program, blurring the lines between the two types of campaigns.
When placing a paid ad in Google’s sponsored search program, advertisers enter a maximum cost per click (CPC) they’re willing to pay. In this auction-style ad market, one would think the firm willing to pay the most for a click gets to the top of the paid advertiser listings… not necessarily true! An ad’s ranking among the other paid placement ads is determined not only by the max CPC bid for a term, but also by what Google calls the Quality Score (”QS”) of the ad. The Quality Score takes into account “factors such as an ad’s relevancy and click-through rate (CTR) (i.e. how likely users are to click on a given ad)“. This is Google’s way of making sure their users get the best results for their click… Finally, max CPC and the Quality Score come together to result in the “AdRank” of your advertisement: Highest Quality Score * highest CPC = highest AdRank. In turn, ads with the highest AdRank get the top placements within Google’s sponsored search results. As Google says,
“An ad’s position is based on its Ad Rank, which is determined by your keyword or Ad Group’s maximum cost-per-click (CPC) times the matched keyword’s Quality Score.“
So we’ve learned that your ad copy and past success impacts your ad’s placement… This isn’t new news so what’s the big deal? How does natural SEO impact this formula? Take into account Google’s December announcement hyping up their landing page content analysis and recent buzz about their “AdsBot” crawler and it paints a new picture of how paid ads are ranked. They state,
“To further improve program quality, our system will soon visit and evaluate all landing pages specified in AdWords ads. The quality information collected will affect AdWords account performance in the future.“
Google’s AdRank is to be increasingly influenced by the quality of the content on the ad’s landing page, not just within the ad itself. In other words, the AdsBot crawls your landing page and “interprets” the content it finds there (perhaps using the same technology they use to target AdSense content network ads already). Hypothetically, if this system judges landing page content to be irrelevant or poorly developed, the ad’s overall AdRank will suffer, lowering its place within sponsored search results. Exactly how much lower is yet to be seen but one message is clear: content development and on-page SEO factors like keyword placement (formerly in the realm of only natural SEO) are crossing over to influence paid advertising. Just as many are ready to proclaim that traditional SEO is dead, the quest for more targeted paid advertising has revived the value of SEO efforts. Pretty cool stuff!
In summary, the addition of the AdsBot to Google’s AdRank formula means quality, targeted content rises to the top of the listings, whether they’re natural or paid. Good job Google!
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Technorati Tags: paid advertising, SEO for Law Firms, Google’s AdRank, AdsBot, PPC program, sponsored search, paid placement, Quality Score, natural SEO, “AdsBot” crawler, Google adsense, AdRank, Google AdsBot, PPC advertising, website conversion rate, client development, max CPC
