MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

Two questions that I frequently get from new AdWords customers are:

1) Why did I get slapped by Google?

2) How do I recover from a Google Slap?

The answers two both questions are actually quite simple:

Why did I get slapped by Google?

Here are the top 4 reasons why people get slapped by Google

Google Slap 1: The content on your page was not related to the keyword that you were bidding on.  This is a huge no no which will hurt your Quality Score and you will most likely get slapped by Google.

Solution: Make sure that the content on your landing page matches the keywords you are bidding on.

Google Slap 2: The landing page is a squeeze page and does not link to other web pages.

Solution: In the footer, have at least a couple of links to other sites (on the same domain or other domains).  Google frowns upon pure squeeze pages and will slap you if that is what you do.

Google Slap 3: The landing page is full of beautiful graphics but not enough text.

Solution: The Google bot cannot read text that is part of an image file so make sure that all of your copy is in text form.

Google Slap 4: The Ad Groups are not targeted.  In other words, you have Ad Groups with many different keywords.

Solution: Break up your Ad Groups into highly targeted Ad Groups

You might say… great… thanks for the tips but what do I do now that I have already gotten slapped by Google?

Remember, the moment you launch a new campaign and a new Ad Group Google will actually have someone manually review your page so if it does not follow all of the above guidelines you are most likely going to get slapped again!

How to recover from a Google Slap?

First, implement all of the suggestions above and then follow these steps.

First try: Delete the campaign and copy and paste all of the Ad Groups into a brand new campaign.  It is MUCH easier to start over than to revive a campaign that got slapped.

Second try: If you get slapped again, make sure to weed out all of the keywords that got slapped and then delete the campaign and launch it again.

Third try: Get a new AdWords account.  Sometimes your account just might have gotten slapped so many times that it is easier to start fresh with a brand new account.

Fourth try: When all else fails, buy a new domain and grab a new AdWords account. 

NOTE: I have only had to implement the above 3 steps.  So far, I have never had to buy a new domain to have success with Google AdWords. 

Want to learn more about AdWords?

Check out:

Secret AdWords Strategies Revealed

Learn How to Steal Your Competitors Winning Ads

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike

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