Landing Page Load Times are Here!!!

[abbottsys]

Just in case you missed this... from Inside AdWords

In early March, we announced that we'd soon incorporate an additional factor into Quality Score, namely landing page load time -- where load time is defined as the amount of time it takes for a user to see the landing page after clicking an ad. Now, we'd like to post with an update.

Starting today, load time evaluations will be displayed on the Keyword Analysis page, for your review. We suggest taking some time to evaluate and understand this information because, starting mid-June, landing page load time will be incorporated into your Quality Score.

Once you've had the chance to review and evaluate this information, you may wish to make changes to improve your landing page load time. People who click your ads may well thank you for it, by becoming your satisfied customer.

To learn more about load time and landing page quality, please see this article in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Blake Wharton, Inside AdWords crew

--
Posted By Inside AdWords crew to Inside AdWords at 5/08/2008 12:35:00 P

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks for spotting that abbottsys. Why does it not surprise me that you were the first person to note it, out of all the forums on which I post?

I had planned to write about it myself, after it had been up for a couple of hours.

Scooped!

I did want to add that the blog post itself has several links that you all might find useful - so it's worth taking a look at it on the Inside AdWords blog itself.

Permalink to this post: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/05/...ilable-on.html


<< Mysterious off-topic comment: That was not me. But I have ridden that Bicycle. Hilarious photoshop on the signage!! >>

AWR

[sem4u]

I can see the logic behind this, but it may affect ads in the publishing world. A lot of the sites I look after load quickly, but I have a few that have quite a few flash adverts (brings in the cash). Will see what happens...

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by AdWordsRep

...I had planned to write about it myself, after it had been up for a couple of hours.

Scooped!

I thought I would post for you, since I figured you were busy out riding your bike

[chris1]

For those looking to see this:
1) navigate to any ad group screen
2) click (or hover over) the magnifying glass to the right of any keyword
3) under Quality Score click "Details and recommendations"

[Discovery]

The title might throw a few off, there is not impact right now, as it says in the body of the post it does not effect ad rankings until June.

I dont quite get it though, why is this done at the KW level?
I understand that you want to eval a few things other than speed together, but you need to break out the page load time eval into another tool.

Give us a place to enter in a URL and see how you rate a landing page for speed. Most advertisers only have 1-50 pages max they could quickly test all pages without digging into every KW.

Note for all you LivePerson Users
Their servers are slow, so if you have their graphic on your webpage to display the Chat service it could slow your page by a second or more. This goes for ALL graphics or elements being served by 3rd parties.

Discovery

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by Discovery

...
I dont quite get it though, why is this done at the KW level?
..Discovery

Because you can change landing pages at the keyword level (use the "Edit Keyword Setting" button). I never do this, but it can be done.

[AdWordsRep]

Because you can change landing pages at the keyword level (use the "Edit Keyword Setting" button). I never do this, but it can be done.

Exactly. Over the years I've seen more than a few advertisers with hundreds or even thousands of landing pages specified at the keyword level.

These are folks that have a large array of items, and want to send a potential customer to the exact right page.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[ Slightly on-topic reminiscence ]

It's funny, but when I used to explain the the value of keyword level URLs to advertisers I always found myself evoking a mental picture of the hardware store/hobby store/electric train store for which I worked back in what seems like another lifetime.

In the basement, it had a huge hobby shop, with a vast selection of plastic models, slot cars, you name it. But it was also quite famous for being one of the biggest electric train stores in the state, with Z scale, N scale, Ho Scale, HoN3 scale, O scale, ON3 Scale and G scale trains of all different brands and price ranges. Hundreds of train books, scenery building supplies, and on and on and on. (I even added dehydrated scale water to the product mix, as kind of a joke - and sold some to amused customers.)

On the main floor, thousand upon thousands of different hardware items (you could even buy nails by the pound.) And household items. And garden items. And paints for all surfaces. And on and on and on.

On the top floor, a vast selection of electrical items.

Talking about this array of tens of thousands of different items in hundreds of different categories was a fun way to explain to advertisers about how to organize using ad groups - and why they might want to send a user to the exact right place within their site with keyword-level URLs.

[/ Slightly on-topic reminiscence ]

AWR

[Discovery]

My point is not that you shouldn’t have it at the keyword level, it is that a tool should also be available to test individual pages so you did not have to use the KW level.

I have not had the opportunity to market for a retailer that would require pumping in trillions of keywords / part and model numbers for thousands of products. I'm sure there are a whole set of challenges that I have not encountered. However, the logical side of me says, the KW level URL is not for individual landing pages but instead for passing variables to the dynamic page so the proper product / section of site is displayed.

So it would be likely in this scenario that you have a few templates that get populated with dynamic data and thus you would only need to enter in the URL of these template pages to test their performance.

I can't help to think that if you have more than 50 individual landing pages then you are not streamlining your efforts enough.

PS: Is there going to be a Hosting Certification “Google Adwords Performance Guarantee”


Discovery

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by Discovery

...PS: Is there going to be a Hosting Certification “Google Adwords Performance Guarantee”
Discovery

Interesting point. Gotta love how Google is dictating more and more of our online presence.
BTW: I use Pingdom to monitor load times. Seems to work fine, and it emails you if any problems occur. I wonder if these guys are beginning to see an upturn in their business, courtesy of Google.

[beu]

I've been playing with yslow trying to narrow down some numerical range for "red", "yellow" and "green". Anyone come up with a range yet?

[AdWordsRep]

I've just quoted several posts from this thread in today's Advertiser Feedback Report - and highlighted your excellent points, Discovery.

Many thanks for the feedback.

AWR