If you’re advertising on Google AdWords, you should take a look at your landing pages. Google’s new focus on landing pages in their bid pricing formula has caught a lot of people by surprise.
Make sure that your landing pages have real content that fits both your AdWords ad text and the keywords you’re targetting. There’ve been more than a few posts in Search Engine forums by people who’ve been hit by ‘sticker-shock’. The bid prices they’re now required to pay have gone up as much as 10 times.
Hopefully you were already lining up your landing pages with the rest of your campaigns. If not, do it now. So far neither I nor any of my clients have been hit. I don’t know if that means we’re safe or that the new formula hasn’t been rolled out everywhere.
Lastly, even if you have done all the right things, there is the chance that you could be hit. Since we’re dealing with search engines and a computer-run/automated formula, it’s not a 100% guarantee that doing what’s right will protect you. That’s just how it is in the world of search engines.