What The #@!* Is A Google Slap?

Ok, so just when you thought you had heard every silly Internet term in existence, you’ve suddenly come across the saying “I’ve been Google Slapped!”.

What the blazes is a Google Slap and does it hurt?

Well, a Google Slap happens to almost everyone at some time or another, and like the real thing, you’ve got to learn to take the pain, learn from the experience and simply get on with life. In Internet-marketing speak, a Google Slap is when Google suddenly wants a lot more money for your keyword. The typical scenario is when a keyword that cost 50 cents a click yesterday is suddenly $5 or $10 a click, and the word is “Inactive for Search” until you increase your bid. That, boys and girls, is a Google Slap. It’s extremely annoying, hurts like hell, and burns a hole in your wallet and your traffic flow.

Now, to really understand what is happening, you first have to take a step back from your perceptions of the real world, and try to understand what Google is thinking. You see, Google is constantly trying to improve the search experience because they know that is the absolute primary goal of what Google does and this is what drives the value of Google. Getting Google Slapped is nothing more than what any Internet marketer will face as part of the cycle of improving the search experience. It is Google’s quite explicit way of telling you their system has detected that your keyword may not be contributing to that experience. They know that the best way to alert you to the fact that they are unhappy with that word is by simply increasing the bid to a pain level that will get your attention. You have to admit that increasing your marketing expense by 10x is an attention getter.

Only a core group of Google insiders really know exactly what triggers this process or what the specific algorithms are but we do know what the general rules are. Google calculates a quality score and shows you a very broad, general view of those results. On your keyword detail page you will see the quality score range.

Google does not actually tell you what the quality score is but rather what broad range your score fits into. These levels are: Great, OK, Poor, and Poor + Inactive. Whilst the specific details of this quality score are hidden deep inside Google, what we can tell you is that quality score and organic page position are very closely related and share many of the same evaluation attributes. What that means is if you improve your quality score you almost always improve your search engine optimization. Google uses its algorithms to determine how well a particular keyword connects to the ad copy and the landing page. If Google thinks that your ad contributes to a better search experience then your quality score will be high. If however, if it thinks that your ad detracts from the search experience, then get your cheeks ready for a slapping!

Ok, you’ve had a good slapping from Google. How do I stop the pain? Well, it’s fairly straightforward. You basically have 5 options: improve your quality score, delete the keyword, raise the bid, pause the keyword, or do nothing. Google never points out the pause or do-nothing option but they do exist.

Option 1: Improving the quality score – this requires rethinking the keyword, ad copy, and landing page. In tests that I have performed it seems that the landing page is the source of most of the quality score. But Google is looking at a whole range of criteria (i.e. keyword, ad copy, landing page) so simply changing the page will not fix the problem. Look at the other keywords in the ad group and consider how this keyword fits with them. If the adgroup is just a random bunch of keywords without a theme then you have to reorganize them.

Option 2: Deleting the keyword – This sounds easy to do but many marketers are reluctant to do this, especially if you need the traffic from that word. If the connection to your business for this keyword is weak then deleting it will improve your overall account. However, if the connection of this keyword to your business is strong you have to think very seriously about how you deal with this. Deleting the keyword is therefore probably not your best option.

Option 3: Raising the bid – This is an option but ONLY if the traffic your generating from that keyword is worth the cost Google are charging for it. If you decide that the keyword is worth paying the extra, then you must also really focus on taking the steps to improving your quality score. As mentioned earlier, this is closely linked to your organic position and Google is blatantly telling you that it does not think your page is related to what you think is an important keyword. Unfortunately, in this case, Google is always right. Raising the bid may initially resolve this immediate problem, but you can’t hide from the fact that you are overpaying for that keyword and therefore hurting your organic traffic by treating the symptom rather than the cause. You can be assured that if you have a poor quality score, you will definitely also have a correspondingly poor SEO position for this keyword as well.

One low impact way of dealing with this is to delete the keyword and start a brand new adgroup focused on that keyword. Then connect that keyword to the best supporting landing page for that keyword on your site. If your quality score increases to ‘OK’ or ‘Great’, then the keyword is good for another period of time and you have, for the time being, resolved the issue.

Also, be aware that quality score problems are often caused by adgroups with too many keywords with weak associations between the words. If this is happening, breaking these into smaller more focused ad groups will often fix the problem and at the same time, save you lots of money.

Most Google Adwords accounts have hundreds or even thousands of keywords. Sometimes I will pause some keywords, and over a period of time let the number of paused keywords grow. Once I have established a common theme amongst these keywords, I’ll try to find ways to resolve several keywords in one pass. This saves a lot of time, particularly as is commonly the case, once the first word gets slapped others soon follow. The approach I like to take to resolve this issue is the pause, accumulate, and act strategy. This strategy is quite effective as a sudden increase in the number of poorly performing keywords normally always precedes a Google Slap. It’s very rare that a word goes from a ‘Great’ or ‘Good’ quality score straight to a slap without at least a downgrading of quality to a ‘Poor’ on the way down.

So, in closing, don’t be offended when you get Google Slapped. Consider it a ‘friendly’ warning that you need to pick up your game and improve the search experience of your visitors. Because this is ultimately what Google is trying to achieve and this should be your ultimate goal as well.