What really changed? I thought you display url was supposed to already match the final destination url in the first place. When I first read the news, I thought they were going to get rid of redirects. So was google letting people get away with mismatched display.final urls? I can think of one case that this would fall under, that really pissed me off the past few weeks. There is this one ad that I see that uses wwwsitename.com (there was already a www. sitename.com version)as the display url, which I think is what they are trying to get rid of. If so, thank goodness.
The rule has always been in force. They've disapproved many of my ads on its basis. Now, they're just going to be a bit more strict about it. Apparently, while making sure to disapprove my ads, they were allowing other ads to proceed. Thanks, Adwords!
Formely you could indicate for dating offer: www.mysite.com/Alabama and send people to index page. Now if you want to advertise this you have to send the surfers exactly to www.mysite.com/alabama.html
As usual Google creates confusing rules. In the notice I got today they say... The use of sub-domains and additional text within the display will continue to be acceptable, provided the top-level domain matches the URL of your landing page. For example, the display URLs below would be acceptable for the landing page URL of http://sub.google.com/miscellaneous, as the top-level domains match: * sub.google.com * google.com/extratext * www.google.com/extratext So, based on this you could do: http://SomeKeyword.Domain.com that pointed to http://Domain.com/Some-Long-Keyword-page.html Where the page (and keywords) are relevant. In fact that's how I've had some adverts for a long time. Example: http://BrandNameChairs.Domain.com --> http://Domain.com/BrandName-ChairType-Chair.html EXCEPT... Google follows that up with: Keyword URLs Keyword URLs are considered your destination URL (the URL of your landing page); your ad's display URL must match its destination URL. Thereby nullifying the "sub domain" practice if it's a keyword? Dumb. With a 35 character limit I can't get the complete URL in anyway so I'll be in violation even if the display URL is domain.com since it doesn't match the landing page (although it matches the TLD as defined under "sub domains". My point is, what's the difference between using sub.domain.com concept and keyword.domain.com (which is the same thing!) when in both instances it points to a highly relevant page (as is the entire advert). Sometimes I think Google rules were developed by the IRS!
Yeah this is a really old rule that was never fully enforced. I think they're going, (in fact i'm almost 100% sure), to enforce it at the ad creation level. The good part about google is they rarely go back and check old ads as it would require too much computing power and time and effort...
the message did indicate that new ads starting in april would be affected. I also took that as the old ones would't be touched.
Google's message doesn't do a good job of explaining what they're planning to do. I get the feeling that this ruling is going to be about domains and subdomains being consistent with those of the landing page. Judging from: "For example, the display URLs below would be acceptable for the landing page URL of http://sub.google.com/miscellaneous, as the top-level domains match: * sub.google.com * google.com/extratext * www.google.com/extratext" They're not going going to insist that the display url is the same as the landing url. However, I guess we'll find out next month. Finally, whatever the rules are, I expect google will start to apply them to old ads at some point. Steve
Direct linking is FINE. You just have to use the advertiser's URL, which may have you competing with other affiliates or the advertiser using the same URL.
its the same policy as before, nothing will change and if it does we will deal with in on April 1st. Since what Google says and what Google does are completely different things we cannot prepare for it all we can do is adjust when the time comes. My guess, business as usual
Robert, I notice in your video which you posted on your blog, you mention a redirect, such as: Ad Display URL: mywebsite.com/widgets and when clicked, automatically redirected to mywebsite.com Do you think this will be allowed? The root URL will be the same (mywebsite.com) Also, what about using: mywebsite.com?widgets as the display URL, so that widgets is displayed in bold - is this allowed? The page that loads up is mywebsite.com the ? mark is simply a symbol added.
I wonder if it has something to do with people using popular sites to get a better quality score. For example, anyone ever try using about.com or google.com. It's atleast a couple cents better.