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10:37 am
September 16, 2011
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The College Investor
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So I got one of those $100 AdWords coupons in the mail, and I thought I would use it to draw some traffic to my site. Why not? It's free.
I setup a nice little ad, and tried to run it, and I got an email saying my landing page was considered a "bridge page" by Google. I responded how, and here was there response:
Google does not permit ads for bridge pages that are solely intended to direct users to another website with similar information. We've found that when a page has multiple ads with similar information, the results are less relevant.
I found that your site has plenty of low quality links to sites such as "www.morningstar.com", "www.mint.com", and "www.scottrade.com". Please remove these to be considered compliant.
I was a bit shocked – All of these sites are mainstream, and I wouldn't consider them low quality, but apparently Google does.
So, should I remove the links or not? What are your thoughts about Google's response?
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10:53 am
September 16, 2011
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Khaleef @ KNS Financial
| | Fat Guy, Skinny Wallet | |
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I would really like to know what is it about these links that makes them "low quality". I didn't really understand their response to you at all.
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10:56 am
September 16, 2011
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MoneyIsTheRoot
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I'd say forget the $100 bucks and pretend the whole thing didnt happen…they mail me that same coupon once a month.
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11:09 am
September 16, 2011
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retireby40
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Really! I'm shocked also about the "low" quality links. Those sites are mainstream sites. I used the $100 and it brought in some traffic, but I'm not sure how many stuck around. Probably not many.
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11:13 am
September 16, 2011
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The College Investor
| | San Diego, CA | |
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MoneyIsTheRoot said:
I'd say forget the $100 bucks and pretend the whole thing didnt happen…they mail me that same coupon once a month.
I will probably use it for my niche site. I've been doing that regularly and it has been fine. What's more irritating is my niche site has the same number of links!
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11:15 am
September 16, 2011
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Suba @ Wealth Informatics
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Affiliate links are always considered to be low quality links. That is why you should always nofollow affiliate links to make sure you won't be categorized as linking to too many low quality sites.
Robert, in your case what I would do is create a landing page thecollegeinvestor.com/welcome and remove affiliate links/ads in that page. Put together a good summary, you can borrow most of the stuff in your start here page. I have not used adwords personally so I don't know if google considers the page separately from the site, but it might be worth a try if it won't take more than 10 mins to put a landing page together? Generally adwords to your main site never works. Direct them to a single post or a targeted page.
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12:31 pm
September 16, 2011
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Invest It Wisely
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Haha, I like this idea.
I only have affiliate links to amazon (ok, and a couple home-page ones but those are nofollowed) and I don't no-follow those, but if I had a bunch of affiliates then I would probably no-follow them as well.
I keep getting that coupon too… maybe I should use it.
MoneyIsTheRoot said:
I'd say forget the $100 bucks and pretend the whole thing didnt happen…they mail me that same coupon once a month.
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12:34 pm
September 16, 2011
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The College Investor
| | San Diego, CA | |
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Suba – My affiliate links are all no follow. However, I really like the idea of a landing page. I may give it a shot!
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12:44 pm
September 16, 2011
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Suba @ Wealth Informatics
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I know Robert, I checked  . That wasn't directed to you, the second para was :) I was saying that in general as I know a lot of people still just put the link in without nofollowing.
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12:45 pm
September 16, 2011
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Tony Chou @ Investorz' Blog
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I guess they're considered low quality because too many people promote them? But honestly, I've never heard of this happen before.
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10:33 am
September 17, 2011
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TightFistedMiser
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I had the same thing happen to me last year. They said my site was a bridge page although it clearly isn't. I tried to explain why my site wasn't a bridge page but once Google makes a decision they aren't going to change it.
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6:12 am
September 18, 2011
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Frugal Confessions
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Are you sure it's not a spam email? I wouldn't consider those low-quality. And they're not affiliates, right? They look to go straight to the home page of those websites.
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12:01 am
September 19, 2011
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Buy Like Buffett
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I suspect that Google is calling them low quality because they come from an affiliate advertiser's site and not the actual company.
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6:07 am
September 20, 2011
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Henry @ TotallyMoney
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Post edited 6:08 am – September 20, 2011 by Henry @ TotallyMoney
I don't think that being classed as a 'bridge page' is a reflection
of your site or the ones you link to. It is my understanding that a
bridge page is a page set up with the sole purpose of sending traffic
onto other sites and not our own. It is a big issue for affiliates and a
way for Google to get them to add more unique content.
They seem to have got it completely wrong with your site, but it would be
impossible to convince them of that. If you want to carry on with PPC
advertising then you will have to remove all paid and affiliate links on
a landing page and request reconsideration. It is really hard to
convert PPC traffic to regular readers and I agree with the need for a
special landing page to get it to work. Let us know how you get on
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2:30 pm
September 21, 2011
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MaximizingMoney
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It seems like they're being selective with this rule.
I did a search for "credit cards" and got a site that is a credit card directory type site, and their landing page is just a directory of credit cards with affiliate links.
So I don't see how that is allowed but your type of page is not.
I've thought about using that $100, maybe a good way to go about it is to target a completely non-competitive keyword, and then to really resolve an issue or offer usable info on that subject, then maybe people will stick around or something, but it's hard to spend money on traffic without seeing it quickly convert to revenue.
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6:33 pm
September 21, 2011
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SavingMentor
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Suba @ Wealth Informatics said:
Affiliate links are always considered to be low quality links. That is why you should always nofollow affiliate links to make sure you won't be categorized as linking to too many low quality sites.
Are you sure that using "no follow" on links really does anything than making sure that link juice doesn't get passed on to them? From what I've read Google still follows those links to check them out and can still judge your site based on what they find. It's not like making them no follow makes them disappear.
I honestly want to know because I've research no follow to death but still don't really understand it and it seems it has been evolving ever since it was introduced.
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8:52 am
September 22, 2011
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Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter
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SavingMentor said:
Suba @ Wealth Informatics said:
Affiliate links are always considered to be low quality links. That is why you should always nofollow affiliate links to make sure you won't be categorized as linking to too many low quality sites.
Are you sure that using "no follow" on links really does anything than making sure that link juice doesn't get passed on to them? From what I've read Google still follows those links to check them out and can still judge your site based on what they find. It's not like making them no follow makes them disappear.
I honestly want to know because I've research no follow to death but still don't really understand it and it seems it has been evolving ever since it was introduced.
Interesting. I didn't know that.
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10:01 am
September 22, 2011
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Suba @ Wealth Informatics
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SavingMentor said:
Suba @ Wealth Informatics said:
Affiliate links are always considered to be low quality links. That is why you should always nofollow affiliate links to make sure you won't be categorized as linking to too many low quality sites.
Are you sure that using "no follow" on links really does anything than making sure that link juice doesn't get passed on to them? From what I've read Google still follows those links to check them out and can still judge your site based on what they find. It's not like making them no follow makes them disappear.
I honestly want to know because I've research no follow to death but still don't really understand it and it seems it has been evolving ever since it was introduced.
No follow doesn't make it disappear. Google's recommended use of no follow includes (1) ads (2) sites you don't trust (3) Sites you don't feel like giving any authority value. They are still crawled. If they figure out the links are ads and you have not nofollowed you will be dinged. If they crawl the site and find the site is of low quality, "you" won't be taken seriously. A lot of people think linking to other sites will harm them so they try to minimize the links. That is wrong. Linking to other authority site will "increase" your authority on the topic as un-intuitive that may sound. And linking to too many bad neighborhood site will reduce the value of your site. No follow is just letting google of your intentions.
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