SEO

How To Improve Your Quality Score, & Why It Matters

Seth Godin once said: “Measurements are fabulous. Unless you’re busy measuring what’s easy to measure as opposed to what’s important.” That’s a great quote to follow but unfortunately, it only tells half the story. Any good marketer will tell you that picking the right measurement as an indicator to guide your actions is important, but knowing how this measurement is calculated is where the real value lies. In this article, we will look at what Google’s Quality score is, how to improve it, and why it matters.

What Exactly is Google’s Quality Score?

Google works on a system where each keyword in your ad copy is given a quality score. This Quality Score is how Google evaluates the worth and relevance of the specific keyword to your landing page and ultimately the end-user in comparison to other advertisers.

This score heavily impacts the impression share, ad rank, and CPC’s you will get. It gives you a score between 1 – 10, 10 indicating a high-quality ad that is more likely to be profitable. A low score will get a penalty applied to the paid per click price and a high score will get a bonus. In general: The Higher your quality score, the lower the cost per click on your search ad. Google decides the ranking of your search ad on its Search Engine Results Page (SERP) by taking the quality score and bids of all competing ads into account and ranking them accordingly.  

How is your Quality Score Calculated?

To calculate its quality score Google looks at the following 3 criteria:

  • Expected Click-Through Rate
  • Landing Page Experience
  • Ad Relevance

Each of these criteria is rated as below average, average, and above average. Average would indicate the average score achieved compared to all who bid on that specific keyword.

One surprising element is just how important the quality of a landing page related to the keyword is as a rating factor. Google’s number one priority is always delivering the best results and user experience possible to entice users to use their service more. Making sure users find exactly what they are intending to find when they click on a search ad is a sure-fire recipe for success.  

Key actions to Improve your Quality Score

As mentioned: Google’s number one priority is delivering the best possible user experience. The closer your search ad is to what Google deems as a great user experience, the higher your quality score will be. 

Some key actions to improve your quality score is:

  • Continual Optimization – Constantly evaluate and improve your ad copy to match user intent on various searches.
  • Testing Call to Actions – Test various call-to-action prompts to capitalize on the best CTA to improve your click-through rate.
  • On-Page Content – Make sure on-page content matches what users are searching for.
  •  Mobile-Friendly – Making your site mobile-friendly not only improves the overall user experience but is also very important for any SEO initiative.
  • Website Speed – Fast site loading speed ensures users won’t get frustrated and leave prematurely.
  • Landing Page Testing – Test various landing pages to see what pages match the keywords that are being served.
  • Negative Keyword list – Utilize a strong negative keyword list to make sure keywords are not showing up for irrelevant searches. 
  • Ad Extensions – Utilizing ad extensions to help ads stand out more and encourage click-throughs.

 

A landing page optimization sheet on a wooden tale.

Why does your Quality Score matter?

Your quality score is Google’s way of telling you that your ad is of a higher quality. They are basically saying that users will get the best experience when they click on your ad as opposed to that of your competitors. They reward you for this by allowing your ads to appear higher in their SERP without having to spend as much as your competition with lower quality scores on a specific ad click. This is great for your ad budget. It allows you to run your ad for longer, and to reach more people which will ultimately improve the results of your paid search ad campaign. Having a good quality score is not only beneficial for you, but Google wins as well.

Final thoughts

Understanding what Google’s Quality Score is, and how it is calculated is a great way for you to lean into the factors they deem as most important. Google’s Quality Score could be seen as an incentive program to help businesses deliver a great user experience. This ultimately leads to more sales for the business and better business practices for Google. The ultimate win-win situation for any website.

Making sure you have an effective paid media strategy is crucial in achieving success. We can help you with that, contact NAV43 to learn more.