What is Google Slap and How to Avoid It?

If you are a webmaster or an AdWords advertiser, you must have heard the expression “Google slap”. In fact, it is one of the biggest concerns for all webmasters, because none of them wants to see their site being Google-slapped. If you’re like most people then you know you don’t want it to happen to your site, but you don’t know exactly what it is or how to avoid it. Well, what a Google slap can mean?

-          Google has found your ad and associated content to be of such poor quality that it has considerably lowered your ad’s position in SERPs. In this case you will have to pay much more for your ad to show up at the position you need.

-          Google has found your ad and associated landing pages to be of such poor quality that it has terminated your AdWords account.

Google certainly rules the web and has the right to determine the quality of landing pages and how they match the keywords. A few years ago, a round of Google slaps on small vendors took considerable toll, driving many companies out of business quickly. Lots of webmasters claimed that their pages conformed to Google AdWords’ landing page and site quality guidelines, but they still received very low PR rankings which was a result of their plain ignorance. When you decide you’re going to advertise with Google AdWords, you should definitely read all information about what Google looks for to avoid receiving a Google Slap. It’s always much better to prevent this kind of trouble instead of trying to correct it down the road.

Here are a few tips to make sure that Google doesn’t disable your account:

1.        Make sure your ad contains your keywords. If users cannot see the keywords they’ve queried for in Google, they’ll be less likely to click your ad, because it will seem irrelevant to their query. This irrelevancy will adversely affect your CTR (click-through rate), showing Google that you aren’t giving users what they need.

2.        Ensure your landing page is properly optimised.

3.        Make sure your landing page loads fast. The load delay is an inconvenience for users, and what Google values most is the user experience.

4.        Ensure safety of your landing page, that is, make sure it isn’t sending viruses to users’ computers.

5.        Make sure your landing page is not deceiving, and keep away from making unrealistic promises about your product or servicee. If a particular download or service is presented on your landing page as free, make sure it is truly so.

6.        Make sure your landing page does not contain too many links. This refers to both inbound and outbound links.

7.        Avoid low-quality links (reciprocal, broken, etc.). Make sure all your links are put there to help the user.

8.        Make sure that the keywords you have selected describe exactly what you offer.

Speaking in general, the number 1 rule you should abide by is the general principle of white-hat SEO and of course observing the general recommendations and conditions that Google puts forth for webmasters.