Hey Dave, I’ve been told that Google doesn’t like squeeze pages any more and that that is why my clicks now cost about 100 times more than they used to. What gives? How do I get my cheap clicks back?
The short answer is no, Google still likes squeeze pages. “What’s a squeeze page, Dave?” many of you are asking right now. Let’s define that term, then I’m going to hand the digital talking stick to my friend Mark Widawer, author of a book about landing pages and expert on Google AdWords, for more insight into this topic.
First, a squeeze page is a page that offers information, access to content, secret passwords, free stuff, whatever, if you give up your email address and possibly some additional information. This is a widely used tactic: if you’ve checked the number printed on a candy bar or bottle cap to see if you’re a prize winner, you’ve hit a squeeze page that requires you to register for the site first.
Anyway, now that you know what a squeeze page is, let’s let Mark pick up the explanation of why some people think Google’s down on ’em, and why they’re actually not so bad…
No, Google doesn’t dislike squeeze pages, they just don’t want them to be the only thing your site.
Here’s some background: Back in July 2006, Google changed their policies regarding how they determine the pricing for their Adwords Pay Per Click ads. Clicks that used to cost nickels and dimes might now cost $5, $10 or more. They did this to get rid of tons of garbage websites — sites that had no real value, but tons of ads — from their Adwords listings.
In other words, now Google takes into account the “quality” of the website you are sending traffic to in addition to the wording of the ad itself.
And that begs the question, “What does Quality mean?”
Google makes a half-hearted attempt to describe that on their Site Quality Guidelines page, but they really don’t give any details. They do say this, though:
“Try to provide information without requiring users to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.”
So clearly, they are okay with having a squeeze page. The problem is that most people who have squeeze pages on their site make that one page their home page, and have nothing else to offer a user. And to Google, that’s a low quality site. So what Google wants to see is that your website actually has something to offer someone about your topic.
So, in a nutshell, if you want to use a squeeze page, don’t make it your home page, and provide several pages at least of other relevant content on your site that is connected to your home page.
Dave, I know you have limited space for this answer and there really is a lot more to this topic. I just wrote about this a few days ago on my own blog [see Does Google hate squeeze pages?] and I’ve also just written a 27-page special report that goes very deep into Google’s new rules and policies, and how to make your website comply.
You’ll find my free report behind a squeeze page at Free Google Squeeze Page Report. [Note from Dave: it’s well worth reading and it’s free. What’s not to like?]
I hope that helps your readers with this issue.
Squeeze Pages and Google?
You can still rank them in the organic search and use them with Google Adwords. But it helps to add content. Here is more on using squeeze pages with Google in 2012: http://howtosqueezepage.net/squeeze-pages-and-google-adwords/
This article has a few examples of how to use them and get them approved with Google Adwords.
Dave, even though your article might have been accurate some months or years ago, I’m afraid things have changed. Since october 2010 Google Adwords has been systematically banging out landing pages that include squezze pages. I know it first hand…
On a Monday I had a quality of 10/10 and on Tuesday it was 1/10 !!!! From 10 to 1.
I dont like this situation and I believe the time to make some serious changes has arrived.
Andrés
I was wondering if Google dislike having newspaper rss feeds on your own personal website?
Thank You
Google is everything that evil is defined to be. They should hate it; they are it. Google is the worst thing that ever happened to the internet.
Yes, your article does make things clearer a bit. I am considering, or rather, will be creating a squeeze page for one or two of my business opportunities.
My question is if you have a squeeze page, doesn’t that mean that it is a one page site? Usually your squeeze page will have some information about your service or product and if a visitor to your page wants more information, he or she, can fill out their name, email address and/or their phone number. Once this is done, then he or she is placed into your autoresponder.
Would Google consider a page such as this of value? You have information that explains the product or service, but since there is only one page, does this count against me in Google?
Excellent article. Is it okay to start a new venture with just a squeeqze page or should I wait til there are X number of pages before submitting it? Furthermore what is X?
Jerry Reeder