Google Adwords URL Policies has Changed

Yes, Google Adwords once again keeps saying that they are making changes to their URL policy. Now, for all your display URLs they must have the same top level domain. This policy change takes effect on the week of 2/24/09. This means you can no long display multiple display URL domains within s single ad group. If your website is www.yoursite.com your display URL must match the destination URL.

The funny thing about the change is that Google announced this change to take effect on 4/1/08 and people was still not following the rules. Google Adwords team sent out warnings to them but did not shut down their campaigns. Now they are at it again. Will the Google Adwords team finally start enforcing this rule now or just blow a lot of hot air? Who knows. But just incase they do this time then here is what you need to know.

These are the following acceptable ads for Google Adwords group:

-www.yoursite.com
-www.example.yoursite.com
-www.yoursite.com/example/example1/
-www.yoursite.com/index.html

The following is no long accept:

-www.yoursite.example.com - This would open to identical content.
-www.yoursite.co.uk - This would lead to a different site to - www.yoursite.com
-www.yoursites.com - this could lead to a redirected page to - www.yoursite.com

You are going to have to make sure that you keep your ad groups separated for each domain. This is suppose to allow you to better track the various domains in your Google Adwords account. And speaking of tracking URLs you can still use them. Here is an example of what is ok:

DisPLay URL: www.yoursite.com
Destination: www.tracking.com/yoursite321
Landing page: www.yoursite.com/product/

This would not be ok:

Display URL: www.yoursite.com
Destination: www.tracking.com/yoursite321
Landing page: www.tracking.com

Google claims that this is suppose to give a higher quality experience for visitors and provide more relevant results but I don't see how. I am not sure why this change was even necessary. I mean who really cares if the display URL is not exactly the same as the destination URL. They already disallowed redirects from their campaigns so you can not send visitors to something that is not related to the ad so what is the point? This doesn't seem to be a big deal at all to me but if you want to continue to use the Google Adwords service you have to play by their rules.

The UrL policy applies to all who use Google Adwords, no exceptions. At least I have not heard of any. For most of you this should not be a problem at all. Only a small percent of people, I think, will have to make a few changes in how they group and display their URLs on their ads. Just make sure your display URL matches your landing pages and you will be just fine.

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