Google’s New Rule for SEO

Search engine optimisation and online advertising is a big business for Google.  It is also something every website needs.  In order to survive on the internet, companies have to look at how they are advertising and using SEO in order to survive.  With the fact that the online world is ever changing, it is difficult to come up with a sure fire way of remaining on the top and making money.  Google has just offered up a new rule that involves AdWords.  The rule states that a website can only have one root domain on display and destination URL.  We will explain what both of these mean and then what it will do regarding your SEO.

Display URLs are what a person will see on the ad.  In other words, this is how the search engine user will get to your site.  The destination URL is actually where the person gets when they click on the ad.

For example, if the display URL is www.brandname.com and the actual URL is www.yourcompanyname.com you could be in for some issues.  Consider for a moment a brand like McDonalds.  If you put the display URL as www.mcdonalds.com the user thinks that is where they are going when they select the URL, but if you take them to www.mcdonaldsbooks.com you are not taking them to the restaurant site, but something irrelevant.

Google wants truth in advertising when it comes to this rule.  They want the user to get what they expect when clicking on your link.  The user also wants the same thing.  For SEO to work in making you money you have to be realistic with the user.  You cannot lie and hope they will still buy your product.

Most of the trouble with the display and destination URL’s has actually been confusion for the search bots.  Google is still going to allow subdomains to be used.  They will also allow subdirectories.  So you could use a variation of your website domain in the link as long as you are not messing with the root domain.

The idea with the change is not to take away your options when it comes to keywords, but make it more blatant.  In other words, the keywords you use should be explicit for what you sell and still allow the consumer to reach the domain they thought they were clicking through to.  It helps to make the URL’s which should be indexed appear in the grouping.  This more relevant option will also increase the click through rate you have from the ad.

Since your overall goal is to have SEO tactics that get people to your site you cannot argue with getting a better click through rate.  There is just one drawback when it comes to the change in the URL options.  Most companies have used the different root domains to see which keyword domain gets the more clicks.  It is a test, but Google wants the URL’s to match the destination URL the consumer is sent to in order to please the consumer.