It’s easier to fix a problem when you know what it is. Today, we’re making it easier to know when you’re affected by a landing page or site policy problem, rather than a landing page quality problem. Before we look at the changes we’ve made in AdWords to make this more clear, let’s review the differences between policy and quality for landing pages.

What’s the difference between policy and quality for landing pages? The primary purpose of landing page policy is to make sure that the sites to which users are taken after clicking on ads are safe, trustworthy, and legal. Automated systems and trained specialists make policy enforcement decisions. When landing pages are suspected of violating AdWords policies, ads and keywords linked to them are disabled and not allowed to enter the AdWords auction.

Landing page quality, on the other hand, is important for ensuring that users have a positive experience on your site. It can affect your ad position and performance in the AdWords auction. And as with all factors in Quality Score, landing page quality is determined by automated systems.

What’s changing in the AdWords interface? Previously, if a destination URL wasn’t compliant with our landing page and site policy guidelines, the associated keywords would show a Quality Score of 1/10, a notice that ads were rarely showing, and an indication of poor landing page quality.

However, you wouldn't see anything explicitly mentioning a landing page policy violation. Now, if your keywords are affected by a landing page policy issue, here’s what you’ll see on the Keywords tab in the AdWords interface.

(click for full-size image)

Affected keywords will show "Site suspended" in the status column. And since affected keywords aren’t able to trigger ads, a Quality Score is no longer calculated or shown. If you switch to the Ads tab, any ads that aren’t serving as a result of the policy violation will show a status of “Suspended.”

These changes are visible for most landing page policy violations. For serious offenses, however, remember that we may immediately suspend an account.

We hope this makes it easier to see when you're affected by landing page policy issues and take corrective action.

Please visit the Help Center for more information about AdWords policies or landing page quality. You can also contact us about a specific AdWords policy issue affecting your account.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew