As part of Google’s continued effort to improve user experience, the search engine has recently announced an additional factor that will contribute to an advertisers 'Quality Score': landing page load time. Load time is the amount of time it actually takes for a user to view the landing page after they click on the ad.

Why is Load Time Becoming a ‘Quality Score’ Factor?

Google’s ongoing aim is to serve quality ads to users that will take them to the information they have requested, as efficiently as possible.

By combining load time into the Quality Score, Google’s aim is to benefit both users and advertisers. Firstly, users are sure to have a better experience if they don’t have to wait around a long time to view the information they have requested. Secondly, users are less likely to abandon a landing page that has loaded efficiently, which is likely to have a positive effect on an advertiser’s conversion rate.

How is Load Time Graded?

In the same way the Quality Score is assigned, each keyword in every ad group will receive a load time grade, which is dependant on the destination URL (or landing page) associated with that keyword:

If you assigned a keyword-level destination URL to a particular keyword, then the keyword's load time grade will be based on that URL. If you didn't assign a keyword-level destination URL, then the keyword's load time grade will reflect the slowest load time among the ads in the ad group.

- Google Adwords Help Centre.

How Can I See My Load Time Grade?

As many advertisers may have already noticed, Google Adwords has already started rolling out load time evaluations, and these are visible on the Keyword Analysis page within an advertiser’s account.

After receiving a load time grade, an advertiser has one month to make necessary adjustments before Google incorporates the results into the given keyword’s Quality Score.

If your keyword is graded "This page loads slowly", your landing page quality and Quality Score will be negatively affected. If your keyword is graded "No problems found", your landing page quality and Quality Score will not be affected. The one exception is if your keyword is graded No problems found and marked Load time is faster than the average in your server's geographic region. In this case, your landing page quality and Quality Score may be positively affected

- Google Adwords Help Centre.

Since an advertiser’s quality score has a major effect in deciding how much one pays per click, the next list of recommendations may come in extremely valuable.

How Can I Improve My Load Time?

The Adwords system will continually reassess landing pages regularly, therefore if your landing pages aren’t satisfactory, revisions could lead to an improved Quality Score and as a result lower minimum CPC bids.

Firstly, to find out why the landing pages on your website are running slow, there are some handy tools that can indicate where problem areas lie; such as YSlow.

Some common resolutions for improving load time include:

Use fewer redirects. Reduce the page size by using fewer, smaller, and more highly compressed images. Do not use interstitial pages. Minimize the use of iframes on your landing page. Contact your webmaster or webhosting provider to discuss other ways of improving your landing page's load time.

- Google Adwords Help Centre.

In summary, as you can see, this recent change has benefits for both users and advertisers. From an advertisers perspective, we strongly recommend investigating the current status of your load time assessment, and take this opportunity to improve your quality score.

Of course, if you’re a client of ours, it goes without saying that we shall investigate this Quality Score factor consistently on your behalf and advise you of any necessary on-site improvements.

If you have any further questions about this update, your account manager will be happy to discuss any queries.