Why is my now banned page considered a bridge page?

[firstconversion]

Google adwords have banned my adwords because my personal blog post is a "bridge" page

http://firstconversion.com/the-pasty-shop-is-not-a-fast-food-chain/

Can anyone explain how this vanilla wordpress blog is a spam bridge page?

They give me 3 options to rectify this, none of which make any sense

To comply with our policies, the options below are available:

Option 1: Refine your web page so that it contains a substantial amount of
original content. This content should be related to your ad text and
should stand independently of the links on your page that redirect users
to other sites. This includes any affiliate links on your site. In
addition, the site should have an overall unique look and feel.

Examples of original content include, but are not limited to:

• Tips and information for consumers considering the product or service
• Competitor pricing and feature comparisons
• Unique and informative reviews and customer feedback
• Links to relevant articles

This content shouldn't be derived directly from other sites or a parent
site. - the content is 100% unique, written by me

Option 2: Redesign your web page to offer multiple, competing offers from
different companies for related services. For example, a web page
promoting a specific marketing strategy book could have links to four
online bookstores from which one could purchase the book. - theres nothign to do with services offfers, or competitions, or any type of monetization

Option 3: Link directly to the end site, using the appropriate Display
URL.  - there are no end sites

Cheers

Stephen

[seoninja20]

Was it just this page or the whole ppc campaign for your blog? I'm thinking too many outbound unrelated links vs. internal links ratio? That African tuna fishing website would throw anyone off I have no idea really but interested to follow this thread and see your solution.

I'm also wondering about that youtube url in your header as the first thing Google sees when they arrive on the page.

[firstconversion]

I have 1 advert pointing to that page with the keyword pasty shop as phrase and exact (this is the total advertising to the site)

The tuna fishing one is clearly labeled a test, so I hope that wouldnt throw a Google reviewer off! (it has no ads or funny business on it either)

I cant believe its the links, they are not bought/sold etc everything is clealry labelled & it has 0 spam and 0 ads to trigger alarms.

On the youtube side, well its one of their own properties and im certainly not making money off linking to a joe strummer vid

Cheers for the reply, ill post if I get a solution from elsewhere. im stumped for now tho

[DavidKonigsberg]

call google and speak to them about it- 1 866-246-6453

[PaulMarshall55]

Hi Stephen,

I've enjoyed you posts and followed your comments to other posts. Nice to "meet" you finally.

I don't have a clear cut answer to your questions, but may still have some helpful suggestions.

I had an AdWords client where I had to get EVERY ad manually approved (ugh!). There was no real explanation, but the customer support was helpful (other than a permanent fix).

(I figure you've already tried this, so this is more for background and understanding your pain. Trying to get an answer from Google can be VERY frustrating!!)

Secondly, you can try AdWords Help OR the AdWords Help Forum for a reply to a similar problem as yours OR to post your own problem. You may have already tried this.

Next option, try corresponding with 1 or more of the AdWords Help Forum Top Contributors outside of AdWords (and possibly for a cost). They have AdWords contacts that you and I don't (or at least I don't). One such person is Kim Clinkunbroomer (she goes by Mrs. C on the AdWords Help Forum) and she is an AdWords Top Contributor.

Kim with has helped me before. She is good! Her site is: Clinks Web Service

And you can find other AdWords Top Contributors. Many of the listings show a website, Twitter account and/or a blog for communication outside of the AdWords Help Forum.

I hope this helps! Best of luck.

Paul Marshall

[KeriMorgret]

Could it be that Adwords can't see a particular call to action on this page, and are figuring you're using it as a bridge to another page that does have the call to action? What is it that you want your people that come to this page from a PPC ad to do?

If I'm looking for a pastry shop, I'm looking for a site that tells me where I can go and get my pastry, the hours, etc. or where I can order my pastry. I'm not looking for a lesson on marketing. If I'm looking for a lesson on marketing, I'm not going to enter the keywords pastry shop. Does this page satisfy the intent of your user's query?

Here's one way to think about it. Google wants to make money, and their primary way of making money is by selling ads. If the users aren't happy after they click on those ads, the users won't come back to Google to click on any more ads, and Google won't make money.

[firstconversion]

Thanks Keri

The action I want is actually comments or readers

The ad itself makes it very clear its about marketing, so there is no misdirection of the user - if you click on the ad, you want to see what Ive written.

Ive been doing PPC for years and never read anythign about ppc only being allowed for sales/actionable type content (in fact Ive done similar stuff for political parties that would fall into this same bucket)

Ive emailed them and actually get a response, its been passed up to another internal adwords person for further review. hopefully I get something back!

[firstconversion]

Thanks for the reply Paul and David

That numbers only for the US I think?

The relevant Adwords help forum is pretty much filled with people just like me going "why was i banned, I dont understand?"

This was just a tiny test to to see if I could get comments from PPC, but now im annoyed and interested, so may  follow up with Mrs C. Thanks for her details, Ill try her if I dont get an answer out of Google

[PaulMarshall55]

ALL great points, Kerri. I guess I'm guilty of answering a question based off what I read and not taking the time to look at the landing page. My bad!

I believe you've answered the question.

Also Stephen, there are no "transparency pages", Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and About pages.

I've seen an AdWords account suffer HUGE Quality Score drops without the transparency pages in place. The drop was enough where the ads wouldn't show any longer! The client insisted doing it her way. She is no longer a client.

Google just almost demands transparency pages for AdWords.  Also, best practice for SEO.

SO, if you ads had shown, I don't think that would have been the end of the problems.

[KeriMorgret]

To be really honest, the landing page doesn't inspire a lot of trust. As others pointed out, what's with the non-hyperlinked YouTube URL at the top? What is this blog about? There are two posts, and a hire me page. The hire me page doesn't talk about doing what you're writing about in this post.

In this post in particular, more attention to editing could help with the trust. Several sentences don't end with any type of punctuation, and you have grammar and spelling errors. The post doesn't flow very well. I'm having to assume that the Pastry Shop is trying to upsell you on things and is not efficient about letting you get in and out quickly, but it's never stated.

If you want comments, it can help to ask for comments. Either something as simple as asking for the reader's views in general, or ask for comments about some particular aspect of the post.

[firstconversion]

Personal feeling on the content aside, that doesnt explain why this should  meet the technical classifications as a bridge page and how the the 3 options they have given to fix it apply to it. I find it hard to image that Google have taken issue with my grammar or missing a full stop (not ending last sentences with a full stop is quite normal over here btw)

I agree with all your points re quality, but dont see how they are applicable to the stated issues/solution that Google have mentioned

The post is for a UK audience, who would be familiar with both the brand and the situation. The ads themselves are targeted at England only. I am assuming a level of reader knowledge, much in the same way a hyper local blog would

I guess I better go rewrite that post anyway tho!
Thanks
S

[firstconversion]

Hi Paul, good point!

However I currently push adwords about psychology training in the same account to an Unbounce page that has no privacy stuff at all, and Google has no problem with this. Unbounce's whole business is built on driving ppc towards 1 page sites which rarely have any transparency content or pages

Ive done the same with tests on my fishing site and ipad site (and those definitely look untrustworthy!) and never had a problem. One of the reasons Im puzzled, is that this is  the most innocuous thing Ive ever tested!

Cheers for you comments

S

[firstconversion]

Never give up! More than a month later and having worked my way through most of the Google PPC team, I have an answer. Kind of. No explanation was offered by any Google rep, but they have ok'd the ads again now.

I understand it has been a while and I apologize that this whole process
took so long. I just got notified that your page is now enabled and you
will soon be notified by our system about this. If your Ads still appear
disapproved for Site Policy, I would kindly ask you to resubmit your ads
for review and they should be approved now. If anything is wrong please do
not hesitate contact me again.

Once again I thank you for your understanding and overall patience. I do
hope your campaign will perform well from now on.

[seoninja20]

ah, i've been waiting for some feedback. i wonder what made it flag.