Overview of Google “Slap” Prevention


Google often changes the rules of their own game. One week, your AdWords campaigns are flying along, generating nice profits. The next week, you log in only to find traffic has been cut in half. Before the day is over, traffic comes to a screeching halt, and it leaves you scratching your head.

What in the world happened?

Well, sorry, but you just got SLAPPED! Don’t worry,it happens, and it’s fixable.

This step-by-step guide is an accurate, up-to-date “slap-prevention” tool designed to:

  • Bring your slapped campaigns back to life or
  • Create slap-proof campaigns from the beginning

6 Steps to a Slap-Proof Campaign


We have tested these steps ourselves across numerous campaigns, and so far, Google has had no issues with them. If things change, or if Google tightens their grip, as they tend to do once or twice a year, we’ll do our best to stay on top of it and update you here on this page.

The real challenge with a Google Slap is that Google changes their standards from time to time and usually does not announce when or what changes will happen. So we’re all left scrambling, trying to plug up the holes in our sinking campaigns.

The following 6 steps will either help get you out of a slapped situation or help prevent one from happening in the first place:

Step 1
Create mini-sites. Mini-sites have proven to be more resistant to slaps than single landing pages. A mini-site consists of no less than 5-8 pages and should contain the following:

  • About us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact us (including address, phone number and email)
  • Sitemap (for a free Google-compliant sitemap generator, visit: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com)

Step 2
Make your mini-site navigable. Make links to all of the pages from each page on the site. Bottom line here: Google wants your site to be legit. As a result, you will build visitor loyalty and create a compelling visitor experience, thereby improving the advertising model altogether.If your visitors are happy, Google is happy!

Step 3
Make your mini-site transparent. What does transparency have to do with affiliate marketing? A lot! Always state your site’s mission clearly and up front so your visitors know exactly why they are there. Don’t try to trick them or force them into signing up or clicking something that will turn them away forever. These tactics add little value to building long-term customer loyalty.

Step 4
Use well-formed HTML. By well-formed, we mean code that checks out well when put through a webpage validator. Google doesn’t read webpages like humans do. They have automated webbots to do that for them. If the webbot comes to a page that doesn’t check out well, it will basically say, no thanks. This page, and your whole site, could be dinged! (Visit this validator: http://validator.w3.org.)

Step 5
Pay attention to SEO. This will ensure that Google finds your pages relevant to your campaigns. Always use the same keywords from your ads in your landing pages. Use them in the title, meta description, meta keywords, and H1, H2, and H3 headings. Then scatter them about the content. But be careful not to overdo it! Google’s bots are programmed to spot keyword-stuffing, which results in–you guessed it–a ding!

Step 6
This final step is a list of good practices every advertiser should follow. Coming up short on just one of these may not be enough to get the slap, but failing to deliver well on a few of these may be!

  • Write good ad copy
  • Use keywords in the headline, copy, and display url
  • Use domain names with your keywords whenever possible
  • Break large groups of keywords into smaller adgroups
  • Create “tight” adgroups by not going too “wide” with keywords
  • Don’t use different destination urls in the same adgroup
  • Check keyword density for your main keywords. Is it high? Good!
  • Use Google’s webmaster tools to upload your sitemap and monitor 404s
  • Pay attention to Google’s suggestions for improving your Quality Score

Final Word

If you get enough dings on your site, you may be slapped. Using this guide will help you steer clear of problems and help with conversions. So, it pays to play by the rules.

PS. If you feel you have been slapped for no legitimate reason, you are welcome to call the AdWords department toll-free: 1-866-2-GOOGLE.

Good luck!