Update or redirect the links. Do it now.
OK…so maybe I should expand on that! A common error when managing your own Google Adwords campaign (or any other pay per click campaign) is to set it up and then forget about it. So when you get round to updating your website, you completely forget to check whether or not you are killing off any links attached to active campaigns.
What does this mean in real terms? Well, potential clients are searching for your chosen key terms, they see your PPC ad and click on it…but they get taken to a blank page (a 404 error page to be precise). However, you have still paid for that click. And when this happens, your potential customer doesn’t then find your home page and look for the information they wanted…they click back to the rankings page and click on someone else’s link. Essentially, you end up paying for the privilege of losing a customer!
It is easy to avoid this unnecessary cost and missed sale – your web designer just needs to put a 301 redirect in place whenever they change the address of a page. This means that although the PPC ad link still goes to the original address, the potential customer is then automatically sent to the new address. If your web designer neglects to do this and you’re not sure which pages have had their addresses changed, you’re in for the long haul! You need to go through each pay per click advert in Google Adwords Manager and click on the link to check it’s still active. This may take a while, but it’s better than paying for clicks that don’t earn you anything.
