Affiliate Marketing – How Your Privacy Policy Affects Your Quality Score
Posted by Kathy Jackson in Affiliate Marketing Monday, 5 April 2010 13:41 6 Comments
If you’ve been in affiliate marketing more than 15 minutes, you know that the mysterious “Google Quality Score” has everything to do with the order in which natural search results advertisements are displayed and the cost and placement of paid AdWords ads
What’s “Quality Score”?
While there may be a computer guru living in the basement of Google headquarters that actually understands the algorithm used to calculate “quality score,” we can say for certain that nobody else understands what goes into calculating the quality score.
Over the years, though, we’ve figured out that Google places more importance on certain website factors than on others when determining a website’s quality score. And one of the major factors Google considers is how well the site addresses trust and confidence concerns of the consumer.
Consumers have legitimate concerns about making purchases online. They are concerned about identity theft, and rightly so. There are lots of scumbags out there. They wonder how much spam supplying their first name and email address is going to create.
A Free “Quality Score” Fix
One very simple – and absolutely free – way to address your customer’s security concerns and make Google happy at the same time is to post a”Privacy Policy” on your website with a direct link to your home page.
You’ve probably thought about adding a privacy policy to your website and decided you didn’t have the legal expertise to draft a privacy policy or the financial wherewithal to hire a legal eagle to draft one for you.
There’s good news! You don’t need to be a lawyer, and you don’t need to hire one. The Better Business Bureau Online has a FREE privacy policy you can use.
Simply copy the sample privacy policy and tweak it to suit your needs. You might want to delete some sections or rearrange the order. You’ll have to plug in the details about your site. It’ll take you 10 minutes, tops!
Then just create a “Privacy Policy” page on your website and link your other pages to it.
Making your site appear more trustworthy to your visitors makes perfect business sense. Taking this simple and FREE step will raise your Google Quality Score at least a little.
Hey great article on privacy policy. What about other aspects such as a Disclaimer and Terms of Use pages?
I’ve been agonizing on just what to include in my Privacy Policy and the information on BBBOnline gives a clear outline. Thank you for providing the link.
Yes Anik,
You really have valid points, privacy policy is very important, not only in the view for potential buyers but also for the big G.
I have noticed this in one of my PPC campaigns, i just added disclaimer and privacy policy in one of my landing page (though i added the links to these pages in my footer with a little smaller font) my QS jumped up from 6 to 9 and average CPC got down from $1.31 to $0.48
I frequently wonder when I am doing a Privacy Policy such as this sample one, how does one go about living up to the provision:
Our Commitment To Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
I feel a bit dishonest when I use this as I don’t have a clue how to place any procedures that safeguard someone’s information online.
Thanks for your help!
Thanks a lot for this, Anik. It’s exactly what I need for my site, and will save me a lot of time and effort trying to compose my own “Privacy Policy” page.
Hi, I have always used the WP Plugin Easy privacy policy. Is that not a good one? You don’t recommend it?