Since mid-February we have been reporting that Google to Lay Down the Law on AdWords Display URL Policy. We have issued reminder after reminder, heck, even Google posted reminders all over the place - sometimes in big red backgrounds:
But it appears, from what I am hearing in the forums and from back channels, that Google has not yet enforced this rule. Advertisers are reportedly still getting away with having their display URLs not match their destination URLs. What happened to the strict enforcement of this rule?
Here are some reports from Sphinn and WebmasterWorld. What seriously shows a sign that nothing is happening are the few complaints in the forums. Actually, I haven't seen anyone impacted or complaining about being hit by this rule. I have seen people complain that this rule is not being enforced.
From the Sphinn thread, Bill Hartzer said:
We have received word that ReachLocal is not affected by the new Google AdWords display URL policy. More coming soon...
ReachLocal has a huge client base, so if true - and I believe it is true - then what is going on?
From the WebmasterWorld thread:
Absolutely no changes whatsoever. I'm still seeing old ads with violations. New ads with violations are also being created. When I report yet another keyword with three ads going to the same website, the CSRs hum and haw and then say they'll escalate it to the "specialists"....then nothing gets done about it.And my test ad that I launched a few days ago is still running. Nobody has visited the destination URL since a few minutes after I launched it, so either ads are not reviewed or they're reviewed by monkeys that don't understand English.
I'm normally fairly respectful, but at this point I'm convinced that idiots are working in the AdWords team. Did everyone with half a brain cash in their stock options and flee to Facebook?!
Ouch!
Google, are you going to enforce the display URL rule or not?
Forum discussion at Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.
