Google penalises slow-loading ads

Google is planning to crack down on web ads which have landing pages that take too long to load.

The search firm will add a penalty to the 'Quality Score' used to determine the placement each ad receives when matched with a search result.

Google revealed on its Inside AdWords blog that the policy will begin over the next few weeks with the addition of a load-time feature to the keyword analysis page in AdWords.

After the tool is in place, advertisers will be given one month to make changes and speed up load times before Google begins levying penalties.

Once the penalties are in place, AdWords users will begin to see their quality scores drop.

The lower score will also raise a user's minimum bid which determines the minimum cost an advertiser can pay per click.

Google said that several factors can hamper loading time, the most common being slow servers and multiple page redirects.

"Users have the best experience when they don't have to wait a long time for landing pages to load," said the Inside AdWords team.

"They are also more likely to abandon landing pages that load slowly, which can hurt your conversion rate."