The Norwegian Prayer

We put together a motley crew for dinner at SES last night in NYC that included Americans, a Brit, and a couple Icelanders.  One of the Americans was a sharp young lady from Minnesota.

As we were chatting about where we are all from she mentioned that her heritage was Norwegian and that she knew how to say a prayer in Norwegian.  At this point Kristjan Hauksson of Nordic eMarketing said that he could speak some Norwegian and would love to hear the prayer.  As our young friend recited her prayer (passed down from her Grandmother) Kristjan looked up and kindly said, “I don’t know what that was but it was definitely not Norwegian.”  It was offered up that the Swedish cook on the Muppets seemed to have influenced at least some of it.  Our friend was a bit flummoxed.

Then as a group we came to the conclusion that this prayer was very likely quite confusing to God and it was no wonder she never got a pony as a child. 

But, all kidding aside it struck me that many advertiser’s landing pages might be having this same type of "Norwegian Prayer” problem.  If you are choosing keywords that have little to no relevance to the content on your landing page you could very well be confusing the bot which in turn could be penalizing your quality score.  So, what to do to insure that your landing page content is relevant and your advertising prayers are answered?

5 Ways to Avoid Norwegian Prayer Syndrome

1. Make sure your content is relevant to your ad (ie. Are you speaking the same language literally and figuratively on your site as in your ad?)

2. Use your keywords on the page when possible

3. Keep your keywords in the main content of the page when using them

4. Make sure your page loads quickly

5. Show signs of trust on the landing page

Best of luck with your campaigns going forward and remember to keep your ads and landing pages clear, concise, and understandable for everyone involved!

Thanks for reading,

Phil Greenwood - Manager, Global Web & Community Team

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