It's ironic that Google themselves should be taken to task over the issue of a link to their Privacy policy.

It's claimed that this is difficult to find and that it should be more prominent and visible directly on their home page, arguably the most valuable piece of cyber "real estate" on the planet.

Even the claimants admit that when you do find it, it is a robust document that they are not unhappy with.

The link is actually only one click away from the home page, so if you click "About Google" you can then see it prominently in the footer.

So why would Google be defensive about including such a link on their home page?

One of the factors in the AdWords Quality Score is whether the landing page you arrive at by clicking on an ad belongs to a "real" website, and not just a page existing in isolation, which in Google's opinion is not as valuable or relevant to a user as a proper website.

These are very common and litter the Internet in the form of "squeeze pages" or long-form Sales Letters. Google does not like them.

So your bid prices get jacked up if you have pages with no outgoing or incoming links to them.

A common and easy way to address this is to have outgoing links from landing pages to things like Privacy or Terms and Conditions pages.

Obviously in Google's case, quality is not an issue. So, why no Privacy link on the Home page?

I believe it has to do with the concept of "money pages".

Reading about privacy does not help Google to interact with you in a profitable way.

If you follow all the other links from their home page, you either end up at more ways to search, or refine your search, or learn about more services from Google. All of these are profitable to them (and possibly you).

So will we see a Privacy link on the Google Home page soon?

I doubt they will feel compelled to provide it!

Back to Google AdWords Tips home.

Here's the full article on the BBC website