Google Ads Landing Page Quality Score: How to Fix a Below Average Landing Page Experience

I've built 200+ Google Ads landing pages for businesses and agencies. A lot of them started with the same problem. The keyword said "Below average" in the landing page experience column.

Most of the time the ad was sending people to a homepage. Sometimes it was a general services page that covered 10 things at once. The fix is rarely clever. It's a page that gives the searcher what they asked for.

For how the rating works, I only go by Google's own help pages. They're linked in each section and listed at the bottom.

What Quality Score is

Google calls Quality Score a diagnostic tool. It shows how your ad quality compares with other advertisers. It runs from 1 to 10 and it's shown for each keyword (About Quality Score for Search campaigns).

It's based on 3 parts:

1. Expected click-through rate: how likely your ad is to be clicked when it shows.
2. Ad relevance: how closely your ad matches the intent behind the search.
3. Landing page experience: how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click your ad.

Each part gets a rating of Above average, Average or Below average. Google compares you with other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days.

Google is clear that the 1 to 10 number is not an input in the ad auction. It also says there is no ad group, campaign or account level Quality Score (What matters when it comes to ads quality). Treat it as a warning light on each keyword.

Where to see the "Landing page exp." column

The column is hidden by default. Here are Google's steps:

1. Go to Keywords in the Campaigns menu.
2. In the top right corner of the table, click the columns icon.
3. Under "Modify columns for keywords", open the Quality score section.
4. Tick Quality Score, Landing Page Exp., Exp. CTR and Ad Relevance.
5. Click Apply.

There are also "(hist.)" versions of each column. These show past ratings for the date range you're looking at.

If you see a dash instead of a number, Google says there aren't enough searches that exactly match that keyword to give it a score.

Tip: sort by Landing Page Exp. and look at which pages your Below average keywords point to. In my experience it's often the same 1 or 2 pages.

Google also has a Landing pages report under Campaigns, then Insights & reports, then Landing pages. It shows clicks and other stats for each page your ads send traffic to (Evaluate the performance of your landing pages).

What Google says it looks at

Google doesn't publish a full list of signals. These are the points its help pages do make.

• Relevance to the search. Pages with higher ratings are usually well organized and have text that relates to a person's search terms (Landing page experience: Definition).
• Giving people what they're looking for. If someone searches for flannel shirts and clicks your ad for flannel shirts, the page should show flannel shirts (5 ways to use Quality Score).
• Consistent messaging. The page should keep the ad's message and follow through on the ad's offer or call to action.
• Mobile friendly. Google says ease of navigation matters even more to people on mobile.
• Loading speed. Google says page speed can be the difference between someone bouncing or buying.
• Easy to use. Sites that help people find relevant info, complete a task and navigate with ease are more likely to earn high ad quality.

Google also notes that the exact phrase someone searched doesn't need to appear word for word on your page. Relevance matters more than keyword stuffing.

And it suggests using conversion rate as a stand-in for landing page experience. Conversion rate doesn't change the rating. But it's a good way to measure whether the page works.

Finally, Google says information from any of its crawlers may be used to assess ad quality.

My 6 rules for a Google Ads landing page

These are the rules every page I build follows. They're the same 6 listed on my Google Ads landing pages page.

1. One page per ad group. Someone searching for roof repairs lands on a roof repairs page. That match is the biggest single lever on conversion rate and Quality Score.
2. A headline that echoes the search. Visitors decide in seconds whether they're in the right place. The headline tells them they are.
3. Proof above the fold. Your Google rating, real reviews and your own photos. Trust comes before the form.
4. A short form and your real phone number. Only the fields you need. Leads go straight to your inbox the moment someone submits.
5. Fast on mobile. Most Google Ads clicks come from phones. Test every page for mobile speed before it goes live.
6. Conversion tracking from day one. Set up form and call conversions in Google Ads. Then you can see which clicks become leads from the very first day.

Rules 1 and 2 cover what Google calls relevance and consistent messaging. Rules 3 and 4 make the page useful and easy to act on. Rule 5 is Google's mobile and speed advice. Rule 6 gives you the conversion rate Google suggests watching.

Why not the homepage

A homepage talks to everyone, so it convinces no one in particular. Someone who searched for emergency boiler repair wants a page about emergency boiler repair. A homepage makes them hunt through a menu to find it.

That's the opposite of Google's flannel shirts example. The ad promised one thing and the page shows 10.

A homepage also can't match every ad group. If you run separate ad groups for boiler repair, boiler installation and boiler servicing, each ad says something different. One homepage can't follow through on all 3.

With one page per ad group, the keyword, the ad and the page all say the same thing. That's the setup Google describes when it talks about consistent messaging.

Questions people ask

What is a good landing page experience rating?

Average or Above average. Google says either one means there are no major problems with that keyword's landing page experience. Below average means you might want to make some changes to the page.

Does landing page experience change my cost per click?

It can. Google says the 1 to 10 Quality Score is a diagnostic tool and not an input in the ad auction. But Google does use the quality of your ads and landing page when it works out Ad Rank. Google also says higher quality ads typically cost less per click than lower quality ads.

Sources: About Ad Rank and About ad quality.

How quickly does the rating change?

Google doesn't give a set time. The ratings compare your keyword with other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days. To watch the score move, segment your keywords table by day.

Is Quality Score only for Search campaigns?

Google's help page is called About Quality Score for Search campaigns. It shows the score for each keyword on the Keywords page. Google's Performance Max help page doesn't mention Quality Score. It does say that with final URL expansion, Google may replace your final URL with a more relevant landing page. So in Performance Max, any page on your site that Google could pick needs to be a good one.

Source: About Performance Max campaigns.

Can I fix it without a new page?

Sometimes. Google says that even if you have no control over your site, you can test which of your existing pages are most useful. Pointing an ad group at the right existing page can be enough. If no page on your site matches the search, that's when a new page helps.

Want a page built for each ad group?

That's what I do. I build Google Ads landing pages matched to each ad group, for businesses and for agencies. Every page follows the 6 rules above and goes live with conversion tracking set up.

Google's help pages used in this guide

• About Quality Score for Search campaigns
• Landing page experience: Definition
• 5 ways to use Quality Score to improve your performance
• What matters (and what doesn't) when it comes to ads quality
• About ad quality
• About Ad Rank
• Evaluate the performance of your landing pages
• About Performance Max campaigns

Checked October 21, 2026.

About the author

Ben Allen has built 200+ Google Ads landing pages for businesses and agencies. He is a Google Partner with 8+ years in Google Ads and $10M+ in ad spend managed.