Having discussed the Adwords Quality Score (QS) last week, I have just noticed that Google have now updated their QS algorithm. This means that when you login to Adwords you can now choose to show and hide columns, one of which is called “Quality Score”.  Google’s help tells us that keywords can have one of three Quality Score states:

1.       Great: Your keyword is very relevant and your Quality Score needs no improvement.
2.       OK: Your keyword is relevant, but you can still benefit from a higher Quality Score.
3.       Poor: This keyword is not very relevant to users and we suggest that you replace it with a more specific keyword. If you would like to keep advertising with this keyword, we recommend optimising by using more targeted ad text and improving your landing page content.

For me, this transparency improves my experience of Adwords. In the past, the quality score has been an unknown factor which could, potentially, have quite an impact on the amount you are bidding on certain keywords and your subsequent advert positions. This is certainly an improvement.