Google wants users to have a positive experience when they click on the search results in either Google’s organic or paid listings. An important component of the user experience is the page they are taken to when they click on an advertisement – the advertiser’s landing page.

Google reviews (electronically and/or manually) each landing page and calculates a landing page quality score – a component of your keywords’ overall Quality Score. According to Google, a high landing page quality score can impact your AdWords account in three ways:

• Decrease your keywords’ minimum bids
• Increase your keyword-targeted ads’ position on the content network
• Improve the chances that your placement-targeted ads will win a position on your targeted placements

One of the factors in your landing page quality score is how you handle visitors’ personal information. Google’s guidelines on personal information:

• Unless necessary for the product or service that you’re offering, don’t request personal information.
• If you do request personal information, provide a privacy policy that discloses how the information will be used.
• Give options to limit the use of a user’s personal information, such as the ability to opt out of receiving newsletters.
• Allow users to access your site’s content without requiring them to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.

So, if you want to optimize your landing pages, one of the things to include is a privacy policy that can be easily seen/accessed by both your human visitors and the Googlebot as well. I recommend a separate web page labeled “privacy policy” with links from each page on your site to the privacy policy.

If you want to include a trust element (credibility indicator) which can leverage your privacy policy and may provide a small bump in conversions, check out the Truste website for one of their privacy seals.