AdSense dropped the URLs on my AdSense units

URLs dropped on my ads

[wackybrit]

Today I decided to split my ads into proper channels and make some tweaks to the color. I also decided to move the URL color to be a little more pale, but still readable. I pasted the new AdSense code up, and it all worked great, except..

URLs no longer appear in my AdSense ads.

You might think that perhaps I chose a color that was too pale, but I don't think I did. I also viewed the HTML source of the AdSense IFRAME and the URL info was actually missing directly from the code. I even clicked and dragged the text in the AdSense IFRAME (while being careful not to actually click on the ads) and the text clearly is not there.

Is this a new Google policy? If their software thinks the URL color you chose is too pale, they'll just remove the URL? I always thought the URL *had* to be visible.

Any ideas?

[Frequent]

Perhaps you stumbled upon, or were promoted to a premium publisher feature?

Freq---

[hunderdown]

If you view the source code of the ad, you'll never see the URL. That's just not IN the source code--it's in what is served by Google.

What ad format is it? I've noticed that the URL never shows in the half-banner format, and in fact I've stopped using it, because I WANT users to see the URL.

[wackybrit]

hunderdown: I mean I viewed the source of the actual Google AdSense IFRAME (not the JavaScript). I also just clicked in the IFRAME (but not on an ad), and copy and pasted all the text into a text editor.. and no URLs (but all the ad text was fine). They're definitely not there.

The ad boxes in question are Leaderboards.

[camper]

Leaderboard ads usually don't show URLs.

[hunderdown]

OK, so that's what it is--you don't get the URL in Leaderboards. Or in Banner or Half Banner--if you look at the Ad samples at Google that's what you will see too.

[wackybrit]

They have (on my site) for the past several months though. That's why I noticed it. I let my CMS rebuild all my pages with the new code, and I refreshed and noticed the URL was missing whereas before the refresh (on the old code) it was there.

I imagine if I darken my URL color a bit, they'll come back (although I want to see if anything improves with them gone, since Google seems not to mind it).

All that said, I last generated my AdSense code several months ago, and Google's own demo page shows them without URLs now, so perhaps I've merely upgraded to the latest standard..

[camper]

I would say that maybe 80 percent of the time, on my site at least, the leaderboard ads don't show URLs.

[incrediBILL]

Only certain ads show URLs so take a look at the Ad Formats page and you'll see which formats should show URLs.

[google.com...]

[hunderdown]

Perhaps your old code was pulling up an old format that they had dropped from general use. AdSense is constantly tinkering.

[wackybrit]

Amusingly they're back again today, except the URLs are in black. Clearly they don't like #dddddd on the URLs!

I'll chalk this one up to Google testing stuff and that it's generally pretty random :) Thanks guys.

[netmeg]

It IS pretty random, since it seems to change on my site from one day to the next - and I have them set in the standard blue on a grey background, so there's no question that they're formatted not to show up. I have no idea why sometimes they're there and sometimes they aren't. It's weird.