Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The practice you describe is unethical. A single page with little content and no links is of little value. You deceive Google into believing you are providing an incontext page linking to other relevant content (on your own site or externally). But if the users don't know the links are there, they may as well not exist. So the user takes the simple escape route by clicking an ad that they otherwise wouldn't have bothered with. So you have now deceived Google, wasted the time of the site visitor, and robbed from the advertiser.
The links on this site are black and underlined. If an AdSense banner was pasted in using the default blue link coloring, would that too be decieving?
The only differences I see are in the motives behind the color scheme.
His adsense ads just use the default blue link color scheme (which just makes them stand out more instead of blending).
I don't see what would be wrong with this. Many people make their adsense ads contrast with their color scheme because the blending doesn't work for their visitor demographic.
just styling his links to match the black page text color (something a lot of sites do, including webmasterworld).
In the title he specifically said "Hide own links" ... so to me that says he's doing more than just matching text colours. No underlines, perhaps? More info would be useful.
Around Webmaster World links are the underlines make it crystal clear that they are links; nothing dodgy there.
The page is constructed to convince Google that it is relevant to a user's search, and that it provides links to other related information.
Google presents the page in its SERPS in good faith.
The user arrives at the page and finds a dead end. The only way out (to their eye) is by clicking an ad or backing up. "There's nothing here that really helps me, and no links to any help. I may as well click this ad."
The user follows the ad link only to find products that really aren't what they need.
You have stolen from the advertiser by misrepresenting your content. You have wasted the time of the user. And you have reduced the overall quality of the search results.
Why do you need a TOS to know that this is just wrong?
In the title he specifically said "Hide own links" ... so to me that says he's doing more than just matching text colours. No underlines, perhaps? More info would be useful.
People often use "creative" titles to get people to respond to their topcis :)
If you read the actual meat of the message, it sounds like he's not doing anything different than a LOT of websites do. Unstyled, same color text links happen alot with and without adsense sites. Not very good for useability, but it's not deceptive (some think it looks *better* to have non underlined links).
text-decoration: none is not a crime.
I don't need to see a TOS to know that this practice ("Hide own links...") is unethical.
If you read the actual post instead of the titilating post title, it doesn't sound an unethical as that.
The page is constructed to convince Google that it is relevant to a user's search, and that it provides links to other related information.Google presents the page in its SERPS in good faith.
The user arrives at the page and finds a dead end. The only way out (to their eye) is by clicking an ad or backing up. "There's nothing here that really helps me, and no links to any help. I may as well click this ad."
Where are you getting all this information from?
The user follows the ad link only to find products that really aren't what they need.
You have stolen from the advertiser by misrepresenting your content. You have wasted the time of the user. And you have reduced the overall quality of the search results.
Where did you get all this information from? Just the three words in the Title?
Could be matter of a language barrier, not knowing what to call unstyled links. Could just be a matter of poor word choice for the title. But you seem to be extrapolating a lot of information from nowhere.
Why do you need a TOS to know that this is just wrong?
Are you so sure that what he is describing (in his actual post) is wrong?
Create quality content people like to read, and your clicks will come.
Stay away from disguising links with the same color as text as there is some avenues of thought that the SE's do not like this.
Are you so sure that what he is describing (in his actual post) is wrong?
Hide was the original poster's term, not mine. And no, they do not elaborate on what they mean by it. But since that is the adjective chosen to describe the actions by the one who knows best, I am basing my statements on that stated intent.
...the adjective chosen...
Good night.
Also I have another try for my web site, I point all links on my web page to a summary at the end of this web page. In this summary, there's google ads and all my own links. Of course, they are all blue. This also increases CTR. Is this OK?
My web pages are all very long and I had very low eCPM before (<$0.02). Now it has $0.15.
