TOS Question

Using javascript to hide keywords

[ari11210]

According to the TOS, are we allowed to use javascript to hide certain words so that adsense ignores them when targetting, using document.write() for example? I have a page that is getting targeted to the wrong words on the page, and I would like to therefore hide those words.
Anyone know?
Thanks
Aaron

[mlemos]

That would be cloaking and could make Google not index that page at all.

Anyway, Google is beta testing the possibility to filter ads that use words specified by the publishers. So, please wait until they make it generally available.

[linear]

Why not just wid<b></b>get, or w&#105;dget? Those would not be cloaking and not require JS.

[ari11210]

Do you think that would work?

[jcoronella]

Yes, it works. I don't do it with adsense, but I have done it before for search engines, and know that Google does not recognize a word when broken up with html. It's a good way to get terms "compoundwidget" and "compound widget" into your page without showing typo's to the user.

Break the word up with a comment or 1x1px gif also works. Wid<!-- -->get or just Wid<>get.

As for violating the TOS, I do not know. Haven't read it.

[helleborine]

mlemos, I think that hiding keywords (if it can be done without disrespect to the TOS) is a better idea than allowing publishers to chose their own keywords - can you say: "FREE-FOR-ALL"?

It might be better to have a way to specify the keywords to avoid.

For example, if you have a widget-fronted-parrot page that gets you ads for power-widgets, you should be able to identify "power" as a NEGATIVE keyword. That would make it real difficult for you to draw "M" ads. I haven't heard Google plans to do this.

Breaking up problem keywords is doing just that, except you have to do it manually and it's tedious.

[alika]

Except how will you really know which of the 100-1000 words in the page will the mediabot pick up? There's no guarantee that the mediabot picks up the keywords above it, below it, in the title tag, etc. Sometimes it does, but many times it doesn't. Hence, you'll read a lot of posts here about mistargeted ads, ads that have nothing to do with the page, etc.

So will you just repeat the "hidden keywords" over and over and over again to increase the chances of it being picked up by the bot?

[mlemos]

helleborine, AFAIK the idea is not to let publishers pick their keywords, but rather exclude ads that contain certain keywords that are unrelated with their sites.

Google allowed me to participate in the beta testing period that is going on. Since my site is about a given programming language, the keywords that I have chosen to exclude are the names of other programming languages. So, now the ads are much more targetted to the audience of my site.

I don't know if Google will let everybody pick excluding keywords arbitrarily, even if they end up extending the ability to exclude keywords to every publishers.

[helleborine]

mlemos, I think it would be fantastic if it could be generalized. I hope the results from the beta are good!