Does an adsense penalty exist?

[kidder]

Recently we dropped one adsense block in a site that is only a few months old. The site was ranking 3rd for our chosen search term and the link work done to get it there was minimal and fair, nothing even close to agressive. Within 48 hours of adding the adsnse code the site dropped like a stone for the volume term and a week or so later I can't find it in the first 100. The site is an information based wordpress blog and it does continue to rank for longer more specific search terms. It certainly does look like we painted a target on our heads...

[leadegroot]

Well, test it and find out - remove adsense and see if it comes back. Then put it back on and see if it drops again (assuming it comes back).
Then you'll know!

[kidder]

I'm not sure Google would make it that easy to spot but I will take it down just to see what happens.

[CainIV]

There definitely is a MFA (made for adsense) filter that can exist. A domain can be assessed with that filter. I confirmed this last year with an Adwords rep after she did some digging for me.

The problem of course lies in the fact that it is very difficult to tell exactly what triggers it. Rapid onset of ads? Number of ads? Manual look?

And what makes it more difficult is that many authority / high ranking websites have adsense pretty much 'plastered' on their pages, have for years, and are doing just fine.

[kidder]

Thanks for the input Cain, your right about the how, we will probably never know but I guess it makes little difference. Once you place the adsense code on a site it better measure up or bad things can happen indoors as they say...

[cangoou]

I'm not sure if the current time is good for testing such theories - I have some sites gone and coming back due to the "after-holidays-before-caffein-update-chaos" Google seems to be in at the moment without changing anything.