My domain name showing in the adlinks box on my site, Why?

[ken_b]

Here's a strange situation, at least it seems strange to me.

While checking some pages that I had just updated I noticed my domain name listed IN the Adlinks box. It didn't have the www. or .com included, just the name itself.

Since I don't run any adwords ad campaigns this baffled me. This occured about an hour ago.

I clicked on my domain name where it appeared in the adlinks box. I thought maybe someone else was running a ad campaign using my domain name. Clicking on that link took me to a Google page that simply said ......

Sorry! We couldn't find any ads related to your topic. Please enter another topic below.

followed by a search box.

Any idea why my domain name should be appearing inside the adlinks box?

[Father_of_9]

It's nothing, don't worry.

[ken_b]

>> It's nothing...

Maybe to you. But when a visitor clicks a link expecting to see ads and gets a page saying "Sorry, no ads available" it troubles me. I get paid for clicks, I don't want them leading to nowhere.

Not to mention that my domain name doesn't belong in that box unless someone is running an ad targetting it, and since that's wouldn't be me, I'd like to know who it was.

[maxgoldie]

I dont see how anyone could say, "it's nothing"... there could be all sorts of things afoul with all of the different ways that people are learning how to scam the system. Always better to err on the side of caution.

Best thing to do is to get a screen of it and send it to G, and ask them what's up with that.

[ken_b]

Yeah, I did email G about it. I also got the screen shot.

Looking closer at this thing it's really off.

I'm using a 4 line adlink block. The four links in the block looked like this

My Domain name
My Sub folder 1 name
My Sub folder 2 name
Page file name

In other words the four links showed nearly the complete url of the page. Adlinks had somehow parsed the url.

I thought maybe I messed posting the adlinks code somehow, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I haven't been able to replicate the situation, good thing I got the screen shot.

[roycerus]

Well... What would you get if you search for "Google" on Google - you'll get results right? So "Google" is considered a keyword. I think the answer is simple - Google recognizes your domain name to be a keyword - that's all. And since no one is running any ads on your domain name you see "No ads available".

Of course it's a problem because ideally they should not be adding keywords for which you don't have any ads.

[novice]

Since I don't run any adwords ad campaigns this baffled me.

I don't think this has anything to due with AdWords. AdLinks are basically links to ads that are related to the topic of your site.

For some reason Google is picking up names in your domain name and sub-folders and using them as related links. Are you linking to your sub-folders, or using text, with those same keywords that are showing in your AdLinks.

I don't think it's anything to worry about with this happening, I think the thing to worry about is that Google is picking up words that have no ads related to them. That is the part that seems weird.

[ken_b]

Are you linking to your sub-folders, or using text, with those same keywords that are showing in your AdLinks.

Well they are all in the link code of course, but not in the anchor text. And the same exact word form (except for the domain name) doesn't appear on page anywhere on my site.

[novice]

And the same exact word form (except for the domain name) doesn't appear on page anywhere on my site.

Are you using sub-folder names that would obviously be related to your site.

For example if your domain name, which you stated is in word form, is fluffywidgets.com. When you mention fluffy widgets on your page, Google is probably speculating on related words that you are also using for sub-folders, such widget repairs, widget supplies...

Just a thought.

[ken_b]

That's an intersting thought. My domain name is an unhyphenated two word combination.

If you search google for those two words seperated by a space G asks if you meant... mydomain.

But I don't see how it could apply to the other terms.

MySubFolder 1 is a simple three letter comnbination with no obvious meaning.

MySubFolder 2 is a seemingly unrelated word... it might as well be "pages" or some other such meaningless term.

The file name is a combination of an abreviation for the subject of the page and 4 digit number.

[novice]

So Your AdLinks looked similar to this?

Ads by Gooogle
Domain Name [Google.com]
XZL [Google.com]
Pages [Google.com]
DN1234 [google.com]

That is very strange.

[ken_b]

Yes, that's it.

Strange indeed. It'll be interesting to see what Google says.