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No "back" - breach of TOS?

hermes

9:52 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

If I use a mechanism, for instance in javascript, that prevents a user getting back to my site using the "back" button after they have clicked off my site with an adsense advert - is this a breach of google TOS? (ethics aside)

Tropical Island

10:17 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

yes.

jomaxx

10:26 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

You want to prevent people from getting TO your site? At best it's bizarre, at worst it would be a TOS violation. I think you'd have to be more specific about what exactly the JS would do.

ken_b

10:39 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

Hmmm, I'd guess it would at least be marginally against the TOS.

But I'm more curious about why you'd want to do this. The only thing I can think of off hand is that you might be concerned about folks returning to your site and clicking another ad, thus driving your CTR to a high level.

If that's it, I wouldn't worry. I have a low traffic page where that seems to happen at times and the CTR can get close to and even over 100%. I haven't had any problems from that, and it's been that way for over 18 months. Of course the CTR is normally much lower, with a mid-twenties long term average, but those spikes happen occasionally.

This effect doesn't seem noticeable on higher traffic pages.

If that's not the reason, would you mind saying what your thinking is?

[edited by: ken_b at 10:56 pm (utc) on Dec. 2, 2005]

incrediBILL

10:43 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

Alex, I'll take "silly adsense ideas" for $600 please!

Not sure why you would want to stop people from getting back as I see a lot of my visitors clicking 2-3 ads when they're looking for something.

If I stopped them from getting back to my site I'd lose money, might as well not let them in the site in the first place.

Hobbs

10:56 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

he is probably thinking that google's seeing his visitors going back to his pages could be perceived as a low conversion on his part, and when the visitors drop off the advertisers page to somewhere else, or click some more of the advertiser's links first, it is the advertiser's problem, just guessing as the question was not specific.
Hermes, unless you're planning an MFA there is no reason to do that, do people get away with it? Yes. For how long? It's like throwing dice.

hermes

11:11 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

Actually at the moment I only have one ad on my page - so once they click they of little value to me. But am now thinking to ad more ads, in which case yes, I would welcome them back. In fact, yes now I think about it, I will add more ads. Was thinking that they would perhaps be more inclined to look through advertisers site if couldnt go back. Maybe more chance hitting a conversion page.

sailorjwd

11:12 pm on Dec 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

Would you mind sending them over to my homepage when they try to come back? I'll give you a penny each.

Ps. what you are saying is absolutely nuts.

Knappster

1:36 am on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

... so once they click they of little value to me.

Can we assume that your website's content is of little value to users?

Jay718

1:48 am on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

Speaking of visitors coming back to your site....what if another ad catches they eye...is ok for them to click or would that be considered fraudlent

ann

2:49 am on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

I am still wondering about how he will control the back button on the site the user clicked through to?

I'll take door #2 :)

jomaxx

6:08 am on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

How about this? Seems like it should give users fits.

<BODY onLoad="history.forward();">

:-)

jetteroheller

6:11 am on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

Just happened in Austria, a hunter shot in his own knee. Is this a breach of common sense?

At last, it was an accident, the hunter did not plan it carefully to shut in his own knee.

sonny

6:27 am on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

Someone is concerned about the advertisers. Don't see that much.

jetteroheller

1:28 pm on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

I find this really dangerouse.

Imagine Goolge would make statistics about how many users click on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ads.

So if on hit site, visitors click only 1 ad, but never 2 ads, a statistic is strange alarm could occure.

21_blue

1:41 pm on Dec 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

Sonny wrote:
>Someone is concerned about the advertisers. Don't see that much.

Actually, I thought the motive was to increase the conversion rate, which is implicitly about the Publisher's SmartPrice (?).

This could actually be bad for the advertiser. If I find a "back" button is disabled, I assume the site currently being viewed has done it, and exit the site never to return again.