Pages published specifically for showing ads

can someone clarify this from the TOS

[oldskool79]

In the Adsense TOS it says:

"Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant."

My site generates income soley from Google Adsense, so every page I publish is really for the soul purpose of showing ads. Of course, these pages have related, valuable content on them, but if I wasn't going to put Adsense on them I would have no other reason to create them.

What exactly is Google trying to stop with this clause?

[Retalin]

They are trying to stop you from building a page with specific key words that target higher paying ads.

[level80]

That's why they won't allow the email address people use for an Adsense account to be used to sign up for an Adword account for example... however it's common knowledge what the more highly paid keywords are anyway...

[Retalin]

Care to share this common knowledge?

[level80]

The higher paying keywords/ phrases have been discussed before on this and other forums on webmasterworld. However I feel that writing them here would only encourage pages about high value keywords which AFAIK is not what Google wants publishers in the Adsense program to do. As you asked though I'll give you an example - mesothelioma lawyer - it's current CPC on Google Adwords is £13.83 (~$24.31).

[Jenstar]

That's why they won't allow the email address people use for an Adsense account to be used to sign up for an Adword account for example

Is this recent? There was a bug for a while where some were having problems signing up for AdSense/Adwords using the same email address they used for the another. I believe it was fixed, and I know many who have signed up for one using the same email address as another. Both my Adwords and AdSense account use the same, and there is nothing preventing users checking anything within Adwords simply because it is the same email address as is used for AdSense.

That specific part of the terms was often used to prevent keyword spam pages that were published for AdSense, but not quality content pages running AdSense.

[Sunflux]

Heh, I think they're thinking more along these lines:

A week or so ago I was trying to find some information on the net, and I came across a site whose ENTIRE content was small pages of keywords relating to a single subject. Besides for the keywords, the only content on the page was an AdSense ad with (of course) ads relating to those keywords.

[yump]

I've come across quite a few directory-type sites where most of the links appeared to be Overture related with a brief summary of what the link was, although the summaries often don't relate to the final destination. I guess Google wouldn't like Adsense appearing on these sites.

However there's also quite a few directory sites running Adsense where most of the site is without content and mainly affiliate links, although with a vague kind of review of something. So not really apparent what the exact TOS means, unless they just haven't caught up with these latter sites.

Hope they do as they're just a frustration for most surfers, sending you round in irrelevant circles. At least most of the affiliate links won't generate any money if they annoy searchers, so the sites will die anyway.