Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Rule #1
‘Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant.’
This statement is kind of arbitrary. What is the rule to decide if a page with relevant content was put up for the sake of displaying ads?
Rule #2
‘Deceptive or manipulative content or construction to improve your site's search engine ranking, e.g., your site's PageRank’
Whenever I add content to my site I’m doing it to get traffic by having a better site and to educate potential customers on the subject. When they link to us because of the free information, in theory, my PageRank increases.
Is it me or according to these 2 rules, if you take them literally, you cannot add content to you site that may improve your SE rankings because of other’s actions by linking to your site and it is up to someone at (G) to decide if you are building pages ‘specifically for the purpose of showing ads’ even though you may have relevant or very relevant content. People at (G) are pretty darn smart, but I don’t think they have enough people to have an expert on every subject in the world.
What I am doing is building a glossary of terms used in my industry. I’m doing this because a lot of our traffic is people looking for free information or how to do something and because I can link content elsewhere on our site with the definitions for jargon, formulas, etc. used to make it easier for the visitor to understand what they are reading. The subject can be very complex math formulas and theories about it.
The index page is a list of about 100 different terms, to start with, in alphabetical order. I think I should be OK with ads on that page, but each one of those terms will link to a separate page with the actual definitions, formulas, related charts or graphs, and sometime history. The range in size of these pages should be from a couple of lines to a couple of browser pages.
Will I end up in the dog house with (G) by putting ads on the individual pages? What can I do to insure I don’t cross the line?
All these pages are hand coded and I really wanted to set up a template with the page layout to speed up the hand coding.
For #1, I don't think you'll get into trouble as long as there is sufficient content on each page. However having a separate page for a bunch of one-paragraph definitions seems excessive and might well get you into trouble. If it wasn't for AdSense, would you really put a one- or two-line definition on a separate page? There'd be quite a bit of whitespace left over.
For #2, I think the key words are "Deceptive or manipulative". From your description, that doesn't seem to apply.
Yea, I think I might because as I add stuff it could get into a real bookkeeping nightmare trying to keep all those #bookmarks pointed to the correct page and bookmark. I've had several problems using them from other pages. If the end user is on dialup, they can get the page loaded, but never get to the bookmark, and I have also had bookmarks for page one pointing to page 2. I think it is a FP2K problem, so I have already got into trouble trying to keep a lot of #bookmarks straight.
If I could get some specific hints, it would be very helpful. I certainly want to do the right thing. I'm not the sneaky type, but I don't have even the faintest idea how to make a wise decision.
‘Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant.’
Think if you were starting a radio station, television station, newspaper or magazine. Wouldn't some of your pages or minutes be used "specifically for showing ads"? Something has to give here.
2) This is very clear, IMHO. If you're doing anything that violates Google's Webmaster guidelines, then you're endangering your Google search listings and your AdSense account.
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
[google.com...]
Well a glossary, dictionary, or what ever you want to call it, would indeed have ‘intrinsic’ or ‘real’ value to the visitor if they were searching for a definition or a formula, or a graphic example for a term, wouldn’t it?
I would guess-a-mate that over 25% of the visitors are looking for formulas for this subject and rules that need to be use in their businesses.
I’m still thinking I’m safe with the ads on the index page, but I should not put the ads on a definition page unless the definition page is over something like18K.
Heh, Good point.
My site was around for years before adsense. I'm just adding content, you know, 'content is king', I don't really need to put them in the glossary at all, but some of the terms are very unique and could work well for the advertisers. The subjects on the definition pages is very specific.
These pages are going to be so deep that the PR may not be more than 2 anyway.
[edit]
jomaxx
Yea, that was my main concern as well.
[/edit]
The goal is simple: if someone is doing something funky that doesn't fall into a strictly defined category, Google still needs to be able to boot them.
Any smart company will include very broad language like this in their TOS, as it's impossible for Google (or anyone) to foresee every way that the system might be abused, and the TOS are likely to be interpreted strictly if anything ever ends up in court.
So, to put it simply, it's CYA language that boils down to "if you do anything we don't like we can boot you." As a publisher, such language always causes me to wonder if I'm accidentally doing something wrong, but if I were in Google's position, I would do the same.
MQ
I agree, I don't have a problem with their language or rules, I just don't want to get had on a technicality I didn't see.
I agree, I don't have a problem with their language or rules, I just don't want to get had on a technicality I didn't see.
That is also my view. In addition, I do plan for growth, and I want Adsense to be in that plan. And I definitely want to do it in a way that is acceptable to my client (Google).
If only they could publish something that was more descriptive similar to Webmaster Guidlines...
"Pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads" is pretty broad, I agree, and again europeforvisitors said it better than I could. If your pages contain valuable content, and aren't overwhelmed with ads or stuffed keywords, or have deceptive layouts, they should be in compliance with this policy.
On another note - I haven't been around very much recently, for which I apologize. For the next two weeks, though, I won't be around at all, as I'm heading out on holiday. When I return, I plan on having more personal time to dedicate to the forums. Hopefully you'll be seeing more of me then, and faster responses to your posts.
ASA.
G is young and immature... and the guidelines reveal that. Stop worrying about the details and make money while you can. There's nothing else you can do at this time.
Can you imagine an advertising agency saying it won't place ads in any publication which is designed for displaying ads?
In a nutshell, a page that is able to generate clicks (let alone impressions) has already shown it has enough value to show ads. Thank you ASA for clearing this up, and have a nice holiday of course.
Every publisher I know is publishing in order to generate advertising revenue -- and so am I. I am sure there are some in it for the journalistic flavor or artistic value or whatever, but they are not commercial businesses ( by IRS definition, seeking to make a profit).
You might as well claim that there's no difference between a newspaper and a weekly shopping flyer, or between a TV network like CBS and the QVC shopping channel. In fact, there is a difference: one is supported by advertising, while the other is advertising. AdSense publishers are welcome to dispute or deny the difference, but their arguments won't carry much weight if Google decides to pull the plug on their accounts.
Can you imagine an advertising agency saying it won't place ads in any publication which is designed for displaying ads?
If you're trying to make an analogy between advertising agencies and AdSense, you should have asked: "Can you imagine an advertising agency saying it won't place ads in any publication that is designed primarily for displaying ads?" And the answer to that question is: "Yes--advertising agencies can be very selective in their media buying."
Still, the easiest way to figure out whether a page meets the AdSense guidelines is to strip out the ads and see what's left. Does the page have intrinsic value (editorial, community, corporate information, e-commerce, or whatever) without the "Ads by Google" box? Or would a Google QC person's first reaction be, "This is just a shell of a page with keywords that were included to trigger AdSense ads?"
