Is Google influencing ads that show?

[Ironside]

I have been looking around at various websites that display Google ads and there seems to be a trend with what ads I am seeing. Now I'm including my own website here. I'm seeing an awful lot of Google AdSense banners, not only on my own website, but on websites to do with weight loss. Are Google deliberately bombarding the Internet with their own ads? It was always my understanding that Google AdSense follows the subject of your website. I am not seeing much evidence of this lately. Maybe you should do some experiments yourself. What you see on your website is not necessarily what other people will see. So if you run a website that is automobile related, one would expect Google AdSense to display adverts relating to cars? From what I have seen lately, it doesn't work like that any more. I am wondering whether Google are influencing what adverts show where and when. After all, they are there to make money for themselves, why should they really want to help make money for us?

[netmeg]

Google has always advertised their products in AdWords; they claim they go into the auction and bid against regular advertisers. Believe that or not. Generally speaking when I see lots of Google ads, it tends to be because they are having trouble figuring out what else to serve. So check and make sure Google understands what your page is about, and that you're not inadvertently blocking any googlebots that could be spidering your site.

Also, you may be seeing interest based ads instead of contextual ads. Check that too.

You can also block google.com. Many people do.

[Ironside]

I'm not sure if this is an issue or not, but I'm looking in Webmaster tools and under "crawl errors" if I hover over "robots.txt fetch" a caption comes up saying "crawl postponed because robots.txt was inaccessible". Now I remember some time ago doing something to stop the Google bot from accessing my website so much, this may be part of my problem. What is your opinion?

However, I am saying that Google bot has been crawling my site on a regular basis, so I don't think the problem anywhere, I hope

[netmeg]

crawl postponed because robots.txt was inaccessible

some time ago doing something to stop the Google bot from accessing my website so much, this may be part of my problem

That would definitely be the first thing I'd take a look at. If you have any restrictions still in place, take them off for a while and see what happens.

[IanCP]

crawl postponed because robots.txt was inaccessible

I've had that for years and years. What's it all about?

I didn't want Google to index my .gif and .jpg files as well as certain "test" directories.

ADDED - It hasn't affected anything.

[robzach]

Should I block every google products by blocking google.com URL?

[Lame_Wolf]

You can also block google.com. Many people do.

This is my list of Google sites that I have blocked. It is not a complete list of what they have, but will help.

www.google.ae
www.google.am
www.google.as
www.google.at
www.google.az
www.google.ba
www.google.be
www.google.bg
www.google.bi
www.google.bs
www.google.ca
www.google.cd
www.google.cg
www.google.ch
www.google.ci
www.google.cl
www.google.co.bw
www.google.co.ck
www.google.co.cr
www.google.co.hu
www.google.co.id
www.google.co.il
www.google.co.im
www.google.co.in
www.google.co.je
www.google.co.jp
www.google.co.ke
www.google.co.kr
www.google.co.ls
www.google.co.nz
www.google.co.th
www.google.co.ug
www.google.co.uk
www.google.co.ve
www.google.co.vi
www.google.co.za
www.google.co.zm
www.google.com.af
www.google.com.ag
www.google.com.ar
www.google.com.au
www.google.com.bd
www.google.com.bo
www.google.com.br
www.google.com.bz
www.google.com.co
www.google.com.cu
www.google.com.do
www.google.com.ec
www.google.com.et
www.google.com.fj
www.google.com.gi
www.google.com.gt
www.google.com.hk
www.google.com.jm
www.google.com.ly
www.google.com.mt
www.google.com.mx
www.google.com.my
www.google.com.na
www.google.com.nf
www.google.com.ni
www.google.com.np
www.google.com.om
www.google.com.pa
www.google.com.pe
www.google.com.ph
www.google.com.pk
www.google.com.pr
www.google.com.py
www.google.com.sa
www.google.com.sb
www.google.com.sg
www.google.com.sv
www.google.com.tj
www.google.com.tr
www.google.com.tw
www.google.com.ua
www.google.com.uy
www.google.com.vc
www.google.com.vn
www.google.com
www.google.de
www.google.dj
www.google.dk
www.google.dm
www.google.es
www.google.fi
www.google.fm
www.google.fr
www.google.gg
www.google.gl
www.google.gm
www.google.gr
www.google.hn
www.google.hr
www.google.ie
www.google.is
www.google.it
www.google.jo
www.google.kg
www.google.kz
www.google.li
www.google.lk
www.google.lt
www.google.lu
www.google.lv
www.google.mn
www.google.ms
www.google.mu
www.google.mw
www.google.net
www.google.nl
www.google.no
www.google.nr
www.google.nu
www.google.off.ai
www.google.pl
www.google.pn
www.google.pt
www.google.ro
www.google.ru
www.google.rw
www.google.sc
www.google.se
www.google.sh
www.google.sk
www.google.sm
www.google.sn
www.google.tm
www.google.to
www.google.tp
www.google.tt
www.google.tv
www.google.uz
www.google.vg
www.google.vu
www.google.ws
www.gooogle.com

[trebuchet]

In my experience, more Google ads appear on days when my RPM is much lower than average. I've always seen them as fallback ad inventory. They may well go into the auction but if that's so then their bids are very low. Has anyone ever identified the EPC of Google ads?