Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I just used the preview tool to look at some of the sites advertising on my sites through Google Adsense. And while I was happy to see many quality sites (so the landing page quality filter seems to work somehow), I saw a number of domains I would like to block immediately.
Okay, we know that we probably won't get a bigger filter list. We also know that we probably won't get a filter that let's us filter by advertiser ID (now that would be great!) any time soon.
But it should be definitely possible to extend the filter functionality that we can filter TLDs?! With that feature I would immediately block out ALL .info domains. So far, I have seen very very very few legitimate advertisers using .info domains. It seems to me that all those MFAs/parked domains/hitfarm-style sites use the .info domain to spill out more useless stuff onto the web every single day. One of these companies have 76,500+ domains registered, with 23,200+ domains using a .info TLD, that's about 30%, and it's definitely too much.
So, please, Google, let us filter TLDs!
I've actually had to give up trying to keep up on some sites/pages and pull Adsense off altogether, for the sake of my visitors and my own inabiliy to keep up, several times daily, with excluding them. Exclude one and two more show up - 100% identical in design and format. Who has the time and the energy to keep fighting off useless eyesores?
Because there are thousands of genuine .info domains. and because only about a third of my 200 filtered URLs are .info anyway. Even some of my own genuine sites that dont even use advertising are .info
So how about suggesting an alternative option, for those of us who simply don't have the time for putting .info domains on the filter multiple times daily.
I trust that you are using your .info domains to improve the user experience with unique and fresh and useful content. My post was not meant as an offense for all those who run .info domains.
And if you read my original post carefully, then you will see that I actually did not say that ALL .info domains are spam, just the =majority=. Guess what? That's fine with me. I don't mind. May they go ahead and litter the web with their useless pages!
The question is - do I want my visitors expose to such sites? Do I want to support such arbitrage business? Do I want their ads on my sites? No, thanks! Because allowing .info domains means to me that I have to weed out 95% of crap (MFA, parked domain, hitfarm style pages). They take up valuable spots in the filter list, and it takes a lot of time to hunt them down.
I have one particular blue page that appears mainly with .info on hundreds of domains. And keep finding new ones daily. But they also hav com, co.uk, etc as well...
So you need to be able to filter by account or advertiser
...which has been requested many many times here on WW. But as we apparently do not get such a feature from Google, I would at least like to block certain TLDs, like .info - it should be doable without much effort and would help us tremendously.
We've actually wished we could just block all of .info for our email customers as well; of course we don't, but it's been tempting. As well as a few other so-called "top" level domains.
it would keep anyone with a .info from ever signing up or continuing with AdWords.
Well, don't you think such a drastic measure (like blocking a TLD) would be used by just very few publishers? I believe that the majority of publishers do not use their filter at all. And of those who use their filter, many might still refrain from blocking a TLD.
This feature would not create a big problem (financially or technically) for Google, but it certainly would help some publishers who care about the user experience.
Well, don't you think such a drastic measure (like blocking a TLD) would be used by just very few publishers? I believe that the majority of publishers do not use their filter at all. And of those who use their filter, many might still refrain from blocking a TLD.
Possibly, a (perceived) lack of interest for this feature is what keeps G from implementing it.
For all of half a day until they just register something else.
Let's stick to asking for more important enhancements, such as a whitelist, better enforcement of the rules bent by MFA's, filtering by advertiser rather than domain, etc.
If they know all those identical domains are owned by the same party or company, and know who they are, why do they continue to let them keep cranking out and running sites for every keyword combination under the sun?
Google aren't going to waste their time developing a filter for entire TLD's for such a trivial reason
Well, they can certainly filter stuff.widgets.info and widgets.info today. It should not take a room full of PhD's to extend this to .info, right?
What I am saying is that, yes, we would like to see an improved filter. But while they are working on it (hopefully), couldn't they just give us new means of filtering that do not take ages to implement? (A bigger filter list also comes to my mind here. The limit of '200' seems to be not a technical limit.)
I haven't tried it and I don't know if wildcard characters are recognized in Ad filter lists, but it would obviously be trivial to do if Google wanted to do it.
However. Since I've been away for a while, I might be quite up to date here. What kind of ads (and how low cpc) are we talking about here? As you sound as if you to _protect_ your clients from these ads, I guess they must be pretty awful.
By allowing users to ban advertisers, Google can only win. This would ensure quality amongst their advertisers.
My guess is that they fear that publishers will try and ban low paying advertisers, which in the end is really not an issue since (supposedly) the higher paying ads always appear first.
The real fact is, I would rather have an ad that pays 1/5 that of a useless site if it is well targeted to my audience. The chances are, my users will click a relevant ad rather than one that is poorly trying to look relevant.
I hear you. Yes, banning by advertiser is certainly the best option. However, I suspect that this will consume real resources at Google. As outlined many times before, even at Google they do not have unlimited resources (even if it sometimes appears to be like that). They have to check the importance for each implementation request, and if we do not get bigger filter lists, then I do not think that we will see the 'blocking by advertiser' feature anytime soon.
Blocking by TLD is indeed a drastic measure, but looking at the (lack of) quality of most of these .info URLs, I still would like to block 'em all. As I said before, I am well aware of the fact that I might catch the odd legitimate advertiser, but I =still= want to do it.
From a resource point-of-view, this can be implemented quickly. That's the beauty of it.
So you do get a lot of MFA apostles loading up on the cheap names to build out their link farms. Is it fair? Are there some legit quality .info sites out there? The questions are rhetorical and that's the point of this thread, as folks want the ability to answer that themselves and then block the whole .info TLD (just as you may want to avoid .biz ads on yours).
Here in Sweden the bad guys use .biz domains.
I don't like those either. As someone who runs several email servers from clients, the spam to legitimate email ratios on .biz and .info are WAY higher than .com, .net or .org.
So I'm prejudiced. I can live with that.
Hej pa dig! Hur ar det i gamla Svedala?
I did ban a lot of sites but stopped since I heard that the ones that DO show up, even if they are bad, should be the ones that pay the best, right?Depends on how paranoid you are ;)
I'm surprised ST ads get such a bad rap, sometimes I see people who don't understand you get paid without a click, other times people assume that ST ads have forced there way in and have attacked and killed the high paying ads we're rightly entitled to.
With all the work we do to "trick" people into clicking ads wouldn't it be great if Google offered us a way to get paid even when people don't click? But I guess they never will since they hate us. (yes, sarcasm has made an appearance)
I for one welcome our site targeted friends.
I think I know why we don't get this tool and Google makes these decisions for us :)
It seems to me that all those MFAs/parked domains/hitfarm-style sites use the .info domain to spill out more useless stuff onto the web every single day. One of these companies have 76,500+ domains registered, with 23,200+ domains using a .info TLD, that's about 30%, and it's definitely too much.
It sounds like the one that's helped fill up my competitive ad filter and continues to plague my sites. Not only are their identical-looking fake directories nothing but ad links, the landing pages aren't really even about the topic that they claim to be. Since these fake directories are all on the same IP address, I tried filtering by this IP, but it didn't work. The competitive ad filter accepts the IP address without complaint, but ads for their fake directory .info sites just keep appearing.
Since these fake directories are all on the same IP address, I tried filtering by this IP, but it didn't work. The competitive ad filter accepts the IP address without complaint, but ads for their fake directory .info sites just keep appearing.
The cause of this whole problem is the Google doesnt go far enough in enforcing its own rules from the TOS (for whatever reasons), for eg., especially very explicit ones like:
"No Google ad may be placed on any non-content-based pages."
I would think thats its self-evident that these faux directories are "non-content-based pages".
It seems to me that all those MFAs/parked domains/
Parked domains are not MFAs nor in the same class.
Parked domains belong to a segment of search called Direct Navigation. Direct Navigation is when someone wants a widget and searches for widgets by typing widgetstore.com into their browser (instead of a search box) to find it.
Parked domains reportedly convert at a higher rate than a regular informational adsense site. For an advertiser selling widgets, there are few better opportunities than owning widgets.com or widgetstore.com. The next best thing is to advertise on such sites.
[en.wikipedia.org...]
WebSideStory has recently published a report illustrating that direct navigation traffic, converts into sales for advertisers at a rate twice that of search engines...
Direct Navigation is perhaps the best opportunity around for advertisers.
