Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Or is a better approach to leave the homepage alone and work more within the site?
It was started as a result of a person in an engineering forum making an unprompted statement that he would never buy from a site that used Adsense. AFAIC remember there were mixed views on this.
I am interested in this subject too. In fact just one hour ago I was searching for online shopping software. I clicked on a website and saw it had Adsense prominently displayed on its home page and I immediately left the site. After I had done so I realised what I had just done. Without realising it I am the same as the guy I mentioned above.
In situations like this on the net I believe that if I don't like something then there is a good chance that many others will be the same.
AFAIAC there can be little doubt that that prominent Adsense ads on a home page seriously affect credibility.
Do you think having Adsense on the homepage makes you look MFA/Spammy?
Personally, I think it depends how you approach it, and also on the type of site. I find adsense on an informational site can be very useful. Where I don't like seeing it is on corporate sites.
If adsense forms a small, unobtrusive part of a content rich homepage which invites visitors to explore the site further, then no, I don't think it's spammy.
OTOH, if the homepage has a huge adsense block right at the top and little or no meaningful content, then yes, it's spammy.
I want to get alot of links feeding through and due to the nature of the site should do so easily.
But having adsense im hoping it wont put them off.
To me, no matter how good the information might be, there's nothing that screams "MFA" louder than a huge adsense rectangle and nothing else above the fold.
I think it depends on the type of site and how the ads are used.
This is very true.
Two 300x250 banners aligned before any content is a turn-off for many site users.
If your Adsense ads are neatly placed on your homepage, it probably doesn't negatively influence a user's perception (IMO).
If your homepage is tightly focused, then Adsense can work. If you do not blend the ads, you can take away the MFA/tacky look.
Have you seen anyother large sites using on home page?
Let's talk here and share the following:
What do you see the large and authoritative sites doing? How they implement it?
But I have seen large sites such as CNN using a lot of advertising on home pages.
This is a different situation. CNN and other media organisations use advertising to generate their income. People know this and expect to see them carrying adverts.
When a site like the one in my example above (selling online shopping software) carries adverts for rivals you have to wonder what they are basing their business model on.
