Adsense Alternate url bug

[jbayabas]

I just found out that the Alternate Url feature on Adsense will not work in Internet Explorer with high security or on some Windows.

YOu will notice a big drop of your revenue if you add an "alternate url" on your code. I would suggest putting only "colors" as an alternate.

[mzanzig]

YOu will notice a big drop of your revenue if you add an "alternate url" on your code.

Care to elaborate?

Does that mean

a) The drop happens if I add an alternative URL (regardless of an alternate ad actually being displayed), or

b) The drop happens only if an alternative URL is being provided and Google wants to display an alternative URL.

Also, how many people have their IE set to "high security"?

[jbayabas]

The drop happens if an alternative URL is displayed (regardless of an alternate ad actually being displayed).

My site stats is about 280,000 page views yesterday but Adsense only run 180,000 page views.

Let say your visitor is using IE in windows and works in a company that has their IE set to high security. If Adsense runs Alternate url , the said user will not see your page load at all because the Alternate url could not be read. Every time the said visitor reloads his browser, he will see a blank page. Therefore you lose page views.

But if the said the said user let say go to a page on your site that does not displayed an alternate url, it's fine. But there are many users, in other countries that Adsense is not displayed and replace with public service ads or alternate url or color. If you are using Alternate url, your page will not load.

There seem to be a lot of users that are using IE with high security since I lost about 100,000 page views therefore I lost revenue as well.

[jbayabas]

What i meant the drop happens only if an alternative URL is being provided and Google wants to display an alternative URL.

[sailorjwd]

I would fix the other issue: why is google not showing 100,000 ads on your site!

I think my alt ads show maybe 1% of the time.

[mzanzig]

Agree with sailor on this one. I rarely notice alternative ads, so Google seems to not have a problem with my type of content. If you see 100/280 = 35.7% PSAs, then something is broken on your site (or maybe Adsense isn't just the right platform for you).

[jbayabas]

I've been using Adsense for 3 years. This was the first time we ever used Alternate Url when Adsense is not displayed and we see a big drop right away of our revenue, almost a drop of 10% revenue. I guess if you have a small site, choosing the "Alternate url" instead of PSA or Colours will not affect your revenue.

Also, I believe that 20% of users do use IE with High Security. If you are a big site, and if you use Alternate Url , I am positive you will see a drop of 15-20% of your revenue.

Example if a big site is earning 500 per day, they will see a drop of roughly 100 dollars per day. But if you're a small site in the other hand, if your only earning 20 per day, you will have $2 drop per day, so you really won't notice anything.

[mzanzig]

jbayabas,

again: the problem on your site seems to be that Google wants to display an alternative ad. This usually happens only when they can not find a suitable ad, or when the algo deems your content to be somehow inappropriate (for whatever reasons).

According to your own statement, the problem only occurs in such situations, i.e. there is no problem if you use alternate URLs if these are not being used by Google.

Sailor and myself are just suggesting to find out why Google wants to display the alternate URL in the first place. We feel that this is the root of the problem. It does not have to do with the size of your site or the share of users having "high security" enabled.