Forum Moderators: martinibuster
i think the most important one is this:
Deceptive implementations: We've clarified this policy a bit in the 'Encouraging Clicks' section of the program policies - ads may not be formatted in a way that makes them indistinguishable from other content on the page where they appear.
Encouraging Clicks
# Format ads so that they become indistinguishable from other content on that page.
# Format site content so that it is difficult to distinguish it from ads.
does it mean that we cannot blend the ads with page style?if yes then it is ver bad
Jennifer Slegg (Jensense) is also not sure and say: "And wow, those last two additions are HUGE and can have major implications to many publishers who have perfected the blended technique, especially those who use blended with wrapping text around the ad units. The key will be just about how blended they can be. I will try and get followup from Google regarding this, because this could potentially put a lot of publishers in violations of the policies, depending on how much wiggle room there is in the “format site content so that it is difficult to distinguish it from ads”. Just wow."
It will be good to get response here to know what Google team means with “format site content so that it is difficult to distinguish it from ads”. Probably a couple example or something more will be great to know.
It is more confuse because by this post
[adsense.blogspot.com...]
suggest to matching color of your site "Your AdSense ad units should complement your overall site design, not detract from the user experience. Ad units that mirror the look and feel of your site can surprisingly increase the effectiveness of your ads. Blending ad colors into the background of your site can soften ad appearance and combat ad blindness, while the 'Ads by Goooooogle' branding distinguishes AdSense ad units from your site content.
Simply matching the background color to the area of site implementation can help increase click-through rate. We recommend creating a custom color palette theme on your site to accentuate title, information text, and URL color. For example, say your site has a white background, black borders and grey text. When generating your ad code on the 'Ad Layout' page of your account, you might customize your color palette to use white borders, a white background, black headings and grey text when generating your ad code"
They do say indistinguishable, so if a normal user (i.e. not a geek or very sophisticated user) can tell the ads apart from the content, then they should be fine.
The policies have changed over time, so I do not think we can rely on old recommendations to be still safe.
The content rules are worse. Taken literally they would mean any article about racism, or a science site with an article on the medical uses of marijuana, or
a business news site with an article on a casino operator or a general news site reporting on a war would be banned from adsense.
I am sure that is not what they mean, but unless they clarify their wording, we cannot be sure what they do mean.
# Format ads so that they become indistinguishable from other content on that page.
# Format site content so that it is difficult to distinguish it from ads.
I hope google is just referring to this kind of "indistinguishable" ad from content; [adsense.blogspot.com...]
It happens only occasionally!
Now I've got to go and check if any of my ads are "too" blended.
Selling text links to casinos, gambling sites, prescription drug sites is now a violation
To gambling, casinos and drugs if we could only add credit repair, car insurance, mortgages, loan consolidation, dating etc...
OK, OK, only kidding, I know a lot of you have sites in those areas. :)
As has been pointed out above, Google has recommended blending several times in the past. I've just checked Google's current 'Examples of placements on a page' for 300x250 rectangles and one example shows the text flowing around a floating ad block.
But in Jensense's blog it says, "The publisher may not: Place ads in a floating box script." Does that mean that text can no longer flow around ad blocks even though that is what Google is currently recommending elsewhere?
There just seem to be so many contradictions between what we have been told in the past and what we are being told now. It is all very ambiguous as to what is allowed and what isn't.
Worst of all, Jensense points out that there has been a change to how Google will deal with publishers it thinks are not complying with the policies.
The bit about 'working with publishers' has gone and it just says: "If you fail to comply with these policies, we reserve the right to disable ad serving to your site and/or disable your AdSense account at any time. If your account is disabled, you will not be eligible for further participation in the AdSense program."
Great. I have a feeling that one day my AdSense account will just be disabled for no clear given reason and I will have no recourse in getting it reinstated.
What am I supposed to do now? Maybe use fluorescent text and put bright coloured borders around all my ad blocks just to make sure that they cannot possibly be construed as being blended? It will ruin the look of my sites but that would be better than risking my account.
I have worked to 'blend' my ads not so that they deceive but so that they fit in with the overall look of the page. If I was deceiving then I might expect a high CTR but that isn't the case so the way I have done things isn't deceiving readers.
Without clear examples I find this all very confusing and open to too much interpretation.
Sleep easy and enjoy!
(your ctr plummet!)
It says floating box "script". Says nothing about a div with position:fixed....
I wonder if it might mean those annoying pop-up like divs that float across the page on some sites?
I am begining to wonder if Google knows, or even cares exactly what it means - what it boils down to is that if they think your site is misleading, or undesirable, you get kicked out of adsense. It is, as oddsod says, at their discretion.
what it boils down to is that if they think your site is misleading, or undesirable, you get kicked out of adsense. It is, as oddsod says, at their discretion.
Yes, and you aren't likely to have anything to worry about if you've got a legitimate site with intrinsically useful content that will pass the small test. OTOH, if your typical page has 100 words of semi-boilerplate content in the AdSense text font, that content is surrounded by the maximum number of AdSense ad units, those ad units look like part of the navigation scheme, and you feel queasy every time you hear the words "manual review," then maybe you've got reason to be concerned.
In a nutshell: If you're afraid that something might look deceptive, then there's a good chance that is deceptive, and common sense should tell you not to do it.
In a nutshell: If you're afraid that something might look deceptive, then there's a good chance that is deceptive, and common sense should tell you not to do it.
That is besides the point. If you are told to "blend" your ads in multiple blogs and posts and now told not to blend them, then there is a lack of clarity which is relevant for all who take aesthetics into consideration when designing thousands of pages full of content. That is a huge oversimplification for those who have enormous amounts of content and only wish to work according to the rules. All people are asking for is clarity and perhaps examples.
don't forget we should be making sites for visitors not for google
Hooray, someone finally hit the nail on the head. Never put the cart before the horse.
All people are asking for is clarity and perhaps examples.
Clarity isn't always feasible. Take the issue of "blending": Site A and Site B might use the same degree of blending, but the nature of the content and the audience could make blended ads more of a problem than on one site than on the other. Ultimately, it probably comes down to things like clickthrough vs. conversion rates, a reviewer's "smell test," and the publisher's judgment (or the lack thereof).
It's not really in Google's interest to advise or insist on something that will significantly reduce CTR, now is it?
One the one hand we have informative sites that blend 5% advertisement content along withgreat content.
On the other hand we have sites containing 95% advertisements blended in with 5 words of content.
Anything understood to contradict the above, even if coming from a Google employee should be ignored, unless of course you can get your layout officially autographed and notarized.
If you'd like to add contradicting terms under your belt as a tool in case you get banned, you are a fool gambling with odds fixed against you from the day you agreed to the TOS.
If you're genuinely concerned about Google's quality of communication take a number, that could very well be the legal dept. throwing a wrench into the gears when the marketing were out for lunch and the techies were on the roof smoking medicinal herbs.
So slap a border around something if you're so worried
For everyone seeking visual examples of what not to do, do a text search for every occurrence of: "unacceptable implementation", plenty there.
The key term is indistinguishable. Nobody say that blend is not allowed anymore and i do not see any reason to believe that what Google said before about 'acceptable' is now become unacceptable. See Google example below for acceepable:
1)
"For those of you concerned about our optimization tips, we still recommend integrating your ad units and link units with your page content or navigation, in order to offer your users relevant ads in addition to the content they normally see. Here are a few examples of acceptable implementations:"
[bp3.blogger.com...]
2)
And here is still what they mean with not acceptable and "indistinguishable from other content on that page.":
[adsense.blogspot.com...]
"Ads should be easily distinguishable from surrounding content.
Similarly, you should not place an ad unit by a group of links that has identical colors and line spacing. Doing so may cause users to think the ad unit is content created by you. In this situation, we recommend using a different color for the ad titles or indenting the ad unit to help distinguish the ads from your own content. This screenshot shows an implementation that does not follow this guideline:"
[bp3.blogger.com...]
or here
[google.com...]
[edited by: martinibuster at 5:25 pm (utc) on May 6, 2009]
[edit reason] Fixed links. [/edit]
"Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others"
Can I still link to youtube.com and i am refering specifically to "infringes on the legal rights of others"
lol
It also comforted me in knowing that my spending all afternoon changing the colours of fonts in my ad units (Just to be double safe side) was not a waste of time.
Do these things come in 3's
1st I had to go through all the privacy policies
2nd Review all the ad units to check none are misrepresented
3rd Who knows!
Any guesses?
