6 Ways That Google Can Improve Adsense

[Lame_Wolf]

1: If it is your first site, then it has to be fully online for 1 year.
2: Has to have at least 1500 visitors a day.
3: If you add your account to another site, that site has to be reviewed by the Adsense team before adverts are displayed (failure to do so will automatically prevent adverts showing).
4: Stop blogs having accounts. A lot (that I see) hotlink images from other sites, take content that is not theirs, or regurgitate other work.
5: Quicker response times when sites are reported for breaking TOS.
6: Better customer service.

[nick28]

And

My ideas on how to improve Adsense

just one sentense:
"see how many repeat users has a site".
As simple as is, because the more repeat user a site has, the more reputation has this site due to beeing good:-)
(exceptions are copy content sites)

[Swanny007]

1. Not a bad idea, but 1 year is a long time in the Interweb, I think 6 months is more reasonable
2. Not necessary as there are some small niches that are profitable and won't ever get huge traffic numbers
3. Good idea, probably the best thing they could do!
4. Good idea
5. Good idea
6. I would make "better customer service" the #1 priority

[ember]

Good list except for #2. We are a high quality content site and don't get anywhere near 1,500 visitors a day. Yet we do quite well with Adsense. Quality over quantity works in our case.

[netmeg]

Good luck.

[gseth]

For the 3rd point i did some searching, and Google Says:

"I want to use AdSense on a new site. Can you review it for me?

While we appreciate your interest in complying with our program policies, there's no need for us to review your new website before you add the AdSense code to it. We automatically detect each new site on which the AdSense code is placed, and we regularly monitor all sites displaying Google ads or an AdSense for search box to ensure they're in compliance with our policies. If we happen to find that a site is violating our policies, we may contact you and ask that you remove the Google code or make changes to the site.

We look forward to helping you monetize your new site!"

[Lame_Wolf]

While we appreciate your interest in complying with our program policies, there's no need for us to review your new website before you add the AdSense code to it. We automatically detect each new site on which the AdSense code is placed, and we regularly monitor all sites displaying Google ads or an AdSense for search box to ensure they're in compliance with our policies. If we happen to find that a site is violating our policies, we may contact you and ask that you remove the Google code or make changes to the site.

Yes, but that has proved to be total poppycock, hence the MFA sites, scraped, splogs etc.

EVERY site should be manually approved before code is added. If you add adsense to a site before it is approved, the adverts will not show.

[edited by: Lame_Wolf at 12:41 am (utc) on Feb 27, 2011]

[Lame_Wolf]

2. Not necessary as there are some small niches that are profitable and won't ever get huge traffic numbers

Some PPC companies minimum requirement is a lot more than that. They have to cut it off somewhere, so 1500 is a good starting position. Sure, some will be upset that they wouldn't be allowed in because they do not have enough traffic, but that is better than letting any Tom, Dick and Harry in.

[Swanny007]

Sure, some will be upset that they wouldn't be allowed in because they do not have enough traffic, but that is better than letting any Tom, Dick and Harry in.

I get that, but IMHO the issue here is not traffic volume, it's site quality. There's no point in arguing because we know ASA will not respond ;-) Although the AdSense team may actually read this thread...

[ken_b]

1 - 5: This horse left the barn long, long ago.

6: fine.

[Lame_Wolf]

but IMHO the issue here is not traffic volume, it's site quality.

I see what you are getting at, and quality is IIRC one of the criteria atm, although may be worded differently.

But if they restrict new accounts to a minimum of one year, this will give the site owner to make the site, attract visitors etc. A lot of sites do not last longer than a year (the crappy ones).

After you have been accepted, then fine, make more (quality) sites and have adsense on them from the beginning (after they have been cleared by Google).

[HuskyPup]

2. Not necessary as there are some small niches that are profitable and won't ever get huge traffic numbers

I totally agree, in fact I would go as far as to say not "some small niches" but mostly all sites do not achieve this figure. This may come as a surprise to some but from the generic numbers I have seen a vast number of sites do not have 100-200 uniques per day yet can provide a unique and quality site.

When relying on the SERPs in each sector there are only a few sites at the top and even those promoting by traditional methods may not get much more traffic. I run two family retail sites, one a hotel the other a specialist construction company and they both do well in the SERPs nationally and extremely well locally, their good days are 100-150 uniques.

[tristanperry]

1) Personally I'd go on quality of the site instead of online time. There's some 1-11 month old sites which give more value than thin sites which have been online for possibly years.

2) Some niche sites might be massively useful but due to only having a small target market, might not be able to get around 50,000 monthly visits. Or it could be a really useful new site, which hasn't yet built up its traffic. Which ties into 1) above.

3) Agreed

4) Some blogs use 100% unique content and images too, though. Perhaps there could be some sort of automated scan (independent of the way the website is handled - i.e. blog, CMS, by hand) that checks to see whether a site has lots of images which are externally linked, and could raise a flag on the AdSense team's end, though?

5) Agreed

6) Having customer service would be a start ;-)

[Lame_Wolf]

Don't forget, these are just my ideas. Google won't be taking them up.

[netmeg]

Yep. The advertisers drive this particular vehicle. The publishers not so much.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm listening and passing this feedback along to the team.

:)

ASA.

[Swanny007]

Thanks ASA. Glad to see you're paying attention ;-)

[Lame_Wolf]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm listening and passing this feedback along to the team.

Hi ASA, I didn't think you would be interested in my little rant. Thank you for listening.

I'll go into more detail with some.

1: If it is your first site, then it has to be fully online for 1 year.

I think this is a reasonable time to wait for someone to have adsense on their first site. Further sites could be either instantly (after being cleared by the Adsense Team), or 6 months after going live.

2: Has to have at least 1500 visitors a day.

This, along with point 3, should stop/slow down the amount of scraper, spammy, little content sites from having adsense. You have better data than I do. You may think 1000 is better, but needs to start somewhere.

3: If you add your account to another site, that site has to be reviewed by the Adsense team before adverts are displayed (failure to do so will automatically prevent adverts showing).

Nothing much more to add to this, apart from "why didn't Google do this from the start?"

5: Quicker response times when sites are reported for breaking TOS.

Not only quicker response times, but also consistency. I can tell you of an account that was in an extreme breach of the TOS (fraud) and it took over 2.5 months before the account was suspended, and they were (somehow) reinstated. And to top it off, they were breaking the TOS again. Reported again (quicker response this time) and still have their account. Yet, someone else can get their account closed because they were using a copyrighted image and were not aware.

I personally think that most breaches (including copyrighted material) should carry a warning. We all make mistakes. In cases of clearly trying to defraud should be an instant ban.

And before people start jumping up and down about the copyright part. I am constantly raising DMCA's or writing to webmasters asking to remove content.

6: Better customer service.

What can I say ? It has gone down the pan over the years. Once, you could write and ask a question, and you would receive a helpful reply from a real person.

Nowadays, it is all automated.

I have tried and tried to ask them to stop my account from receiving CPM adverts. Yet they keep sending me to the Google Groups site... which leads me to my next request...

It would be good for us Adsense users to have a radio button in the new interface to allow CPM adverts or not. This way, we users can test to see if they are better or not. If we earn more money, then so do Google.

But it is such a PITA to get it turned off, it will no doubt, be just as hard to get it turned on again. Extremely frustrating for those who want to test this side of Adsense.

One more that I just thought of...
When a site is reported, if the reportee has an Adsense account, they should have their CPC raised. :)
This will make a good incentive for people with accounts to report matters.

[koan]

ASA, those are Lame_Wolf's opinions, it does not necessarily represent the wishes of most users of this site.

2: Has to have at least 1500 visitors a day.

Seems quite arbitrary to me. Anyone can put up some Justin Bieber photo site and with some luck, have 2000 visitors a day in a few weeks, yet the site would be worthless to serious advertisers. Then you have a site dedicated to some rare legal matters with 100 daily visitors but is still considered a prime spot for the few advertisers interested. Which site is the best Adsense candidate? The one with "punch the monkey" ads potential or the one that attracts $5 / clicks advertisers?

[Lame_Wolf]

ASA, those are Lame_Wolf's opinions, it does not necessarily represent the wishes of most users of this site.

The ASA is quite aware of that.

Seems quite arbitrary to me. Anyone can put up some Justin Bieber photo site and with some luck, have 2000 visitors a day in a few weeks, yet the site would be worthless to serious advertisers. Then you have a site dedicated to some rare legal matters with 100 daily visitors but is still considered a prime spot for the few advertisers interested. Which site is the best Adsense candidate? The one with "punch the monkey" ads potential or the one that attracts $5 / clicks advertisers?

The former would unlikely be allowed an account after it had been reveiwed.
Like all things, there are always exceptions to the rules, so the latter may get through.

But to leave things the way they are is a big mistake.

[koan]

But to leave things the way they are is a big mistake.

I do share your opinion that admittance to the program should be more stringent and require a quality web site in terms of content and design (not necessarily super pretty but at least usable), like most other top tier ads companies, I just think that basing it on what you think is decent traffic is not applicable to all topics. I'd be very happy to see cheap, freely hosted blogs with plagiarized content go away though. I'm tired of chasing after content thieves and I think it cheapens the Adsense brand, contributing to lower CTR.

[Lame_Wolf]

I do share your opinion that admittance to the program should be more stringent and require a quality web site in terms of content and design (not necessarily super pretty but at least usable), like most other top tier ads companies, I just think that basing it on what you think is decent traffic is not applicable to all topics. I'd be very happy to see cheap, freely hosted blogs with plagiarized content go away though. I'm tired of chasing after content thieves and I think it cheapens the Adsense brand, contributing to lower CTR.

As Google knows more about the markets etc than we do, they may want to do it per niche.

For example, a car site may need 2000 visitors a day. A lawyer site may need 300, a jewellery site 800, a news site 4000 etc etc.

[epmaniac]

3: If you add your account to another site, that site has to be reviewed by the Adsense team before adverts are displayed (failure to do so will automatically prevent adverts showing).

when did this happen?

I think one can add his adsense account to any site he/she owns...

Does google review each and every new site now?

[Lame_Wolf]

3: If you add your account to another site, that site has to be reviewed by the Adsense team before adverts are displayed (failure to do so will automatically prevent adverts showing).

when did this happen?

I think one can add his adsense account to any site he/she owns...

Does google review each and every new site now?

How about reading the whole thread... from the start. All will become clear. Or, read the title of the thread "My ideas on how to improve Adsense" There is a clue in there.

[HuskyPup]

I've a possible addition to the list:

Non-widget related ads need to be approved by the publisher first.

I've just seen a couple of the most totally unrelated ads on one of my sites today and it certainly was not user-based.

[netmeg]

I'd like to see some ability for geo targeting and geo blocking. One of my primary sites is ONLY geared to Michigan users, it ONLY lists Michigan events, and Michigan is in the domain name, and today it's plastered with ads for some Massachusetts local coupon deal called Mass Value Pass. And since it's an image ad, and there's no domain on the image, I can't block it. I would have to get rid of an entire category to get rid of it (which means I block Michigan local coupon deals too) How is this a win for the advertiser, Google, or me?

(Normally my targeting has been pretty good, but my CTR is way down the past couple weeks, and when I went and looked at the ads, it's not difficult to see why)

[HuskyPup]

Yeah, I keep seeing coupon ads and especially for Bristol UK from Groupon!

Why could this be?

My actual ISP is based about 100 miles/2 hours north of there however I am more than double that distance.

This is not good geo-targetting for advertisers if ads are going to be driven by ISP location.

[DanAbbamont]

That much human review just wouldn't be possible. All of this is pretty ridiculous and customer service is actually great.

As an advertiser, I don't care if you think the guy who built the site I'm getting traffic on is as holy as you, I care about whether or not it converts. This is business here.

[Lame_Wolf]

That much human review just wouldn't be possible. All of this is pretty ridiculous

Rubbish. They already manually review your first site already. And they have the tools to check for copied content etc. So it wouldn't take much to manually check your next site.

And don't forget presently, you write your first site to a good standard, then you can create lots of crappy, low content, copied content, hotlinked garbage for your next site.

With them checking every site will put a stop to a lot of this. Plus, having to wait 1 year will also make it easier for Google.

I see a lot of sites close after the 1st year (with and without adsense). By waiting a year, a lot of those sites that closed down would not have applied for adsense. Therefore saving Google time.

and customer service is actually great.

Was.

This is business here.

And Google is a business too. By allowing any tyke onboard lowers the quality and trust of the company.

[DanAbbamont]

IMO as far as the AdSense team goes the only quality they have to worry about is the traffic they can sell me. I have to trust that they're the most reliable contextual ad network around because they are. They're already plenty strict, no need to leave money on the table.