Going Cold Turkey - 100% AdSense Removal

[incrediBILL]

I've decided it's time to cut the cord temporarily, maybe permanently.

The ads are a detriment to the site and negatively impact the user experience.

Going to see how removal impacts the site, and maybe consider a partial AdSense play again in the near future depending on how other monetization concepts pan out.

[Scurramunga]

Very recently I removed all of my ads. Don't know if I will ever put them back at all, what I do know is that right now Adsense is not worth the effort.

[puckparches]

How you know what ads are shown to your users? the ads you see may not be the ads they see.

[onepointone]

About a month ago all of my sites with adsense on them, (save for one - possibly two) were Banned. Not penalized, Banned. Others without adsense, no problem.

I've been going through them all carefully, looking for some connection. Maybe something they have in common.

I have to admit, I've found a few things on a couple of WP sites, out of the dozen or so. Two had spammy type plugins installed. One I had installed myself, one I had missed... it was on a purchased website.

Overall, most of the sites seem squeeky clean, at least to me.

Even though I think having adsense, not directly responsible for my problem, still decided to take it off existing and future sites. Not worth the risk.

[maximillianos]

Incredibill- were you negatively impacted by the Panda update?

[cien]

I think the Panda update came accompanied by an Adsense Grizzly Bear. I've been diversifying with other monetization methods, including direct advertising. Slowly I'm phasing out Adsense on some of my sites.

[nick28]

what I do know is that right now Adsense is not worth the effort

Apparently other big sites think the same, I see at Mediafire
no adsense ads any more.
Since Larry Page has been the CEO, it happens odd things:-))
By the way I see google ads somthing like "make Google your frontpage" in German, most of the time these days.

[wheel]

Wow.

The ads are a detriment to the site and negatively impact the user experience.

lol.

[zdgn]

right now Adsense is not worth the effort

For me, AdSense has been much more than its worth the effort I put into it, which basically boils down to pasting the code into the sites, occasional testing and monitoring analytics.

All my real effort is actually spent maintaining the sites.

This is in comparison to time/effort/anguish/frustration with other monetization options I've tried (and I've tried quite a few since 1998 - to put it mildly.)

Of course, everyone's mileage varies.

And who knows, may be tomorrow there's something even better.

[ken_b]

The ads are a detriment to the site and negatively impact the user experience.

Have the advertisers or ads that show on your site changed recently? If not, why would the ads suddenly "negatively impact the user experience"?

Or do you really mean that your AdSense income has dropped so far you don't think they are paying enough for the space on your site? Or something more along that line?
.

[BillyS]

I'm a bit puzzled about Adsense not worth the effort comments.

As is the case with zdgn, I put in the code and that's it. I don't think I've played with that code in about a year. I don't bother excluding advertisers... the system just works.

I do look at the site from time to time (once a week, maybe...) to see what ads seem to be running. They look spot on, no junk, nothing flashing.

We get offers for placement all the time. That could be a full time job in itself.

I do hope that incrediBILL tells us how he makes out. It's always good to have a backup plan.

[Play_Bach]

The "effort" he may be referring to is in trying to increase (or even maintain!) earnings.

[incrediBILL]

Here's the deal...

I started revising and updating the site, took a long hard look at the overall user experience, and the ads were literally in the way of using the site.

Trying to reduce bounce rate, improve user experience, and then *maybe* I'll shove one of their big ugly ads back in the site.

What was also annoying the heck out of me was my Skyscraper, site wide, was only displaying 4 ads instead of 5, leaving a big ugly gap on the site of the page. Plenty of ads, using the arrows it shows 5 for each click, but initially 4.

I think the Panda update came accompanied by an Adsense Grizzly Bear.

Panda yes, but AdSense was still paying fine for the traffic.

This is more of a site reboot, it was kind of already in the works, some AdSense had already been moved/removed, but Panda forced my hand early.

[vordmeister]

Have you tried running just a single block right at the bottom of the page? Makes the page look a lot better.

I tried that a year ago and expected income to dive but it remained fairly steady.

[outland88]

The only thing is "everyone" is just the limited finite group of usual complainers.

[webmasterworld.com...]

I say you need to work harder, and harder, then harder. Its not Google it's you.

[incrediBILL]

Nice try, but I'm not complaining, payouts were just fine.

With what I'm trying to accomplish now it simply doesn't fit at the moment.

Would you hang a "Drink Coke" and "Get a Bucket of KFC" on the Lincoln Memorial?

Nope.

[ken_b]

Would you hang a "Drink Coke" and "Get a Bucket of KFC" on the Lincoln Memorial?

LOL.... you aren't really comparing your site to the Lincoln Memorial .... are you?
.

[outland88]

payouts were just fine

And because of that you felt totally compelled to drop them.

Once you accept the fact Google has always been a "use em and loose em" company you're half way there in winning the battle.

Would you hang a "Drink Coke" and "Get a Bucket of KFC" on the Lincoln Memorial?

No, but I have no doubt Sergey and Schmidt wouldn't have any problems with doing that to national monuments. :)

[maximillianos]

I hear ya Incredibill. I think panda is causing a lot of webmasters to re-evaluate their sites. From that perspective it has probably greatly improved the web in just a week as many big sites have buckled down and started some serious redesigns.

That said, Adsense is still cream of the crop. We continue to utilize them. Just scaling back a little bit.

[sailorjwd]

I hope it was the ads panda didn't like. I'm down to 0.9 ads per page from an average of 3. Hope G likes that since the next step is essentially zero ads.

What I don't understand is ctr is down 50% since 2/25.
And click values are down a little too.

[incrediBILL]

LOL.... you aren't really comparing your site to the Lincoln Memorial .... are you?

In a weird way as Lincoln helped the downtrodden, so did my site. Maybe Statue of Liberty is a better metaphor as the site was always geared toward helping lesser knowns get known, get traffic, and help them make some money opposed to everyone else's position of going after the upper crust knowns that obviously have money to spend.

Always been a champion of the guy needing exposure, in a way AdSense helped but also hindered that aspect.

payouts were just fine

And because of that you felt totally compelled to drop them.

I have direct advertisers and subscribers as an income source and soon will have additional direct income sources as my goal for this year was to transition to be 100% self-supporting without 3rd party ad networks.

Not that I'm slamming AdSense, Panda just pushed me faster in a direction I was already heading.

FTR, I still have AdSense on some other sites, but nothing that was bringing in $$$$ per month like my main site did from AdSense.

[rockyouu]

Incredibill you are smart guy at a wrong place, I am the same "Rockyou" after taking subscription they stop my posting rights, Something seriously wrong with webmasterworld, I wrote about this to everyone subscription team, Brett Tabke, talked in paypal dispute, Nobody is interested. I like webmasterworld but i hate this kind of unprofessional behaviour.

anyway i have opened another account with this id, coming to the point.

I can help you get out of panda, Just only try google adsense for 2 weeks on your site leaving direct ads or other network ads and see if it works for you, it works for me. I am happy with adsense as of now.

[netmeg]

It's a generous offer, but I'm sure incrediBILL has it covered, he is, after all, incrediBILL (and probably knows as much or more about all this than any of us here)

I'm reducing AdSense dependency this year too, or at least trying to. Not quite the point that I'll get rid of it, and not sure I'll ever get rid of it entirely, but there have been enough wake up calls to make even lazy old me sit up and take notice.

[BillyS]

rockyouu - you're absolutely right, and I'm sure the webmasters here know what Panda was all about: The advertisement:content ratio. You need to take the talk about dropping Adsense with a grain of salt.

Those comments are made by some webmasters (they know who they are) because they mistakenly think if people here start shouting "I'm dropping Adsense." That Google will get nervous and reverse Panda. That's not going to happen.

There are many sites that max out on Adsense ads and they were not hit with this update. That's because the ads took up 10 to 20% of the total webpage area, not 70 to 80%.

Many of us are faced with offers daily to place text links or join other advertising networks. It's a tough decision but we choose to balance ad income with user experience (as Google has told us for years now).

The lesson here was to choose wisely. That's my take away from incrediBILL's post. He's choosing to move to other ways to monetize his websites.

[JCKline]

I hope it was the ads panda didn't like. I'm down to 0.9 ads per page from an average of 3. Hope G likes that since the next step is essentially zero ads.

Let us know when G sends you the automated optimization email saying "you can maximize your sites earnings by adding more ad units to your pages." :D

Panda is doing one thing, and AdSense is suggesting another. They need to feed the Panda. :)

Trying to reduce bounce rate, improve user experience,...

incrediBill, every webmaster should do this. I see no problem in what you are doing. I believe working with a "clean slate" creates clear thinking because all the clutter and distractions are brought to a minimum. Good luck!

[CMidd]

great idea IncrediBill.

for a few years i personally felt i worked for Google "not for my visitors". a lot of my time revolved around Adsense and optimizing for Adsense, and SEO for Google. I even neglected great features that would have helped my users because of their negative SEO/Adsense impacts.

I've been slowing phrasing out Adsense in place of affiliate offers and direct ad placements, and to date I earn around 5 time more from my other sources then Adsense.

I still use Adsense and love it, but honestly i see Adsense as a starter monetizing system, until you reach a point where you can command your own value, and direct your own placement,and look and feel, etc.

could you imagine if facebook was monitized by adsense?

[ken_b]

To anyone in my niche...

... please pull all AdSense off your sites RIGHT NOW!

ok? :)

[Play_Bach]

Ditto Ken! ;-)

[JCKline]

Sure Ken, my niche is chicken farming as well. :D

[wyweb]

Welcome aboard Bill. I missed this one.

Let me read the whole thing and I imagine I'll have more to say.

It's what I'm already doing...