Impact of new Adsense layout guidelines

I think this will hit revenues

[wanderingmind]

The new positioning of ads are not going to be good for ad revenue, I think. Ads below the fold, no ad links in blog layouts, and no ads on the left side? Not good for clicks, surely.

Of course revenues have already been hit, for me, because of Panda.

[nomis5]

Where do those rules come from? I haven't heard about them.

Just read the previous post and I presume that's where the rules come from. But in the two "good" layouts, both have ads above the fold. They just don't occupy all the ATF space.

[ken_b]

New guidelines....

Best practices for laying out your site and your ads. [google.com]
.

[wanderingmind]

Also, use borders; make them stand out a bit...

I am fine with that; just that Adsense team led me down the garden path and then ditched me, then comes the new guidelines.

I have experimented with these new suggested positions before. CTR plummeted. Well, I need the traffic more than revenue - so no choice there really.

[londrum]

theres nothing about "no ads on the left side"
maybe you mean the bit about getting them confused with navigation? its easy enough to have them on the left without getting them confused with that

[dolcevita]

I really can not find anything about
"Also, use borders; make them stand out a bit... " and
"no ads on the left side".
It is same as before.

Regarding Ads above the fold:
[google.com...]

It is only new and now you must care that Ads above fold does not take more than 25%.

Quote from another thread:
"Minimum UI requirements from Google arbitrage guidelines

1. For any given page, ads should take up no more than 25% of above-the-fold real estate on a standard 1024x768 monitor.

Also

Minimum content requirements

1. Ads should not make up more than 25% of visible content on a page.
2. Ads may not be shown on pages that have no actual content or as a replacement for missing content (e.g. for site searches that come up empty). "

[Tropical Island]

What about the slew of sites I'm seeing in my content reports that are black background with virtually invisible type & the AdSense ads with white backgrounds filling the above the fold area.

This kind of stuff just makes me angry.

[ember]

@dolcevita, where does google say that ads should take up no more than 25% of above-the-fold real estate?

[dolcevita]

I could not find it but i have quoted post from someone on this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[snickles121]

The TOS are no different than they were before. I dont understand were these guys are coming up with this stuff.

Are they in imagination land?

[snickles121]

Here the link to below the fold content [google.com...] , and it does not say anywhere about ad should take up no more than 25% of above-the-fold real estate.

[LifeinAsia]

I see these as suggestions, certainly not rules. Just like the heat maps that suggest where to put ads to maximize revenue are guides, but you are (almost) completely free to put the ads where you want.

[netmeg]

I don't know what "Google Arbitrage Guidelines" are; I question whether they actually come from Google.

[gmb21]

These guidelines are for AdWords advertisers, not publishers, but they might well be being used in Panda to determine site quality (in part, obviously).

Here is a link to an email from Google detailing these rules:
[google.com.au...]

[Freedom]

Right, and when we've implemented the "new" guidelines, we'll have to go through it all again when they change their mind again, after they slapped you down for doing what they "suggested" this time.

I'm building 3 major new websites, very nice ones, and the ads there are emphasizing other networks that I am quite happy with.

When mom says you can have a cookie from the jar, and then slaps your hand down for taking out a cookie, one learns their lesson not to trust mom when she says you can have a cookie.