Mobile Chrome "Make This Site Mobile": No ads for Desktop sites

[MrSavage]

The limiting nature of the post "subject" field hampered my title here. I hope it gets your attention.

I may live under a rock. I know that some of my sites are older and don't have a clever "mobile" version. I'm not running responsive ads either. Ultimately these "choices" are mine. I chose big ads which always have been fine with adsense for mobile.

Everyone may know this. Some may not. I did not. When people come to my site, Google Chrome browser with mobile users promps with a pop up saying "view a mobile friendly version of this website". Sounds nice right? Go ahead and click that. Then you get your website with adsense ads parsed from existence. So you are dishing out an ad free website at that point.

Wonder where the good times have gone? I would have preferred a letter saying this: If you don't go responsive, we're going to block all your adsense ads, provided the visitor clicks on our big banner that is highly intrusive. We are going to serve a non revenue generating version of your website if you don't have a mobile version of some sort.

The way I see it? If I choose to not invest in a mobile option, I'm the fool. Let the customer/visitor leave. Let them decide if my non mobile site sucks. If they don't like it because of how it looks on mobile, let them go away. However, to get in their face about a mobile version of my website that provides me ZERO chance at a click? That's back stabbing in my books.

Did I miss the memo? I live under a rock? Please don't preach to me about 2017 and mobile sites. Duh, I get that. However because I make a choice you can effectively parse out my F'ing site? Come on. That's BS.

[LuckyD]

Then you get your website with adsense ads parsed from existence.

As far as I know, no. You don't. Unless your technical implementation is flawed.
Are you sure that it's happening not only to you?

[NickMNS]

Just be happy you didn't get banned. Adsense policies are pretty clear for mobile, if you have a big ad format that takes up the whole screen ATF then you could be in violation. Using non-responsive ad units is a big risk, because depending on the browser or the device you ads could display in some unpredictable ways that is either so larger as to be a policy violation or so small that no-user could read it.

And now look at it from a the advertiser's perspective, why would you they pay for ad that users cannot read, or will click accidentally.

[RedBar]

Google Chrome browser with mobile users promps with a pop up saying "view a mobile friendly version of this website".

Under what circumstances are you seeing this?

I still have a couple of non-responsive sites however they are still displaying ads normally with Chrome on mobile phones.

Puzzled!

[MrSavage]

To clarify, my website is non responsive. I run the 300px square ads. This isn't a question of policies.

To anyone testing this on their own, is Google Chrome browser providing that pop up asking if you want to make this website mobile friendly? It's when I click that, the parsed version is shown in the browser.

To also be especially clear, this is not just on a couple of my websites. A site I often visit is still kicking it old school and when that pop up happens and I view their site, no ads. A happy, mobile friendly version dished out without those ad earning opportunities.

Just rechecked. LOL. "Mobile-friendly view". Yeah, no ads. Great for users, bad for content owner. Friendly hardly comes to mind.

I think if you decline the mobile friendly version, it may be a cookie thing? May not show again. Not sure exactly.

I hope this clarifies some of this. My earnings these days would fully support my findings here.

[RedBar]

I just had my daughter with her Samsung S7 check my two non-responsive sites and all ads are running normally, no pop-ups nor anything else ... is this a US thing?

[RedBar]

Just had a friend test with an HTC M9, all ads displaying, no pop-ups.

[MrSavage]

Perhaps your sites are set in such a way that they don't trigger this pop up? Is your site in their browser history? I'm not sure.

I've seen that pop up from the Chrome browser about view a mobile friendly version of a website countless times. I never did click it, but recently I did, and I see the end result. What triggers this pop up? That's a question I'm asking. Who knows, I will see if anything is said regarding the "trigger" on this if there is such documentation. I'm expecting that to be a moving target because that's the way to push directives.

[tangor]

There's mobile friendly, and then there's mobile hostile. Some desktop layouts (forced widths, tables, image size) simply will not render properly on mobile. There's responsive, and there's hostile.

Might take another look at your code.

[MrSavage]

LOL. Did you misread the part where I said customers can use the door if they don't like what they see? Hostile layout LOL. If I suck, bury me in the SERPS. It's not license to circumvent or urge people to load a non revenue generating version of my website. If you do that then have the decency to let me know that you are blocking my ads...partner...

[tangor]

Didn't miss it. But if they buried you in the serps we'd hear a different MrSavage complaint. :)

This one, however, is one you have a chance to deal with, and keep all that lovely adsense revenue, too.

(Note: first hint is "would you like to see a mobile friendly version")

[tangor]

Aside, this is not related to the recent announcement that G Chrome will soon appear with a default adblocker. This experience is merely offering mobile users a reasonable experience on a poorly coded website that apparently might be of interest to them.

[NickMNS]

LOL. Did you misread the part where I said customers can use the door

If you are advertising with Adsense then your customers are the advertisers (they pay your bills) and clearly they have heeded your advice and have taken the door. I fail to see why your are complaining. Your site is not mobile friendly, you do not care about mobile users it only stands to reason that you not be compensated for ads that appear on a neglected portion of your website.

[MrSavage]

Why is it 2 minutes ago Google Chrome Android browser just prompted me with the same pop up regarding viewing a mobile friendly version of Amazon.com!? Before jumping down my throat, yes I was and do like the full site version. Apparently the Google thinks I shouldn't. So what do the self righteous have to say now? Right. Amazon is a junk site. Apologies are accepted btw.

[MrSavage]

@Nick, where the F does is say my site can be parsed? You also know what's interesting? A mobile device can read my content. Amazing! We aren't on 4-inch devices the last time I checked. But if this was ok, then a Google notification about parsing ads is in order. A heads up rather than taking one up the. It's backhanded. If it wasn't then the self righteous would link to Adsense articles about Chrome browser parsing.

[tangor]

You play the game, or end up lame. If Chrome (the current top browser on the web) cites a site as NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY the site owner's response is to make it mobile friendly (or ignore all mobile and any ADSENSE INVOLVED). No apologies are forthcoming for obvious reasons. HOWEVER, Amazon could care less and has the brand and muscle to bull it through regardless what CHROME might say.

I don't like g. Didn't like 'em from the get go (those many years ago when they were an infant on the web). But I also don't like tilting at windmills.... that is an exercise in futility.

[MrSavage]

I think the point is that yes, obviously if your ads/revenue is going to get parsed by the biggest giant of all giants in terms of mobile browsers, then yes. Sure. Bow or break. There is no question of this. If Chrome takes away your ability to earn income because they picked a set of criteria that deems them worthy of doing it, then you must follow suit.

Regarding Amazon, I believe my point is this. If they can get that pop up, then certainly anyone on the planet can.

Let's not forget that Amazon also has ads and other marketing on their page. At quick glance, that so called "mobile friendly" version took those banners/marketing objects and parsed them from existence. So the question I guess is whether there is a small, tedious conflict of interest.

All I would expect or want is some guidelines. I happened upon this. To anyone who is suffering Adsense loses, perhaps this is a contibuting factor. Maybe not. Who knows the trigger point. Does anyone here know? Something as serious as parsing out ads, surely to C sake there is some easy to follow guidelines. I run Google ads and if their browser parser out their ads, you would think, even if for a split second, that they would inform/warn publishers what is going on. I missed that memo.

Is it dumb to not have a mobile version? I suppose so. However I'm not investing a penny in a Google adsense reliant website that needs a do over and requires Google organic traffic to be worthwhile. That is a senseless exercise. However when you dominate a space, you can crush people with these types of implementations. It's irresponsible and BS in my books. I'm just here to inform just in case you haven't clicked on that pop up yourself just to see what "mobile friendly" version of your website entails. Mobile friendly as judged by the Google. Ad free. Imagine that irony.

[keyplyr]

You may not like it, but desktop-only sites will continue to be marginalized, eventually becoming irrelevant.

If your site is responsive, fast loading with a reasonable amount of ads, you should be fine.

The mobile web isn't tolerating sites that don't conform. Even responsive sites that are slow with too many images or ads get this treatment (weblight.)

The internet is about change.

[nomis5]

I can get the message "Make page mobile friendly" when I look at certain pages on Chrome. And yes, if I click on it a mobile friendly layout appears with Adsense ads stripped out of the page. It also strips out all of my navigation and headers for some reason

I don't really care because I basically abandoned the site several years ago. It is almost useless when viewed from a mobile.

[keyplyr]

Some non-mobile sites I've seen don't look too awful when viewed on a mobile phone. Those types of sites seem to escape Chrome's invite to make it mobile friendly. However, even those sites will need to eventually become mobile friendly to stay in the mobile search index.

This may be one of the last steps prior to non-mobile friendly sites being purged from the mobile index.

It was recently announced that more searches are now done on mobile devices than desktop.

[breeks]

Make This Site Mobile

This has been around for months. Very helpful when viewing an old school site on mobile. (the problem for publisher is it cuts out AdSense ads)

Not sure if other browsers are doing this. But it is usually Monkey see monkey do.

[iamlost]

The 300x300 size you mention intrigues me - is that AdSense or another third party or your own?

I do know that not all AdSense sizes are supported on mobile:
[support.google.com...]

[MrSavage]

Some of my pages are using 336 x 280. This is interesting. Is that the trigger point on this? If I were to switch out to a 300 x 250 I still don't hear people saying that ads appear when a Chrome user. If these are going to get parsed regardless, then my self respect may take precedent. I have a very hard time investing in sites like these when the other side is burying organics and making it pretty much a fruitless and downward trending revenue stream. It's ironic that the 300 x 200 ads say "mobile text and display ads" for mobile but if you aren't responsive or something else for mobile, then Chrome will parse your A. Classic left hand, right hand scenario.

I haven't had the time, but I've I've had the time to think about this further. I'm pretty much sure that this will be some secret algo that triggers. Sort of like what's the magic formula for getting that #1 search result position. Nobody will ever know. This is what I'm expecting. Sure, sure, go mobile! You have to! See? We will prompt people and parse out your earnings if you resist. Resistance is futile!

Adsense has no comment? Nobody has linked to an article or policy from Google.

[keyplyr]

MrSavage, your solution is discussed all over these forums. You've been advised numerous times. You need to make your site mobile and remove the bloat. If your site is not secure, you need to do that as well. That's the solution. That's what you need to do.

Not keeping up with web standards and complaining when the repercussions have a negative effect does not remedy the problem.

Yes, it takes work. To do well on the internet, the work never stops. Things keep changing. It will always be this way. Good luck :)

[not2easy]

Jul 22, 2015 in this UA discussion, you may find a link to Google's policy: [webmasterworld.com...]

At that link you can read how to opt out [support.google.com] of their weblight transcoder:

Opting out of transcoding

If you do not want your pages to be transcoded, set the HTTP header "Cache-Control: no-transform" in your page response. If Googlebot sees this header, your page will not be transcoded.

Please note that pages that opt-out of being transcoded will be labeled in search results to indicate to users that they may take longer to load and may use more data.

[keyplyr]

Just a FYI: opting out of the weblight transcoder will not stop users from seeing the alert to "Make this page mobile friendly" if the web page if not mobile friendly and viewed from Mobile Chrome. Opting-out will only stop the rendering of your page with weblight directly from the mobile search index.

Weblight is geared toward bloated pages, mobile and non-mobile viewed from a user that has a slow connection using Mobile Chrome. It's the *slow connection* that triggers it directly from mobile search.

The alert Mobile Chrome gives offering to "Make this page mobile friendly" is geared toward non-mobile pages viewed from Mobile Chrome.

I may not have been clear about the distinction earlier.

[tangor]

The web (because of mobile) is returning to "smaller resolutions" (or these days we call it viewport). This requires a rethink in layout presentation and how the "floating divs" which help make responsive truly responsive, will actually work.

There's also less bling and glamor for the bandwidth starved, which means any images used must be truly well optimized.

At present this is the mobile serp which causes this, but given the growing importance mobile in general, at some point the old serps and mobile will be combined, and any sites which have not gone responsive AND secured might simply disappear to page 100 or higher.

As noted above, everything is in constant evolution, and at the moment the largest evolution is making the web "mobile friendly".

For those of us who started coding web pages for 640x480 this brings back some memories. :)

[MrSavage]

Who in their right mind in 2017 does a site redesign to accommodate this? I didn't create a website so it wouldn't earn income. I invest in things that can monetize. The self righteous attitudes about geez, you're not mobile? Oh you deserve it. Oh you should be parsed. Oh you should be tarred and feathered. Blah, blah, blah. The point is there is no transparency from Adsense that their very own browser is parsing. Yet people here are stuck on the "oh you deserve it" rhetoric. Have a policy: If you're website isn't responsive then you are subject to being parsed via Chrome mobile browser. Something to that effect. But back to my point about fixing or redesigning a website that depends on Google organic search and Google Adsense earnings in 2017 is what? I think most enlightened people realize it's called a waste of time. I mean not a total waste, but investing in a downward spiral business is nonsensical. Regardless, the issue is transparency and partnership. A notification saying that 40% of your ad revenue is lost due to Chrome parsing. That type of partnership would mean there is a relationship worth caring about. I got notifications saying I could add more ads to my sites. I haven't got one saying I'm losing ad revenue because my site needs tweaking or a redesign so my site will be free of parsing. The question is if I don't want to redesign my website because on most phones it looks and reads reasonable well, can I actually run ads or not. Let there be a transparent tipping point. People will hate my site because it's not responsive but some may not. They can set the criteria but at least have that in plain view for the sake of this so called partnership. Either that or simply say if you're not doing your website this way, then our right hand has the option to parse you. To the deaf ears of the self righteous.

[keyplyr]

Who in their right mind in 2017 does a site redesign to accommodate this?

Only those who want to stay relevant and keep their site in the SERP.

[tangor]

Have a policy: If you're website isn't responsive then you are subject to being parsed via Chrome mobile browser. Something to that effect. But back to my point about fixing or redesigning a website that depends on Google organic search and Google Adsense earnings in 2017 is what?

From, this, and other comments like "I didn't get the memo" it sounds like you are more unhappy that no one personally wrote to you and said what might happen?

If so, consider this entire thread a notice to that effect.

YOU CAN, of course, notify g you'd like to opt out of weblight. That's available, but most likely will not give the result desired.

Having been a Luddite, and still am in some web matters, I fully sympathize with the angst and rage against the machine. I also don't tilt at windmills. I draw the line at too much reliance on js, in part because most of the time I don't need it, the rest of the time because there's all those ad and script blockers out there. :) Meanwhile, responsive is just another method of layout and, if you really really really think about it, is just another step in the use of CSS which, 12 years ago, was poo-poohed as non-essential and no business website needed it to make money. Well, that ship sailed a LONG time back. :)

Same will hold true for desktop specific layouts. At present the ship is still in port, taking passengers in rapid fashion. You can board for the voyage, or wave from the shore as rank and profits sail for the horizon.

As always, the webmaster is in complete control of their site. G is merely in charge of their index and listens to how the users want to use it. And a LOT of those users are very happy to see notices that warn they can't reliably view a page or it might drain their bandwidth after two pages. Your choice.