link exchange not accepted because of google adsense ads

adsense - signals of low quality?

[sven1977]

My page is in the education sector and I asked for a link exchange on an educational website in NZ that matches my content. I got the following reply:
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Unfortunately your site did not pass the first stage of our quality assurance process because of the Google ads. Because we are a Ministry of Education portal we have to be sure what viewers (who may be students) will see, and Google ads change so sadly we cannot accept sites hosting these ads.
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How annoying is that? Does she think that we are all tax-stealing webmasters that are sponsored by some government and creating some crappy websites paid by taxpayer's money? Quality content has its price and all of us somehow have to live from something.

I wanted to write back and tell her this but I pulled myself together and did not. It's very frustrating to try to get inbound links, isn't it? I have written about 50 emails and only got 4 links so far.

[Longhaired Genius]

Forget about it. At least you got an email. If your content is interesting and valuable you will eventually get links.

[mzanzig]

sven1977, I understand your feelings.

In fact, I recently proposed a cool deal (IMO) to a large corporation: they would get high-quality unique content for free, non-exclusive, in exchange for links. Guess what? They refused: "At XYZ Inc. we have the policy to not link to 3rd parties as we cannot guarantee the future quality of the sites linked". Argh!

I guess if large corporations are like this, governments might be even worse! Thus, just don't feel too sad about it, and keep on working.

[elguapo]

Well, target non-government sites first. Gov sites and education sites, unfortunately for you, have more stringent policies on linking

[bts111]

Don't take it to heart. If I got upset from every unsuccessful link request that I have received I would be on a Prozac drip.

Never think that sites that display Adsense ads are not quality. The drone that read your email is probably aware that you make money when you sleep.

I get around 30 requests a day and I don't read any of them unless they mention their PR value in the subject line of the communication ;)

If you haven't already, check out forum 12 - Link Development. You can learn the absolute do's and dont's of link exchanges.

Goverment sites are great but it's better when your content is that good that they link to you without a request ;)

As someone suggested you may be more successful, at this time, if you request links from sites that are similar to yours in size and strength. Remember, birds of a feather flock together.

[swa66]

Well, considerign some of the scammers that use adsense (like those advertising for nonexistent widgets, adstract concepts at e.g. ebay, I cannot blaim the .edu webmaster in not wantign to give a seal of approval to a site that might feature them.

Best bet is to either
- make sure yoou have incoming links and traffic before you pout the advertising on
- live with less incoming links

Ever since I've added adsense I notice I loose incoming links myself.

[lammert]

A few months ago I received a totaly different email from an educational institute in Australia. They wanted to link to one of my pages--which contains AdSense--and asked me if I would have any objections against this hyperlink?

So not all .edu sites seem the have the same opinion on AdSense ads. My experience, if the content is good, links will come, also .edu links.

[WallyWorld]

I think the webmaster of the EDU website was saying that they want to know what the content and ads are on the sites they link to but with AdSense, the ads change so they can't be sure what will be advertised from day to day.

[21_blue]

We used to have adverts appearing on one of our sites that sold pre-written essays for students. This was nothing to do with the content of our website, but obviously the advertiser had targeted some unknown keyword that we triggered.

We blocked these ads for ethical reasons, and because they did not fit with the quality image of our site. We occasionally monitor the ads being shown to make sure that the quality remains appropropriate.

I can understand that educational establishments would be very concerned by linking to sites that might display such material. It would give the impression that they endorse something that is, in essence, a way of cheating the education system.

I'm not sure there is an answer to this problem. All I'm doing, perhaps, is saying that I can see both sides of the argument, and it isn't immediately obvious what the win-win might be.

[jimbeetle]

but with AdSense, the ads change so they can't be sure what will be advertised from day to day

That's my take on it also and it is a valid point from the Ministry of Ed's point of view. One stray word can trigger ads in a totally different and sometimes embarrassing context.