Linking to an external site without violating Adsense rules

[GoNC]

I wasn't sure whether to post this under the Google forum or the Webmaster forum, so the mods may move it if they think I chose wrong.

My site includes a series of message boards and classified ads, with several thousand posts a day by site users.

I received a notice from Adsense that there was a link on my site to another site with an inappropriate image. The link (from 2010) was to photobucket.com, and the image was of a man's butt. Definitely not an X-rated pic, but supposedly beyond Google's standards.

We do moderate for language, etc, but have never really reviewed outgoing links. Over the last 11 years, there have been hundreds of thousands of links to external sites, and there's just no way for me to go back and review all of them now. But at the same time, I can't risk having my Adsense account suspended, either.

So my question is, can you guys think of a way to modify these links so that they still exist, but don't violate Google's rules? According to the Google Support forum, a rel="nofollow" tag doesn't help.

I thought about sending all links to a PHP script (on another domain; eg, example.com) that warns the user they're leaving the site, then redirecting to the link in a few seconds. This way, we would be linking to example.com, not photobucket.com.

Would this work? If not, any other suggestions?

[martinibuster]

...notice from Adsense that there was a link on my site to another site with an inappropriate image...can you guys think of a way to modify these links so that they still exist, but don't violate Google's rules?

Kind of sounds like have and eat a cake at the same time. ;)

raunchy
adjective: earthy, vulgar, and often sexually explicit.

Raunchy sites are not a good fit for AdSense. You may want to reconsider your monetization plan.

I think the actual issue isn't complying with Google because the solution to that is simple (though not easy). Change your site or change your monetization plan. The actual problem everyone is facing is finding acceptable path to monetization outside of advertising.

[buckworks]

Those attempted workarounds would not really solve the need to meet the spirit of what AdSense wants. You might fool the spiders for a while but crud links would still be crud links.

no way for me to go back and review

Yes there is, but you'd have to invest some time.

Find a tool of the sort that's designed to check for broken links, and use it to build a list of all your outgoing links.

Start by cleaning up whatever broken links it finds. That will improve both your user experience and your SEO.

Then work through the list to take a quick look at the landing pages and make sure you're happy with them. Most links would need no action, so it would just take a few seconds per link.

Give priority to inspecting links that are redirecting, because those tend to be a greater source of weirdness than links that haven't changed since they were posted.

"Link patrol" can be a lot of work but it's a task you could hire some help for if you didn't want to do it all yourself.

[martinibuster]

Link patrol... I just eliminated ten years worth of spam profiles. Bots couldn't see the profiles but felt it was good for future proofing anyway. Plus I removed signature and profile links from inactive members. Took a long time and not fun but each profile roused a little outrage and I think that's what kept me motivated to power through.

If you do the link patrol thing then you might have to institute new rules. New rules can screw an established community that's used to doing things a certain way. Which is why I commented that maybe you might have to find an alternative path to monetization, like complete privacy for a subscription, that kind of thing. The industry's current way has resulted in a web of surveillance where yahoo, google, facebook, twitter is tracking web surfers. So something like privacy might have value.

Good luck!

[GoNC]

raunchy
adjective: earthy, vulgar, and often sexually explicit.

Raunchy sites are not a good fit for AdSense. You may want to reconsider your monetization plan.

For the most part, Adsense is perfect for us. We don't allow links to adult sites, but it seems like Google has gotten exceptionally conservative lately.

Photobucket doesn't allow adult content, either, so we've never reviewed it, but in this case it was a still from a G-rated movie! They sent me a warning a few months ago, too, because of a photo of a woman in a sleeveless shirt sitting behind a desk (nothing sexy about it).

That level of conservatism makes it pretty hard for me to be sure what's OK and what's not. When I see a Adsense banner with a woman in a bikini and it's OK, but a picture of a woman in a sleeveless shirt isn't, I get a little lost.

Find a tool of the sort that's designed to check for broken links, and use it to build a list of all your outgoing links.

Start by cleaning up whatever broken links it finds. That will improve both your user experience and your SEO.

Then work through the list to take a quick look at the landing pages and make sure you're happy with them. Most links would need no action, so it would just take a few seconds per link.

Good idea. I checked, and there are currently 153,438 links to external sites that I need to check. One employee, working 8 hours a day, spending 1 minute per link, would take just under a year to look at them all! Last time this happened, though (with the sleeveless shirt), I had a warning on Monday, and then a second offense on Wednesday (a woman in a bikini) caused my account to be suspended.

All I know to do is modify the program to remove all links posted before today, and then just start moderating more conservatively.

[buckworks]

One employee, working 8 hours a day, spending 1 minute per link, would take just under a year to look at them all!

It shouldn't take one minute for every link, and the task could be split between more than one person to speed things up.

The fundamental question is, are you in control of your content, or not?

remove all links posted before today

If you've had two warnings out of 153,438 current links, is it reasonable to assume that AdSense doesn't object to the other 153,436?

Rather than removing links wholesale, you might be able to take a more measured approach. Make it your priority to get tighter control of links going forward, and then work at cleaning up broken links and inspecting links that are redirecting. That is good to do in any case.

I do agree that Google is very inconsistent about what it considers to be "too much flesh". I've encountered similar craziness on the AdWords side of things, having new banners rejected that were very similar to banners that had run for several seasons (and are still running).