Google Adsense just got tougher

[jamestl2]

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd give the link to this news update I found out about on another forum:
Inside AdSense: Another look at optimizations

Apparently now it's going to be even harder to follow adsense's new guidelines, and to make sure you're not violating your ad placements on your blogs.

[Blueskied]

Thanks for posting. I am in the process of setting up a new site with adsense on it, so this comes in time.

[jamestl2]

Sure thing ,
It also gives some insight into what the AdWords advertisers are saying.

[mbshinde78]

Thanks...This was really helpful as I am revamping my affiliate website.

[DavidDavidDavid]

It doesn't seem like anything that should be much of a surprise.

The spirit of the program has always been to help yourself by helping out your advertisers first.

Playing tricks by making visitors think ads are content was always against Google policy; it seems like Google has only explicitly spelled out in detail yet one more shady practice that contravenes the spirit of its contractual terms.

It's unfortunate people feel the need to resort to such tactics in the first place.

Is it really creating value by tricking *your* readers this way?

(BTW, this post is not meant as a dig against my fellow forum members.)

[frankfortpost]

Sounds like an ok policy to me on the surface.

[Blueskied]

Originally Posted by DavidDavidDavid

It doesn't seem like anything that should be much of a surprise.

The spirit of the program has always been to help yourself by helping out your advertisers first.

Playing tricks by making visitors think ads are content was always against Google policy; it seems like Google has only explicitly spelled out in detail yet one more shady practice that contravenes the spirit of its contractual terms.

It's unfortunate people feel the need to resort to such tactics in the first place.

Is it really creating value by tricking *your* readers this way?

(BTW, this post is not meant as a dig against my fellow forum members.)

Well, take this site for an example.
Point 1 states: "Ads shouldn't be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads."
What about the pages:
Personal Development for Smart People - Steve Pavlina
Steve Pavlina Audio
There are ads beneath the page title. Sure it's not done in a way that they imply they are not ads.
But there's a close line between an ad-optimized page and a page that breaks the rule.

[Nelson]

Google is pretty good at making sure they enforce their polcies in a way that is fair to their customers. While they obviously could exclude Steve's site if they wanted to - they aren't going to because:

1) His site drives tons of targeted traffic to advertisers.
2) The ads are obviously seperate from the content.

These stricter policies are made to weed out sites that deliver advertisements instead of content. As long as you are producing value for other people there is nothing to worry about