Google has recently announced a lot of pro-publisher initiatives and policies, starting with releasing native ad formats, allowing 300x250 ad units above the fold on mobile, to introducing page-level policy compliance. In addition to that, they've also provided a lot of new best practices based on new ad data. All these were longstanding issues that AdSense users struggled w … [Read more...]
AdSense Now Flags Individual Pages for Policy Violations, No Site-Wide Bans
After the YouTube exodus, Google Display Network is taking great pains to ensure brand-safety for its advertisers, without cutting too deep into publishers’ (and its own) revenue. Last week, Google announced two updates that will allow it to act quickly and more precisely against prohibited content, all the while making all policies (and their violation penalties) clearer to … [Read more...]
AdSense Best Practices: Recommendations for 2017
Most web publishers use Google AdSense as their primary means of monetization. We've covered AdSense best practices for web publishers in the past, but policies have changed since then, and Google has released many recommendations in recent updates. Here's a quick summary. Optimizing Ad Layouts While creating ad placements, find the balance between optimizing for re … [Read more...]
Google AdSense Now Allows 300×250 Ads Above the Fold on Mobile Web
As we've previously covered, one of the most common policy violations committed by publishers on AdSense is placing the 300x250 ad unit above-the-fold on mobile. The reasoning for this policy was simple: Since mobile screens are small, square ad units or vertical ad banners push the content below-the-fold, i.e., beneath the part of the screen that a user sees before s … [Read more...]
Google AdSense Beta Launches Two New Ad Formats: InArticle and InFeed
Google seems to be taking its Coalition for Better Ads initiative seriously. In a bid make its ads less intrusive, Google AdSense is inviting publishers to join the beta for two new ad formats: InArticle and InFeed ads. Here’s what the new formats bring to the table: Native InArticle Ads These are responsive ad units (of 250px minimum width) which can be placed b … [Read more...]
Google’s Brand Safety Loss is a Win for News Media Looking to Strike Direct Deals
Google is looking at losses worth $750 million (and climbing) ever since 250 brand-advertisers pulled their ad spend following a Times Inc. report, which revealed Google’s seemingly uncaring stance on brand safety. The dust is only now beginning to settle (after Google’s vehement promises of tougher policies, third party measurement, and a string of DFP updates). Not much has … [Read more...]
15 Best AdSense Optimized Themes for WordPress
AdSense is probably the most common way of making money online because of the way it integrates ads into your website that are both relevant and lucrative. Now, building a website with WordPress is great, because you get to tinker with various themes to get the precise look and functionality you always wanted. There are WordPress themes that have been precisely optimized for … [Read more...]
Google Cracks Down on Content Scrapers and Dubious News Aggregators
In response to a veritable tsunami of backlash following the general election day (when a blatantly fake website got the top spot for Google search query “Final Election count 2016” on Nov. 12), Google is finally moving to curb the spread of misinformation. The search giant will ban fake news sites from AdSense – a bold move that seeks to cut the revenue streams for publishers o … [Read more...]
What Google Wants You to Do About Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Under fire for sending your readers’ Personally Identifiable Information to Google? Yeah, it’s been known to happen, quite often at that. “In the interests of protecting end-user privacy, Google ads product policies mandate that publishers must not pass any data to Google that Google could use or recognize as personally identifiable information (PII)” — Google Publisher Policy … [Read more...]
Big AdSense Policy Update: Ad Limits Per Page Lifted, Valuable Inventory Introduced
Google just made a policy change that is bound to make web publishers happy — they often don't make announcements about product and policy changes and users are left to their own devices to eventually figure it out. This is the reason why there are hundreds of web publications dedicated to documenting changes and updates to Google search and ad products. Most of these publ … [Read more...]