In order for Google to clean up Adsense and rid it of MFA accounts there would need to be a radical overhaul. 1. They should make sites that scrape content a TOS violation. This would take out a large majority of the MFAs, and quickly start rewarding publishers with human content better. 2. All machine generated content to be TOS violation. This would clear out the majority of the remainder MFA sites that escape the scraping violation. Scraper sites are those that have the sole intention of running automatically and producing no original content of their own. I am not referring to sites that are syndicated and use syndicated content as a means to boost their own content. 3. Add your suggestions to what Google should do to further clean up Adsense.
Google doesnt need to clean up Adsense they need to stop indexing spam sites. Those MFA sites make Google money and still convert for those who advertise on them. Some people believe MFA sites are actually the best converting sites for the advertiser as the bids are so low.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with copying content provided it is legal, such as copying wikipedia content. it is very informative material and if it ranks wells in search engines, then the user benefits as well. furthermore, what are the downsides of adsense on scraper sites? how are you, as a fellow publisher, losing out when someone has a mfa site? google loses nothing when a scraper site is put up. they should be worried about other stuff such as tricking users into clicking ads.
Half of the posts on here are webmasters asking how they can make more on their site with adsense, or which categories pay the most, or what type of site can I build that will make the most from adsense. How are these different from MFA's sites? Most sites built these days be it blogs, forums, or plain content sites seem to be MFA sites.
The problem with MFA sites is that many, not all, are horrible sites where they generate clicks from visitors looking for an exit. This creates low quality traffic for the advertiser, which leads to lower payouts to publishers. Hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising has opted out of the content networks because the traffic is not cost effective. A lot of these advertisers were the highest paying in their category before they opted out. If the advertiser isn't making money, they are going to either lower their bids, or drop out of the content network entirely. The most prized PPC is now Google Search and Yahoo Search - and publishers don't get an opportunity to have those ads run on their sites. Google and Yahoo get to keep 100% of the ad revenue and not share it with any publisher. Might be a reason why the MFA sites are still around......
Was there ever a study done to prove this? I've heard people say this before, and it seems to be the basis for a whole lot of arguments. I'd like to see the empirical data to support this hypothesis.
What about gaming sites? I am sure they have quite a high rate of non converting ads because of the trick effects i.e. extremely good blending.
Here is a MFA site : -http://fr.40of100b.info/reverse-directory/Guyane_(France) The main content is a wikipedia article wich is badly scrapped, there is still the links [modify]. The links on the sidebar go to other MFA sites, and the content below is automatic generated sentences, they means nothing, it's just non-sense. (worse that the way I write english ) At the bottom, below the AdSense, they scrapped content from blog midly related to the topic. It's absolutely useless for the user. All the Ads displayed are not at all related with the "topic", so if people clik on them, just by mistake or to go out : - advertisers will loose money because these are not interested clicks, - users will waste they're time - and other (genuine ?) publishers will loose earnings because this kind of scrap take it's share of the money in the advertising networks. Seeing that, I really think MFA should be removed, good content and quality deserve to make money, scrap shouldn't do. imo
There are plenty of sites that perform FAR worse for advertisers. Myspace sites, dating sites, gaming sites, etc.
Sure, no doubts. But this one, which in not the worst, is useless and "harmful" to all webmasters trying to make good and useful content and trying to earn some money with AdSense. This is why I disagree with your view when you say :
How is it harming you directly? If you build a good content site and get relavent backlinks then you should outrank this site and have no worries.
Yes but these backlinks will be generated by owner of site, not from other users (natural backlinks), who like the site for example. So IMO is getting backlinks as we most time do just another SPAM! Summary: MFA site owner can get relevant backlinks too.
Of course they can. There is always going to be someone better at SEO than you are. Rather than sitting around placing blame I would be out working on my sites.
By "harmful", I mean that they take a share of the money in the ad network (wish is not infinite), so there is less for others publishers, as an advertiser, they cost me money if my ads are displayed on such a site because click on my ads from those sites are worthless to me. As a webmaster on the same niche, they can cost me trafic if they do not to bad in SERPs.
but who makes the rules here? What signifies a MFA site versus a regualr site? I know of many sites considered "MFA's" that convert FAR better than most "legit sites". Who decided that the search engines were the supreme rulers of the internet? As long as the search engines rely on links and content there will be people building sites that deliver JUST that. The search engines drive the "spam" market not the other way around. I have amessage forum with over 30,000 users that'sbeen around since 1999. I make more in a day from "MFA" sites than I do in3 months from my "content" site.
there is nothing wrong with that site. the internet is a free place and peope can publish whatever they want. do you want google to start policing the web? web users have the choise of not clicking on the ads if they dont want to. why dont you worry about improving your own sites instead of moaning about other attempts to make money.