Images Next To Ads Crackdown???

Got this today, I have a bar between the images and a clear border on images also. Sucks big time, my rev is down 50%!

 

That confirms my earlier caution: The AdSense people seem to have some criteria inmind for when images close to ads are OK and when they are not, but they're clearly not telling anyone else. For that reason, my advice would be to avoid them. One thing is clear: If they suspect that you are doing anything to draw undue attention to the ads, they can and will disable your account. Presumably, that would be tgriggered by an increase in clicks. But if an increase in clicks is NOT your goal, you wouldn't be putting those images there in the first place, would you?

Conclusion: If those images do what you hope and increase click rates, you'll probably get kicked. If they don't, Google won't mind but you get nothing for the risk.

 

That pretty much sums it up for me, I CTR increased 1% after placing images next to ads. Maybe yahoo will have a different view on this.

 

I too had images near some of my Google ads, and I received a warning email from Google about them. I immediately removed all images, because I agree it is not worth the risk.

Today I found that my main website, www.schrockinnovations.com was prohibited from serving Google Adsense ads. JUST THAT site. Not my account. I am still earning minor revenue on other sites.

Has this happened to anyone else before? Will Google readmit a site once they have prohibited it? Lastly, whatthe heck (aside from images) did I do wrong?

The page they referenced was www.schrockinnovations.com/removepopcorn2.php. I have added some additional horizontal lines to separate the ads from my content as much as possible, and sent them an email requesting clarification.

 

Regardless of anything that you may receive in emails, Google makes it clear that it is the Publisher's responsibility to keep up with changes to the AdSense ToS - and you should assume that the ToS will override anything and everything else.

These parts are relevant, if more than a tad vague in certain ways:

https://www.google.com/adsense/supp...i&medium=link&hl=en_US&gsessionid=qOvlRsrQuR8

 

YPN does not allow images next to ads.

 

Hmm its very frustrating to see so many other websites doing this. I guess they cant keep up with it!

 

Ok, I have resolved my issue with Google. Here are the emails that I exchanged with their support staff. The service speaks for its self:

Google:

Me:

Google:

Me:

Google:

 

Dumi, according to the Google cache (14 Oct) of your site prisonbreakscene.com, the two images on the left and the right were very integrated with the ads, forming together what looks like an ad unit with images inside (image-ad-ad-image), within the same rectangle. Your images appear to be part of the ads. This is not allowed.

As it's well-known, there must be a clear differentiation between separate ad and image areas (with a visible border, or for example separate areas of different background color, etc.).

The cache shows the lines that you added after the warning, but I think they are not enough differentiation in your case. The images are still too integrated with the ads, forming as said an ad unit with images inside.

This is not new at all. For a long time, Google has been sending warnings to publishers who fail to comply with the requested differentiation. In these cases, now the publisher seems to lose trust and, instead of taking time to correct it, is simply asked to remove those closely integrated images.

As Google said to many publishers:

 

There you go. That was helpful, explicit, polite, and cooperative. Well done, both sides!

 

Tschrock, I have to say that, like Dumi, you also had a close integration of ads and images, in your case without any border or separation, as shown by the 9 Oct cache of your page schrockinnovations.com/removepopcorn2.php .

When we look at this kind of cases with warnings from Google about images, there is always a close integration ad-images (no borders, etc.), without the differentiation requested by Google.

When in doubt, I think publishers should ask AdSense Support in advance if a particular design is OK and with enough differentiation between ads and site images, as many have done successfully.

 

Hmm....I don't seem to have a problem yet with my images next to the ads. CTRs still healthy. I've not received any email from google. But then, I'd never know.....

 

What is "okay" with Adsense one day might be "not okay" tomorrow. And if they catch you while they're in "mid-decision", you're SOL. My suggestion would not to use this method at all. It's so gimmicky. If you do everything right -- SEO, promote, get your traffic -- you will never have to resort to this.

 

It's very annoying that they won't come up with some strict guidelines for this. Who's to know exactly whether you violate the terms or not. At least it seems they work with you in sorting it out.

Have you seen this: http://seo.blorc.com/seo/images-next-to-ads-google-tests/
Google experimenting with putting their own images in the ad blocks. Makes you wonder.

 

I hope they implement this, that would be great!