Alright perhaps I am just stupid in the head tonight, but is there a way to hide/mask/cloak your publisher ID for Google Adsense. I don't want SEO toolbar scripts to know how many other sites use the same publisher IDs, and yet others taking the publisher ID and putting it on sites that aren't my own.

For the life of me I can't see anything in adsense itself to do it, so I am assuming I need a script of some sort.

I think I really need some sleep.

Originally Posted by hotwicked

Alright perhaps I am just stupid in the head tonight, but is there a way to hide/mask/cloak your publisher ID for Google Adsense. I don't want SEO toolbar scripts to know how many other sites use the same publisher IDs, and yet others taking the publisher ID and putting it on sites that aren't my own.

For the life of me I can't see anything in adsense itself to do it, so I am assuming I need a script of some sort.

I think I really need some sleep.

Well...i cant help you cloaking pub-ID, but dont afraid about someone taking your publisher ID and put it in xxx or site that violates TOS. You can only allow certain sites to show ads for your account.
Login to your adsense--->adsense setup--->allowed sites

I am aware of that feature. However, there are also services that track publisher ids and connect sites together. I would rather NOT have someone to connect 4-5 of my sites together based upon the google adsense publisher ID.

Services like adsspy keep track of that information and provide it to anyone that pays for access.

While this isn't exactly what you were looking for, I think it will help.

You can encrypt your entire HTML source code. Check out this site: http://www.protware.com/

If you check out the demonstration they have, go ahead and click on "view source" and all you'll see is a jumbled mess of code. Should do exactly what you're looking for, with the added benefits that come along with encrypting your source code.

Originally Posted by bucksgen

Well...i cant help you cloaking pub-ID, but dont afraid about someone taking your publisher ID and put it in xxx or site that violates TOS. You can only allow certain sites to show ads for your account.
Login to your adsense--->adsense setup--->allowed sites

Only problem with that is it will hurt SEO massively if everything is encrypted. It's ridiculous that Google doesn't allow the option of hiding the publisher id.

If a person finds you are doing well at one site, they can simply pay adsspy a few bucks and find out ALL the sites you are using your Adsense Publisher ID on and they will then know all your sites. Don't know about you but the less my competitors know the better.

Originally Posted by hotwicked

I am aware of that feature. However, there are also services that track publisher ids and connect sites together. I would rather NOT have someone to connect 4-5 of my sites together based upon the google adsense publisher ID.

Services like adsspy keep track of that information and provide it to anyone that pays for access.

There's something like that? ummm... maybe Adsense Guru who post below me know how to do this

Yes, built into the SeoQuake Toolbar for FireFox for example is support for Adsspy.com. The toolbar highlight all the google adsense code on the page, and gives out how many sites are using that adsense ID. You can click on that link and go to their page and pay for a report.

Quickly and easily they can find all your sites with that Publisher ID.

That is dangerous IMO, and gives away too much of your niche information. They find one good site of yours and before you know have connected 4-5-20-100 sites.

It also does it for the google Analytics ID, and subdomains as well.

Alright, here is a free solution for you (and spelled out clearly...although I didn't really want to do this, as it will make it available for everybody...oh well)

I'm going to assume the following:

You're pages with adsense are already set up.

You have access to the source code and can upload files to your host.

Alright, here goes:

Go to this site: http://www.iwebtool.com/html_encrypter

Paste in your adsense code, then push encrypt.

Copy what it spits out.

Replace the adsense code in your source HTML files with the encrypted code.

Upload and enjoy encrypted adsense code while still having the rest of your site perfectly "crawlable" by search engines!

Ah, bless you my child! LOL!

I will give this a try and see how it works. Though it sounds just like what is needed.

Thanks given.

Originally Posted by crazyflx

Alright, here is a free solution for you (and spelled out clearly...although I didn't really want to do this, as it will make it available for everybody...oh well)

I'm going to assume the following:

You're pages with adsense are already set up.

You have access to the source code and can upload files to your host.

Alright, here goes:

Go to this site: http://www.iwebtool.com/html_encrypter

Paste in your adsense code, then push encrypt.

Copy what it spits out.

Replace the adsense code in your source HTML files with the encrypted code.

Upload and enjoy encrypted adsense code while still having the rest of your site perfectly "crawlable" by search engines!

Oh, and I agree with you about how much adsense sucks (alright, you didn't say they suck, but that is what I've come to after experiencing all of their "red tape"...sounds like you're on your way down that road)

Originally Posted by hotwicked

Ah, bless you my child! LOL!

I will give this a try and see how it works. Though it sounds just like what is needed.

Thanks given.

Any time my man, glad to help

Well tried it real quick, and adsspy is still picking it up. Not sure if that is just residual or not. I am going to try it with a fresh site or two over the weekend and start from the beginning being encrypted. Let's see if it can detect it from there.

I have been using adsense on a sites since the program started years ago. It sucks in many ways, but hey, it's the best game in town for certain types of sites. Quick and easy builds and backlinks and they generate a nice stable income.

One good note is that at least Yahoo Publisher is not being tracked by them... yet.

there is also http://spyonweb.com/

Originally Posted by Newbie.

there is also http://spyonweb.com/

This was blocked by encrypting the adsense code. I just tested it.

All I want to make sure of now is if the encryption doesn't interfere with tracking on adsense, though I don't think it will.

Originally Posted by hotwicked

Well tried it real quick, and adsspy is still picking it up. Not sure if that is just residual or not. I am going to try it with a fresh site or two over the weekend and start from the beginning being encrypted. Let's see if it can detect it from there.

It is almost a guarantee that it is residual. I mean, how many people use adsense...and then how many of those people use it on more than one site...that means how many sites have to be tracked...to do it all in real time would be a server load so high, it would probably compare with Homeland Security's.

The "fresh site test" is definitely the way to go. If you find that it doesn't pick it up (and it probably won't), you'll be all set. What I fear though, is that the previously tracked sites won't ever go away.

Originally Posted by hotwicked

This was blocked by encrypting the adsense code. I just tested it.

All I want to make sure of now is if the encryption doesn't interfere with tracking on adsense, though I don't think it will.

It doesn't interfere. I only know this because before I made that recommendation to you above, I threw together a "test page" in FrontPage. When I went to get my AdSense code, I had 0 impressions for the day (I don't use AdSense obviously).

I just checked again, and I have 3 impressions.

Now, I didn't click on my own ad, so I can't tell if it is going to track clicks properly. But if it is tracking impressions okay, I'm sure clicks will be fine too.

Clicks track just fine.

I still haven't tested on a new site, because on old sites the ads are still tracked somehow.

Did it end up working out for you (I.E. - New sites not being tied to you?)

Had the same problem, someone more expert than me told to block the IP of the spiders of these sites using .htaccess. I think it's safer than messing up with G code (you know, I'm quite paranoid about their ban policy).

But don't ask me in the detail how to do this because I still haven't setup it yet.

Hey Guys, if anyone has any updates on this I'd really love to know? It's something I've been quite worried about ever since noticing the spy feature in SEO Quake.

@ Hotwicked, have you tried it on new sites yet?

@Frankie4Fingers, any tips on which spiders to block?

I'd also be interested in any thoughts on encrypting with regards to Adsense TOS. In a way I think it should be ok, as one is not actually changing the Adsense Code, just encrypting it.

Cheers,
CB :~D

I'm interested in this as well. Can someone share their experience with this, please? Does anyone here successfully use the posted html encryption to improve the security of their sites and their online business?

Did anyone get banned for something like this? I mean, like mentioned before, you do not alter the code in any obviously prohibited way (like changing certain colors which can not be changed within the adsense interface, for example).

Of course, google simply states that alteration of the code is not allowed.

AdSense code may not be altered, nor may the standard behavior, targeting or delivery of ads be manipulated in any way that is not explicitly permitted by Google. For instance, clicking Google ads may not result in a new browser window being launched.

Does anyone have any official statements of google on the matter? You do not manipulate the code to gain any advantage, it's for security reasons only, so maybe they do not really care.

Seriously guys... you're worried that people might pay Adspy, or use SEO Quake to find your other sites?

Man, it's a whole lot worse than you can even imagine!

Anyone with a bit of knowhow can find your sites for free. Easy.

I'm guessing that from the posts here, most of you have sites which can be ambushed? Now why is that?...

I'll propose an answer... the huge majority of Adsense publishers are lazy. It's the easiest approach to online income, so it tends to attract people who want to do the least amount of work. So most of the time they set up a site, add a few backlinks and move on.

That means that someone with access to a few 'tricks' can find all your sites, and steal all your niches - and why? Because you haven't done enough work on them!

The best protection against other people stealing your niches is to DO THE WORK. If all your sites have 1000+ backlinks then even if your Adsense code is viewable, your site is still not going to be ambushed in a day.

Hi Quorn,

You're right, thanks for that.

Thinking defensively all the time wastes a lot of time and brakes one's momentum.

Cheers

if you encrypt your publisher id, it will hurt your ranking!

i have testd this myself on some of my websites.

i can't understand why google don't help to mask/hide publisher id or maybe (like amazon) giving you possibilities to generate as many publisher id's you need.

so for now, is there any other idee??

we dont know,but there are also services that track publisher ids and connect sites together.

I know "loverichie" and this is the problem! Google is a real pain in the a__!!!

Google has grown dramatically and has a monopoly over all the internet searches and advertising and it is a problem now for all.