Masterpiece of Blackhat Google Ad Placement!

Y

YesCat

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Check out this corvette site's Google ads. Clearly a violation IMO. I even got tricked into clicking on the "engine specs" link. How the hell do they get the ad links to say what they want them to say? I thought that was generated randomly?


UPDATE: I removed the link to protect the "innocent" but what I think was worth sharing was he ended the url with /specs and had corvettezo6 in the url as well. This must have caused the ads to display "engine specs" "tire specs" "vehicle specs" and ad placement was right where the horizontal navigation bar should be even though there was a tiny legit one above it too.

It does leave space and is in a different larger font. It may be legal but it sure surprised me when I clicked on it. I guess that would be the goal if you're not the one paying for Google advertising or the viewer looking for more specs rather than more Google ads. Place the ad to encourage accidental clicks but do it in a way that Google can't ban you.

That's not "black?" It aint the Golden Rule either. :)

All the best,

Cat
 
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If i'd tried to pull that off i'd have been banned before my first payment :')
 
Your talking about the links just below the car right? I've seen similar ad placement many times before.
 
The 'Ads by Google' is quite clear, and the ads are in a different font. I've used adsense for about 8 years and that looks pretty legal. The links are generated depending on what Google thinks the page/site is about.
 
It's completely legal.
BTW Remove that links and take a screenshot of that and paste it. Why are you risking somebody's bread and butter. Sure if he is doing some blackhat stuff then report it to Big g. But he is not doing anything.
 
Knoxgates said:
It's completely legal.
BTW Remove that links and take a screenshot of that and paste it. Why are you risking somebody's bread and butter. Sure if he is doing some blackhat stuff then report it to Big g. But he is not doing anything.
Click to expand...

Props for this comment mate! We're all here to make a living, so why risk a fellow marketer!
 
Knoxgates said:
Sure if he is doing some blackhat stuff then report it to Big g. But he is not doing anything.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? If you want to snitch, go find somewhere else to play.
 
I don't see it...

What am I looking for exactly?

Everything looks normal.
 
I'm not exactly clear why the ads do not rotate and stay static, anyone have insight on this?
 
Knoxgates said:
First read my comment and then reply.
Click to expand...
You said to report him if he's doing anything black hat on his site.

If you don't like something, just close the browser, don't be a snitch. I think somewhere like DP would be a better place if you're not building links, but instead asking for "editorial" links. That's the only white hat type of link building.
 
Knoxgates said:
It's completely legal.
BTW Remove that links and take a screenshot of that and paste it. Why are you risking somebody's bread and butter. Sure if he is doing some blackhat stuff then report it to Big g. But he is not doing anything.
Click to expand...


I completely agree with Knox. There are two reasons why this is in compliance w/G's T&C's:

1. There is a clear site navigation above the fold (just above the ads in question)
2. There is enough space all around the G ads - i.e., it isn't nestled up against a picture, article, etc. to possibly cause someone to click.

Props to the site owner. Hopefully he's making $$$ from it. The article on the site certainly isn't unique content, but that has nothing to do w/Adsense.


EDIT - One thing the site owner doesn't have but should is a proper privacy policy. From Google:

Google advertising cookies


AdSense publishers must have and abide by a privacy policy that discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users' browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website.
Learn more Google uses the DoubleClick DART cookie on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. Subject to any applicable laws, rules and regulations, you will have the sole and exclusive right to use all data derived from your use of the DoubleClick DART cookie for any purpose related to your business, provided that Google may use and disclose this data subject to the terms of Google's advertising privacy policies and any applicable laws, rules and regulations.
If your current advertising services contract with Google or DoubleClick already has a specific provision defining data ownership, that provision instead of this policy will govern with regard to the data collected under that contract.
Click to expand...

Source: https://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=48182
 
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BHopkins said:
You said to report him if he's doing anything black hat on his site.

If you don't like something, just close the browser, don't be a snitch. I think somewhere like DP would be a better place if you're not building links, but instead asking for "editorial" links. That's the only white hat type of link building.
Click to expand...

See the point which i wanted to convey is to remove the link which he posted in the first post. If his account gets for this who is going to pay for it. The ad position is completely normal.
Nothing wrong in getting editorial backlinks, all i care is to make my blog a authority blog which keeps getting backlinks from all places. I do blackhat as well as whitehat stuff.
 
Knoxgates said:
Sure if he is doing some blackhat stuff then report it to Big g.
Click to expand...

This is the part I have a problem with. You're encouraging people to report to G. That's just plain dumb. Why would you want to help G?

When "disobeying" G's link building rules, you're not doing anything illegal, you're just violating what G "wants" you to do.
 
Knoxgates said:
See the point which i wanted to convey is to remove the link which he posted in the first post. If his account gets for this who is going to pay for it. The ad position is completely normal.
Nothing wrong in getting editorial backlinks, all i care is to make my blog a authority blog which keeps getting backlinks from all places. I do blackhat as well as whitehat stuff.
Click to expand...

I removed the link and added some comments.
 
There's not much to see. What amazed me was that the ad links said "engine specs" "tire specs" etc. And they didn't change even when I refreshed the page. I posted the link so someone might see what was in the coding that causes this to happen but wasn't thoughtful about the possibility of Google catching wind of it until someone pointed it out.

I figure it's because the url ended in /specs since the META Description wasn't packed with the word "specs." When I remove the /specs from the url different ads display.
 
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Can someone post up a screenshot so we can see how to position the ads as an example?
 
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