Google Adsense Ads Below Post Titles Not Allowed
August 26th, 2008Most blogs place Google Adsense Ads below the post title and above article content, to get better ad visibility and a higher clickthrough rate to make more money, but it is not always allowed as per Google Adsense policies. We recently got an email from Adsense support pointing out this issue on our site.
Google had earlier clarified some commonly encountered issues and one of them was “Ads shouldn’t be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads.” They showed this example violating the terms, where the ads are places directly below the post title.
Also note that Google Adsense program policies, clearly say that Publishers participating in the AdSense program -
- May not encourage users to click the Google ads by using phrases such as “click the ads,” “support us,” “visit these links,” or other similar language
- May not place misleading labels above Google ad units – for instance, ads may be labeled “Sponsored Links” but not “Favorite Sites”
Post titles can violate Adsense Guidelines
Post titles act as labels – If you have posts titles like “Hot deals of the day”, or “Best Articles of June”, or “3 best imaging software”, or “download vista now”, then the targeted ads that appear beneath these articles can truly mislead visitors to click these ads and inflate advertiser costs.
Blogs are different - But since bloggers place the adsense code in the blog template, it is difficult to tweak the placement on every post. Of course you can change selected titles so that it has a lesser clicking impact, but it is difficult to optimize hundreds of article titles.
What can you do - Most blogs insert Date and Categories beneath the Post title which separate the ads. But apparently this is not enough, as they informed me that the title can still mislead visitors to click. They advised that “publishers may not label the Google ads with text other than ’sponsored links’ or ‘advertisements’. Inadvertently the blog post titles were acting as a labels above the ads. Thus to comply with the terms, we had to introduce the word “Advertisements” over our Adsense units, when they cleared the issue.
Its too common – As I browse around popular blogs, there are many blogs that place ads directly under titles, or place title, date and categories above the ads. This has obviously been inspired by the Adsense optimization chart which prompts you to place ads above your primary content.
I thank the Google enforcement team, which was kind enough to send prompt feedback and helped us fix the issue. This is another of the common adsense mistakes to avoid and its a good idea to fix it before Google comes calling…
Will Google ban your adsense account? Once the Adsense team identifies a problem in Adsense placement on your site, they usually send an email explaining the issue and give you a few days time to fix it. It is best to respond quickly and politely and fix the issue promptly. The Adsense team is very helpful, but you have to comply with their terms.
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Thanks for the clarification. I put sponsored links in mine.
I hope Google is happy with what I did and inform me if not. This “clarification” of Google has made me go nuts!!
How did you come about to contact Google? They’re so hard to contact now. The contact page is so limited to certain issues.
I have had my google account disabled as someone had been clicking the links , even if its not you they can do what they like as they make the rules
I had hit $100 and they kept every bit , being in the uk , this is still £50-£60 which helps to run the site for the year
There can be money to make but the rules are their to protect google and to make them rich by selling advsertising from companies through users websites for nothing
I would not recommend anyone use them ,cos if you have one issue they throw the book at you and ban you for life and after your first failed review of your case , a email explaining you have done nothing wrong , they ignore you and never get back
Google will also remove pages from indexed searched putting them down so users do not hear the bad things google do
your post is good i already change my setting.
thanks for giving us this positive information.
Great post. Very helpful as I am dealing with the same thing now.
My question is..
How did you contact the Google enforcement team once you’d fixed the problem at your site?
What is the URL please?
Gary
I love how you still have the ads below the post title on this page, it makes me laugh.
@varbak – you missed the large advertisements text above the ads.
Hi there,
Im not IT literated
So mind if teach me how to put the Google adsense between post title and post body?
And with ADVERTISEMENT above the google adsense?
Thanks in advance~
Looking for for online tips ^@^
Thanks for this informations
although this is illegal but ads under post title really boost the CTR
Not in anyway harsh. But why does ads appear below the post title in this blog. Is it updated and overlooked? :)
I only run 468 image banners in that spot anyway…hard to mistake those for content…lol
hmm
how with my blog ????
would you like to review my blog ???
and please leave a comment in there ! :)
nice to meet you !
Thanks a lot i am used sponsored links as my title in my mobile Blog
I use “Sponsored Links” below title.
Hope it is ok.
I came across one site that had a header that said “Here are some of the best links I found on work at home jobs” it was followed by google ads. If they were not shut down before payday, they probably made a small fortune. My guess is they were shut down quick because of a high click through rate.
Yeah ,I thought so,this site is violating the Adsense terms of service.How come?
But you also, have ads under post.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.
If it is not allowed, then why you place the ads after the post title
i’ts okay when we put advertisement above the ads
is adding “related post”
above the ads unit is prohibited by google?
i put that way on my website
regards