A brief post on the Google AdSense blog today “clarified” the ad and image placement policy; basically, it’s best to keep unrelated Google ad units and images far, far apart.
The post was written by Arlene Lee, who began it with a “by popular demand” introduction. “We’ve recently received a number of emails from publishers asking how we feel about the placement of images near Google ad units. There’s been some confusion on this issue, and so we turned to our policy team to set the record straight.”
“We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads,” she continued.
It’s hard to object to Lee’s reasoning, either, because “if your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn’t actually being offered. That’s not a good experience for users or advertisers.”
Putting a line or a bit of space between the ads and the images won’t suffice. But you can still “place Google ads on pages containing images – just make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors.”
The concept isn’t hard to understand, but Lee also provides “some examples that wouldn’t comply with our policies.” A few lines of text and a couple of pictures should be all the additional clarification anyone could need.
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Doug is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest eBusiness news.
