Thursday, March 5, 2009

Tips for Reviewing and Filtering AdSense Ads

The process by which the Google AdSense program reviews and filtersads for their participating sites is a semi-automated one. Googlehas put in place strict policies for the content of its ads,including bans on profanity and racially discriminatory content.These types of ads are automatically filtered out and will not beincluded on any participating site.

In addition to this automatic ad filtering, owners of participatingsites are free to block ads they or their visitors may findoffensive. This filtering is done through the use of customfilters, and it is somewhat different than simply blocking a singleadvertiser (although that is possible as well). These filters aregenerally easy to use, and Google provides good assistance to theirmember sites in order to ensure only wanted ads are posted on themember sites.

Although it happens quite rarely, there are times that Google'sautomated algorithms for determining web site content are not ableto make a good match of ads to the web site pages. In those cases,the publisher of the web site will be permitted to choose his orher own ads. If this does happen and you fail to make a choice,the site will automatically host a number of public serviceadvertisements.

One of the best things about the Google AdSense program is that thelook and feel of the ads can easily be customized in order toprovide a consistent look and feel to the content on the web site.One of the key concepts of effective web design is to providevisitors to the web site with a consistent look and feel. Thisincludes making sure that the same colors are used throughout allthe pages, making sure that the fonts are consistent and being sureto make the navigation of the web site as intuitive and simple aspossible.

Fitting the ads served by Google AdSense into this equation isgenerally a simple process, and a number of tools are provided tomake it easy to customize the look and feel of the ads beingserved. For instance, the Google AdSense program allows web siteowners to customize the color and layout of the ads in order to bemore consistent with the rest of the site.

Web site owners arefree to choose from the options provided or to apply a customlayout and color to the ads. The advertisers do not have controlover this process; once their ads appear on your site you are freeto customize the text and control how it looks. This is a bigadvantage of the Google AdSense program, and one that many web siteowners would not want to do without.

Since the customization of Google AdSense content is so easy to do,it is important for all web site owners to carefully consider howto format the ads they host. It is a good idea to periodicallyreview the web site, and the targeted ads contained on the site, inorder to make sure that the ads served are appropriate.

At the same time, it is a good idea to look at the overall look and feelof the web site, not only the ads themselves but how they fit intothe overall look and feel of the web site. It is important thatthe ads not look jarring or out of place. If the ads do stick out,reformatting them to more closely match the look of the web siteitself should help a lot. It is best for the ads to be unobtrusivebut still easy to notice for the casual web site visitor.

This type of web site testing should be a staple activity for theowner or manager of any web based business. It is important toperiodically go back to the web site with the eyes of a potentialvisitor. Look at things like how easy the site is to use andnavigate, how intuitive it is, and of course how relevant the adsare to the content. This type of review, of both ad copy and website content, is a great way to keep the site fresh and relevantmonth after month and year after year.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Cody Moya writes about "Adsense Tips"in his Adsense Tips Ezine. You can sign upfor his free Ezine and get additional information at hiswebsite: http://adsensetipsezine.com----------------------------------------------------------------

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