Too Many Ads on Our Pages?

1. 97

   Sue Adamsposted 6 years ago

   For the new QAP being so stringent at eradicating spam from hubs, it evidently has no rules for outside and around the content of our pages.
   
   Not counting 3 Amazon ads I placed in the hub myself, I count no less than 19 unrelated ads around my article on "How to Cure a Stiff Neck".
   
   (jump to bottom if you don't like analysees)
   
   Top Banner:
   1. Hearing Aid Amplifier
   
   Side bar:
   2. body toxicity quiz
   3. 5 foods to never eat
   4. trick to lose opulence
   6. Repeated "body toxicity quiz" ad
   
   Below article banner:
   7. Repeated "Hearing Aid Amplifier" ad
   
   Below Recommended Hubs "Ad Choices"
   8. Statins Alert
   9. What Was your Past Life
   10. 3 veggies to never eat
   11. I'l never Speak Spanish
   12. Quiz: Your Body Toxicity
   13. Stocks Will Crash in 2015
   14. Work From Home
   18. 3 Herbs that Beat Anxiety
   
   Below Comments:
   19. Repeated (3rd time) "Hearing Aid Amplifier" ad
   
   Total
   Including my own 3 ads, that brings the total number of ads on this single page, to 22!
   
   
   
   Google recommends ads should match content matter and their rules limit the number of ads allowed to:
   
   3 content units
   3 link unit
   3 search units
   Source:http://www.shoutmeloud.com/maximum-number-of-adsense-units-in-a-single-page.html
   
   No wonder the pages take forever to load. If I was a visitor,  I wouldn't have the patience and would hit the back button fast.
   
   Question
   Who does an HP page belong to? Who has control of what goes on our pages?
   
   P.S. We also have far too many links on our pages, but that's another Bounce Rate story someone else might like to take on.

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   1. 78

      Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I've always wondered if too many ads is part of the reason Google doesn't give us the placement they once did. Too many ads is one of the things they mentioned as a no-no. It looks spammy too.

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      1. 41

         ChristinSposted 6 years agoin reply to this

           It certainly isn't helping, the pages are very cluttered on some hubs.  With some unrelated ads though it's the google ads that base what they show you on demographics - not a lot HP or we can do about those.  The sheer volume of ads gives me concerns too though.  I mean we all want to make money, but I'm not sure that many ads are a good idea.

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      2. 73

         makingamarkposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Of course it is - along with the appalling QA function and the total failure to ensure every advert and link inserted by HubPages (rather than the author) is relevant to the content of the hub.
         
         It's a huge switch-off for readers many of whom leave the site and/or typically reach for their ad-blockers.

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   2. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I'm no math expert, but doesn't 5 come after 4? And don't 15, 16, and 17 come between 14 and 18?   I'm not following your numbering scheme because I only counted 6 ad units on desktop view, not including the recommended hubs doohickey.  Could you please include a screenshot or diagram to highlight the 19 ads you're counting?
      
      IME the bajillion (technical math term) links to other hubs make the pages look spammy, not the ads.  Like Melbel, I rarely use Amazon or eBay capsules.

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      1. 78

         Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         I randomly picked a hub of mine and it had 7 ads. That is still too many. One morning someone else complained about the same thing. When I checked, there were 14. I think it depends on when you look. Maybe they were changing over ads when this happened
         .

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2. 73

   StephanPoeposted 6 years ago

   I thought the same when I first joined. Google hates too many ads. Maybe HP should cut some

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3. 92

   melbelposted 6 years ago

   Agreed. I like earning as much as the next guy, but I feel like the pages have gotten very spammy looking. Thus, I put almost no Amazon ads on my pages.

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4. 97

   Sue Adamsposted 6 years ago

   I stand corrected as follows. Actually there are 9 ads in the Ads Choice module, not 8 as I previously counted. Total is still 19 ads per page.
   
   Top Banner:
   1. Hearing Aid Amplifier
   
   Side bar:
   2. body toxicity quiz
   3. 5 foods to never eat
   4. trick to lose opulence
   5. Repeated "body toxicity quiz" ad
   
   Below article banner:
   6. Repeated "Hearing Aid Amplifier" ad
   
   Below Recommended Hubs "Ad Choices"
   7. Statins Alert
   8. What Was your Past Life
   9. 3 veggies to never eat
   10. I'l never Speak Spanish
   11. Quiz: Your Body Toxicity
   12. Stocks Will Crash in 2015
   13. Work From Home
   14. 3 Herbs that Beat Anxiety
   15. Want to Earn More?
   
   Below Comments:
   16. Repeated (3rd time) "Hearing Aid Amplifier" ad
   
   Total
   Including my own 3 ads, that brings the total number of ads on this single page, to 19!
   
   19 ads per page still seems over the top. Would any of you put 18 ads on a page on your own websites? With at least 3 of them repeated, even several times?
   
   Interestingly, 2 months ago, we complained about having 10 ads per page as far too many. Now we have no less than 19!

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not trying to be a HubPages cheerleader, but on both mobile and desktop only one full ad is visible at a time as you scroll if the zoom is set to 100% -- in the current design I should say, which they will probably change a dozen more times before the year is out.  So while the page may have multiple ads encoded (the number of sidebar ads seems to be dependent on length that's why our numbers vary) it only feels like one. Maybe because there are so many links to other hubs the ad that shows feels like the straw that broke the camel's back.

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5. 97

   Sue Adamsposted 6 years ago

   There are 19 ads plus 30 links to other hubs per page. Several of which are repeated several times.That makes a total of 49 links on a page. Is that acceptable? Aren't we going to get penalised by Google for spamming? How does this affect outside visitors? Unless people have very fast download rates, the loading time is very very slow and, consequently, bounce rates are very very high.

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   1. 97

      Sue Adamsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, and I even forgot to count the 3 links to "More by This Author", which brings up the total number of links on my page to an incredible 52 links!

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6. 83

   Sharp Pointsposted 6 years ago

   I looked on the new windows browser and there were 11 total including links to other hubs. I also used Safari on my phone and still there were only 11 links.

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7. 97

   Sue Adamsposted 6 years ago

   @Sharp Points. On your first stickers hub I see
   
   8 adverts
   20 in Ad choices in the carrousel
   3  in Latest in HP category
   5 in "Related on HP"
   3 in "More by this author"
   
   That makes 39 links outside your content.

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   1. 83

      Sharp Pointsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      What browser are you using?

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      1. 97

         Sue Adamsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Sharp Points,
         
         I use Chrome but have checked with Internet Explorer as well and your number of links on http://sharppoints.hubpages.com/hub/Free-Stickers are identical on both browsers, amounting to 39 in total as set out in my previous comment.

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         1. 83

            Sharp Pointsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            Have you checked your system for Malware, Adware, Spyware, etc? Last time my PC had numerous infections it tripled the amount of ads shown. If you don't have anything protection you from malware I would search google for Spybot or Malwarebytes.
            
            The only reason I am saying this is because I checked on 3 devices, chrome, mozilla, edge & safari to check mine and they all had 11 or 12 links. I also looked at your hub about stiff neck relief and saw about the same amount.

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            1. 97

               Sue Adamsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               I do have malware protection and no, I don't have a virus.
               
               Perhaps you fail to count the 9 AdChoices links?
               
               
               Or the 20 Recommended Hubs links?
               
               

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8. 97

   Sue Adamsposted 6 years ago

   And here is another thing: Floating ads are not allowed.
   
   
   
   Google Ad implementation policies
   
   

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   1. 83

      Sharp Pointsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      That is an infraction that I can see as well; there are scrolling ads on all of the pages I view.

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9. 73

   makingamarkposted 6 years ago

   I wonder when was the last time the HubPages Engineers read the Google AdSense Policies.
   
   It really doesn't matter if the floating advert comes from another advertising company - if Google says it doesn't like it then it must have an impact on its ranking in search where the algorithm is supposed to be guided by what READERS find adds value and what really, really annoys them - like floating adverts you can never get rid of.

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   1. 97

      Sue Adamsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      It's called SPAM.
      With one hand, HP QAP tries to root out hubber placed spam while with the other hand, it bombards our pages with its own spam. The result is disastrous, dangerous, and we will, of course, get punished. Bounce rates are already unacceptable. Sometimes I wonder if HP headquarters have their heads screwed on properly.

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10. 60

    integraterposted 6 years ago

    I think Hubpages are Premium Adsense Publishers. So they are allowed to publish more ads than other normal publishers. Also those 9 link ads you have indicated seem to be a single link unit with 9 links per unit instead of normal 3 links per unit and are not 9 separate link ads .  I guess that is another advantage for premium publishers  . Also that recommended hub thing seems to be a single ad unit. Every Adsense ad unit has a Ads by Google at top right corner. That way we can work out how many Adsense ad units are their on a page. I guess barring tribalfusion there are about 6-7 Adsense ad units on any page. That seems to be normal.
    Just my two cents.

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    1. 73

       makingamarkposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       You seem to be quoting adsense units as equally weighted - why would you do that?

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       1. 60

          integraterposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          I don't get you. Care to elaborate ?  which ad units you are referring to ?

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