AdSense is a facility from Google that enables bloggers and website owners to make an income from displaying Google ads. These ads are added as code to the website or blog page. The owner is entitled to put up to 3 ads on any page but can position them to suit their page design. A typical layout could include an ad at the top of the page, bottom of the page and one in a right hand column. These ads are effectively graphics which you can click on and they come in different sizes. For side panel positioning a size of 160 X 600 might be used and for the main text body a format of 336 X 280 may be appropriate. Google serves Ad block content in context to the page itself and the owner has some control over the type of content presented
There are two ways the owners can gain an income,
- Impressions – is the number of page or post views with advertisements in them
- Clicks – is the number of ‘click throughs’ from the advertisements
Anyone visiting the page will create an impression. If they click on the ad itself this is treated as a click through and Google handles all of the payment processing.
The AdSense website or bog owners must comply with the Adsense Webmaster Quality Guidelines https://support.
Adwords and Adsense underpin the Google business model and are responsible for a large part of their revenue. Google therefore put in protection against misuse and owners cannot simply perform their own ‘click throughs’ or impressions, likewise similar activities performed by other parties to drive fraudulent revenue are also monitored.
Websites must also have to have a proper purpose and not be there purely to display ads they need to be content rich and relevant to the ads displayed. Google reviews ads and stops inappropriate content and competitive content being displayed.