Do what you think is best. If you feel more adverts do more harm than good, then don't do it. I never listen to what Google suggests and I am doing great.

The algo is very complex, it doesn't work that way...

if (ad above the fold) or (3 ads per page) then pandalize

google can like your website for one thing and dislike it for the other, and what matters is the overall picture.

You’re missing #*$! opportunities to earn more!
Place 3 ads on all of your pages.
At least #*$! of the pages on abcdef.com are running less than three ad units. Adding any of our top performing units (336x280, 300x250, 728x90 or 160x600) to prominent sections of your pages will substantially increase your ad impressions and overall revenue.
Add More Units!
Across the pages we analyzed, you could potentially add at least #*$! units on abcdef.com.

This is just plain annoying. Over and over again.

It is obvious that the teams are not communicating within the company.

Truer words were never spoken.
I have NO INTEREST in spamming up my pages, so that Google Search can shoot me in the head!

After 7 years of AdSense, one would think we would get at least SOME credit, that we know what we are doing.
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[edited by: Sally_Stitts at 9:25 pm (utc) on Oct 19, 2011]

Google search people do not talk to Google Adsense people. Not long ago, I heard a Google Adsense employee say he works out with Google search employee, and they don't discuss anything work related even then. So what Adsense wants is not necessarily what search wants, and visa versa. Their missions may actually conflict with each other.

Their missions may actually conflict with each other.

Their missions DO actually conflict with each other. We've all seen it, we all know it.
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Their missions DO actually conflict with each other. We've all seen it, we all know it.

And yet many of us continue to do quite well with them.

Doing quite well indeed. By ignoring their advice.

After awhile, this starts to sound like "the boy who cried wolf" once too often. If they want to get publishers to ignore what they say, this is a great way to train them to do just that.
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Add More Units!

And they call this a tip?
It's Google's answer to everything Adsense.

Ignore it.

Sales... back in the old days of B&M your sales people made calls on a regular basis... this is no different. Unfortunately some parts of Google looking at all that billboard space views it the same way as Lady Bird Johnson... too many! And... well, there you go. Peter is not talking to Paul.

Do what you think is best

2X

What would you do if an affiliate network told you that you could earn more money by putting a lot more ads on a page?
You might say "Ah all very well. But I have got to consider how this might affect my SERP positions and I might not take you advice."

Its just the same hear - treat Adsense as a totally separate company with it's own goals. Make your own decision on the correct balance of adds. Remembering of course that there was unlikely to have been a human looking at your pages and sugesting you could use more ads.

It is obvious that the teams are not communicating within the company.

I'm confused, how could anyone assume that Google has become fragmented? I mean, everyone knows that when you run a big search company you have time to focus on restaurant reviews(zagat) and cell phones and... etc.

While I did mean that to sound sarcastic the truth might very well be that they aren't fragmented at all, it all depends on what you assume their goal is. Maybe they detect that you have some pages receiving traffic but without their adsense unit (and javascript file loads) on those pages they aren't gathering all the data they could?

- If Google's goal is to remain the best search engine they are very fragmented right now.

- If Google's goal is to gather personal data about you they are right on track. They'll know where you eat and where you are at all times, etc.

The best part is that as privacy continues to erode we'll keep thanking them for it, one project at a time. [sourceforge.net...] so I'd say they are very cohesive indeed, just not at what we expect from them right now.

AS for the original question perhaps you should try an alternative. Add another ad unit but instead of it being adsense give another service a shot. Competition is healthy.

I refer to those emails as rope. The AdSense Team is supplying everyone with just enough rope to hang themselves. If you followed the instructions in those emails this year, there's a good chance you're part of the Pandaemic. What they recommend puts you in the MFA category and is going to get many into trouble. I use my back button quite frequently now on sites that have been following the AdSense Team's suggestions. If you have an ad unit right up top, above all the primary content, I'm leaving. It reeks of financial desperation and it sends a message to your quality visitors that you don't care!

Emails from adsense about earnings and placement ...regard them as spam..encouraging you to become a spammy MFA site ..( just don't treat them as such in your filters ) ..or 419s from google..

I'll say do whatever you think is best for you and your site after pondering the risk, just never forget that your sites are yours and yours only. I usually ignore the recommendations they give as I my main focus are my visitors and then the earnings. I try to remember that the ads are exit points and steal space from my content.

Yes money is good but not worth risking my stability due too recommendations given by a machine (or a person that talks to me but never talks back when I contact them).

I have 5 ads above the fold on a 800x600 design. I have 2x traffic, since last year when panda was initiated. Currently getting XX,XX.X traffic daily.

I don't know if ads have an affect or not, but for my site it doesn't seem so.

Edit. To clarify about the ads. 160x600, 336x280, 2 link units. Then 1 728x90 from Valueclick at the very top.

Edit. Okay just checked my site coding. I forgot that in January or something, I recoded the site so that the advert codes are at the bottom of the coding, but using CSS they overlay above the fold.

So maybe that did have an affect on my site. I did it because I wanted my site to load first rather than have the ads load first. Also CTR increased 2x is one I noticed also. Hope this helps someone.

[edited by: azn_romeo_4u at 5:02 pm (utc) on Oct 27, 2011]

I have 2 different websites. Same niche, same layout, same ad placements. One is pandalized. The other isn't.

I strongly believe that 3 Adsense ads, no matter how placed, will not affect your sites rankings. Perhaps if you also add lots of other 3rd party ads too, then it may be a different story.

I strongly believe that 3 Adsense ads, no matter how placed, will not affect your sites rankings.

I strongly believe otherwise. I've seen the effect of poorly placed ad units, it's called the back button effect which in turn contributes to high bounce rates which in turn affects your overall rankings not to mention quality scores.

How many times have you landed on a site that had 3 ad units above the fold and immediately used your back button? What type of signal does that send back to Google?

Of course there are always exceptions.

To me, any ads in my face that are placed in areas where I'm expecting to see content immediately leaves a bad first impression. In most instances, I'm using my back button and going somewhere else.

The AdSense Team's recommendations are not meant for everyone.

@pageoneresults, Do you mean like the ad at the top of this page which pushes the text of the first post below the fold on my computer? ;)

I have a page that's been #1 on organic search for a few years.

It's current version has 6 ads. A 728 at the top, a stack of 2 160s on the left and 3 300x250s side by side quite a ways below the fold.

Adsense ads get rotated through all spots along with 5 other agencies.

You all mean those AdSense suggestions are serious?!?

I always thought that was some weird algorithmic attempt at humor.

One ad per page.

It struck me as odd that the AdSense site wants us to "monetize undeveloped domains" with their ads. I though MFA sites were a big no-no and could affect future development of that domain..I do not pay much attention to their suggestions and do OK.

I don't know why they keep suggesting 3 units per page anyhow... 1 single ad unit has always worked best for me.

There's a good video about this correlation (amount of ads and lower ranking) - search G for "negative ranking factors" and watch the video (adsense at about the 4 minute mark)

it's called the back button effect which in turn contributes to high bounce rates which in turn affects your overall rankings not to mention quality scores

I agree - probably more to do with people hitting the back button than the ads.

interesting vid. Though the two items, loading speed and number of ads are possibly one and the same. I noticed, after taking Gads advice and adding more units, that suddenly those pages are loading much more slowly (waiting for ads to load) and most have been pandalized. Hmmmmm

From reading on Google forum it seems that a lot of sites (including ours) were hit hard by this latest update. Apparently sites with ads above the fold, or mulitple ads on single pages were affected.

I've always had three AdSense ads on a page. Their placement was suggested by an AdSense rep a couple of years ago. Occasionally, I'll manually add a small link unit in a long article.

A 728x90 ad runs at the top of every page, yet you can still see about two paragraphs of each article. In other words, some of the text is not pushed below the fold (though I suppose it is for those viewing the site on a tablet, phone, netbook, etc.

I'm wondering if I should have my web developer remove the top ad. I get nervous about making changes because I got hit very hard by Panda.

Has anyone found that removing an ad improves CTR?