I almost forgot to mention yesterday, amidst all the excitement about landing page load time affecting quality score, that you can now exclude certain categories in the Google content network.

At first I see this as another great way that Google is working to make the content network a more feasible option for people who…well, want to get something out of it like conversions. I suppose after Google realized their efforts to push the content network with no good reason (when the damn thing didn’t convert anyways), they decided their efforts should also go towards making the content network more efficient and actually beneficial to advertisers. Hence their “Optimize for the Content Network” articles.

Some quick notes on the new category exclusion feature:

• You can exclude using three different tabs
  • 1. Sites
    • Normal method of excluding certain sites based on your ad placement reports
  • 2. Topics
    • Conflict & Tragedy
      • Crime, police & emergency
      • Death & tragedy
      • Military & international conflict
    • Edgy Content
      • Juvenile, gross & bizarre content
      • Profanity & rough language
      • Sexually suggestive content
  • 3. Page Types
    • Network types
      • Error pages
      • Parked domains
    • User-generated content
      • Forums
      • Image-sharing pages
      • Social networks

Without revealing too much about my personal life I’d venture to say that if someone were to exclude all these options I would have no AdSense ads to look at on the sites I frequent. Wouldn’t you agree that a good portion of the internet contains quite a few of these topics. I personally would have loved to have been a fly on the wall while Google was deciding which categories to exclude.

So what’s the lowdown?
Without tearing all these areas apart I’d rather focus on a couple and also look at the flip side…the AdSense network.

2 Things That Scare Me
Two options in this new feature scare me a bit, being able to exclude parked domains as well as forums.

Parked Domains
First off, it surprises me that Google gives the option of excluding parked domains since they have a service specifically dedicated to serving AdSense on parked domains.  Considering how much money there is in running ads on parked domains (yes, people still do just type in EXAMPLEKEYWORD.com instead of doing a search sometimes), I’m surprised to see Google willing to exclude that portion of their AdSense revenue.  However, considering one of the top domainers in history, Frank Schilling, has an exclusive agreement with Yahoo to serve their ads on all his sites…I’d imagine Google’s attempt to target domainers was a bit late.  Also, considering Yahoo’s ad publisher service pays a higher percentage than AdSense…it’s safe to assume most people who rake in a lot of money are using YPN anyways.

Phew, looks like you got a peak into my interest in domaining…it’s like the real estate of the future though.

Forum Exclusion
The second thing that scares me is the ability to exclude forums.  This could cripple many people who depend on that revenue to not only run their sites but perhaps even make a living.  From what I’ve heard about forums though, AdSense becomes “wise” to the traffic that frequents these forums and realizes they keep targeting the same people thus reducing the amount they pay out.  This wouldn’t make sense to a traditional advertiser that knows their message has to be seen MANY times before someone decides to take an action…but we’re not in the world of traditional advertising anymore.

Are Blogs Next?
The reason this scares me is because I’m afraid blogs could be next.  Blogs have an even more loyal following than forums in many cases so will the same thing happen here?  Will Google see these return visitors as less important since they’re not fresh eyes?

Two Different Conclusions:
As an AdWords advertiser, I say good job Google in further making the content network more targeted and cost effective.

As an AdSense publisher I have to warn the AdWords advertisers to use caution in excluding certain categories, don’t go crazy right off the bat with this new feature.

When all else fails…test!
See what works and doesn’t work.  Everything will work out for the better since the whole mission of Google (beyond total world domination) is to provide not only the most relevant search results, but also the most relevant and beneficial ads to it’s users.

-Brian