• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness Services
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

Home » Google » Using Google AdSense Hurts Mobile User Experience, Violates Google’s Own Guidelines

Using Google AdSense Hurts Mobile User Experience, Violates Google’s Own Guidelines

Posted on March 7, 2016 Written by Bill Hartzer

Google Pagespeed Insights

Adding Google AdSense to your website hurts the mobile user experience on your website and violates Google’s own suggested guidelines.

I have been working on my own site, this site, to optimize it for page load speed. Using Google’s own Pagespeed Insights tool, I found that there is one particular section of the results, under User Experience, that gave me a score of 99 out of 100. That problem is Google AdSense.

Pagespeed insights Google Adsense code

If you look at the screen capture above, Google’s own Pagespeed Insights is giving my site a 99 percent out of a possible 100 score on the mobile user experience. The problem is the way Google displays their AdSense ads on my web page. The “tap targets”, essentially the links that people can click on, are too close together. So, the average mobile user will not be able to easily click on the link they want to click on. Here is the warning:

Some of the links/buttons on your webpage may be too small for a user to easily tap on a touchscreen. Consider making these tap targets larger to provide a better user experience.

Google’s tool is flagging the “Ad Choices” links in the Google AdSense code:

google tap target

If you look at one of the Google AdSense ads, you can clearly see the two links at the top right of the ads:

adsense tap targets

I am using the version of the AdSense code that automatically adjusts to both mobile users and to desktop users. So, you would think that this would be fixed. But, apparently not.

Honestly, I really do want to get a 100 percent score on all areas using Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool, and that’s my goal. I have a few areas that need to be improved upon, such as the render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content and the optimize images. I don’t think the optimizing of the images is going to save much, so I am going to leave them. The other area that I am concerned about, however, is the leveraging of the browser caching on other Google resources:

Setting an expiry date or a maximum age in the HTTP headers for static resources instructs the browser to load previously downloaded resources from local disk rather than over the network.
Leverage browser caching for the following cacheable resources:

https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js (30 minutes)
https://apis.google.com/js/rpc:shindig_random.js?onload=init (30 minutes)
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (60 minutes)
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/osd.js (60 minutes)
https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js (2 hours)

As you can see, there are other areas of Google’s code (that they provide us to use on our own websites) that also violate Google’s own Pagespeed Insights tool, including Google Plus, Google AdSense (again), and Google Analytics. I’d also like to note that I use CloudFlare on this site and am minifying .JS, .CSS, and HTML.

Feel free to run the test on my site and other sites that have Google AdSense on them, they violate Google’s own guidelines:

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billhartzer.com%2F&tab=mobile

Filed Under: Google, Search Engines

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management. As an SEO Expert, Mr. Hartzer frequently serves as an SEO Expert Witness and Domain Name Expert Witness in legal cases worldwide. He also oversees DNAccess.com, a company that provides brand protection and monitoring, domain name background checks, and stolen domain name recovery services.

Recent Posts

  • AI Content Generation Market Projected to Reach $5.958 Billion by 2029 September 6, 2023
  • Indigo Ransomware Attack Impacted SEO, Led to Lost Revenue August 14, 2023
  • Internet Corporation Listing Service Invoice – Fake Invoice Scam August 8, 2023
  • Someone Stole My Domain Name: Here’s What You Do August 8, 2023
  • Pulsr: First AI Search Engine for NFTs Launches July 27, 2023
  • 2023 TechBehemoths Survey: SEO is Most Effective Method for Lead Gen July 13, 2023
  • Meta Launches Threads, Twitter Sends Cease and Desist Letter July 6, 2023
  • Squarespace Acquires Google Domains June 15, 2023
  • How to Submit Spammy, Deceptive, and Low Quality Web Pages to Google June 14, 2023
  • New HIPAA-Compliant Google & Facebook Campaign Tracking Available June 13, 2023
  • Google Search Engine Class Action Settlement: Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation June 5, 2023
  • I Asked Twitter for SEO Advice. Here’s What They Said June 1, 2023
  • Web.com Launches AI Domain Name Generator and AI Writer Tools May 31, 2023
  • Artlist Launches AI-Powered Footage Search Engine May 30, 2023
  • Google’s Search Generative Experience According to Google Bard May 22, 2023
  • Is AIO the New SEO? May 10, 2023
  • Google Passkey Support to Replace Built-In Security Key for Google Accounts May 3, 2023
  • WisTL Launches WisTLing App to Explore The Filming Locations of TV Series and Movies April 28, 2023
  • BrandChamp Acquires CrewFire April 12, 2023
  • Facebook Won’t Verify My Identity for Meta Verified April 4, 2023

Hartzer Domains

US Agency Awards Judge

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

I Love SEO
WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Scott Hendison
Dixon Jones
Brian Hartzer
Navah Hopkins
DNAccess
SEO Dallas

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (19)
  • AI (2)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (12)
  • Domain Names (214)
  • Google (241)
  • Internet Marketing (27)
  • Internet Usage (85)
  • Link Building (53)
  • Local Search (39)
  • Marketing (183)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (3)
  • Podcast (18)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (9)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (48)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (19)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (166)
  • Search Engines (207)
  • Social Media (195)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (17)
  • Webinars (1)

Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 ·