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The line between a guideline and suggestion is a fuzzy one, but webmasters seem to agree a Google guideline is more of a stern warning. The most recent guidelines popped up on the InsideAdSense blog, instructing publishers not to blend ads with content.

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(Photo Credit: Google)

The short version is fairly straightforward: Don't try to trick your readers into clicking an ad.

Google's Meridith Major, of AdSense Publisher Support advises publishers to rely on Placement Performance reports to discover where ads perform their best instead of subtly (or not so subtly in some cases) weaving in ad content amid real content.

The guidelines are as follows:

1. Ads shouldn't be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads.
For example, ads shouldn't be placed under titles such as “Dallas Business Opportunities” or “Today's Hot Deals”. Placing ads directly below titles such as these implies to your users that the links in the ads are publisher-created content.

2. Ads should be easily distinguishable from surrounding content.
Similarly, you should not place an ad unit by a group of links that has identical colors and line spacing. Doing so may cause users to think the ad unit is content created by you. In this situation, we recommend using a different color for the ad titles or indenting the ad unit to help distinguish the ads from your own content.

I've seen more examples of the first one, especially recently, and I have to say I was less duped and more annoyed. The scroll is there for a reason and I used it accordingly. Major makes a decent point about losing trust among readers.

Perhaps this tactic has become more commonplace since research has shown not just an increase in ad blindness, but that users are ignoring even content that appears where ads are commonly placed. But the more resonant explanation might be the sudden decrease in AdSense revenue many publishers are experiencing, thus moving them to use more aggressive tactics.

Barry Schwartz and fellow forum-posters think Google's being a bit hypocritical given that ads often appear beneath the search box and above the search results, in effect blending ads with content. They argue it's difficult to tell sponsored from organic.

I'm not sure if that argument holds, since Google at least follows its own guideline by differentiating sponsored ads with blue backgrounds. As consumers become more and more acclimated to the structure of a search result page, the argument they don't know the difference becomes weaker.