Chrome 71, out today, removes every ad from sites that failed Google's abusive experience review and left the problems unfixed for thirty days. A site with ordinary ads and no failing status loses nothing today.

What starts today

Chrome 71 is released today, and with it the filter Google announced last month for sites with persistent abusive experiences: ads and page features built to trick readers into a click.

On a site that has failed Google's review and not fixed the problems in time, Chrome now removes every ad. Not only the deceptive ones; all of them.

The new version reaches people over the coming days, as Chrome updates itself on their computers and phones.

For the great majority of publishers, today passes without anything happening. The reason is the sequence that has to come first.

The steps before any ads disappear

The third is where small publishers come unstuck. The warning goes to whoever is registered in Search Console, and on plenty of small sites that means a developer who moved on years ago, or an inbox nobody opens.

Why ordinary sites have little to fear

If the report does not show the site failing, and no warning has arrived, nothing changes today. Removal never comes as a surprise to an owner who is reading the right inbox.

The filter is aimed at deception, not at advertising. Standard units from a reputable network, placed beside or between the content, are not what it was built to catch.

Persistent is the word that matters. The filter is for sites where abusive experiences keep appearing, not for the publisher who meets one bad ad and has it removed.

What removal would cost

When the filter applies, it takes everything: the main network's ordinary ads, a local sponsor's banner sold directly, every unit on every page, for visitors using Chrome.

For a small publisher, that means the honest advertisers lose too. A sponsor who paid for a month of placement gets nothing from Chrome readers until the site passes again.

So the thirty days matter more than they seem. Used well, they end with nothing removed. Missed because the email went unread, they end with an awkward call to every sponsor.

Your own buttons count too

Abusive experiences are not only ads. Google's list includes misleading page features wherever they come from.

A video thumbnail whose play button opens an advertiser's page counts. So does an ad dressed as the site's own download button, placed right beside the real one.

Look at your pages as a newcomer would, on a phone, and ask of every button whether it does exactly what it appears to do.

A worked example

A site for classic car enthusiasts, run by two people in their spare time, offers restoration guides and scanned owner's manuals as free downloads, and covers its hosting costs with display ads.

To make the ads earn more, an ad unit had been placed directly above each manual's download link.

Some advertisers filled that space with large green download buttons for unrelated software. Beside them, the site's own link was small grey text, and readers kept pressing the wrong one.

Several emailed to complain that the site had installed something unwanted. After last month's announcement, the owners opened the Abusive Experience Report: not reviewed, nothing flagged.

They changed the pages anyway. The ad unit moved below the article, the real download became a large, plainly labelled button with the file size, and the network's controls now block the kind of ad that caused the trouble.

Banners you sell yourself

A local sponsor's banner can break the rules without anyone intending it. A designer trying to grab attention styles it as a phone notification, a chat message or a virus warning.

That is a fake message, whoever drew it, and it sits on your page.

Say in your sponsor terms that artwork must not imitate system messages, chat windows or the site's own buttons, and that you will ask for a replacement if it does. Most sponsors change a banner gladly once they know why.

When the cause is a hack

Some abusive experiences have nothing to do with advertising. A hacked site can carry injected code that sends visitors elsewhere, often only on phones and only when they arrive from a search.

The test is simple: if readers are still being redirected with the ads switched off, the cause is in the site itself.

That needs whoever maintains the site, quickly. Removing ad partners will not help, and a hacked site has bigger problems than its ads.

Fixing a failing site

If the report does show the site failing, it names the kinds of problem the reviewers found. Fix the pattern across the whole site, not just on the pages mentioned.

Google reviews a sample of pages, and a new review may look at different ones, so a fix that covers only the examples can fail again.

Then request the review from the report, and keep a short note of what was changed and when, for the sponsors and for any later review.

The counter-case

Most business websites carry no advertising at all, and today changes nothing for them.

A publisher running one reputable network in ordinary placements, with nothing flagged in the report, can treat today as a reminder rather than a deadline.

And some reader complaints come from unwanted software on the reader's own device, which no change to the site will cure. Check whether others see the problem before removing anything.

But anyone earning from ads should know what the report says today, and make sure the warning email would reach someone who reads it.

Today

  1. Read the report's status for your site.
  2. Check which address receives Search Console messages.
  3. Test every button on a phone.
  4. Move ads away from your own download links.
  5. Rule out a hack before blaming an ad.
  6. Fix every page, not only the examples.
  7. Tell direct sponsors what you have checked.

Step two is the one that decides whether thirty days is enough. A warning that reaches nobody gives a small publisher no time at all, and the first sign of trouble becomes a sponsor asking where their banner went.

What Google announced last month, and how the report works, is covered in Chrome will block ads on abusive sites in December.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to my site's ads today?

Nothing, unless the Abusive Experience Report shows the site failing and thirty days have passed since the warning. Only then does Chrome remove every ad on the site.

How would I know my site was failing?

The report in Search Console would say so, and Google emails the site's registered owners and users. Make sure one of those addresses belongs to someone who reads it.

Does removal include ads I sold directly?

Yes. Chrome removes every ad on a filtered site for its users, including honest ones from your main network and banners sold to local sponsors.

Can my own page design count as abusive?

Yes. A play button or download link that actually opens an ad counts, and so does an ad dressed up to pass for one of the site's own buttons.

What if redirects continue with ads switched off?

Then the cause is probably code injected by a hack rather than an ad. Removing ad partners will not help; whoever maintains the site needs to clean it.

Should I fix one page or all of them?

All of them. Google reviews a sample of pages, and the next review may sample different ones, so fix the pattern across the whole site before asking.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Ad units sitting beside your download links?

Send us the pages. We will check every button and ad placement the way a reviewer would.

Start a Conversation