AdSense Myth: The Myth of the External Link

Yesterday I received an email from someone who didn't like the free AdSense template I released over the weekend. This person in particular object to the fact that my single-page template had no external links. Here's what they said:

Actually not having a link out except for adsense links is against Googles TOS. [sic]

What they're referring to are the instructions I provide in
the HTML for modifying the page, in particular this section
about the content:

Content: This is where you put your content. Delete everything
              between the BEGIN CONTENT and END CONTENT comments.
	      Then insert your own content in its place, using
              paragraphs and lists as appropriate. Use H2 and H3
	      tags to split content into sections, depending on the
	      length.

     NOTE: You want to use standard SEO techniques. Emphasize the
           primary keyphrase by using it in the first paragraph
           and the last paragraph. Vary the keyphrase, too, such
           as using both the singular and plural forms. Try using
           it in a heading or two if your content is long enough
	   to support headings. Use the keywords you put in the KEYWORDS
           meta tag as well. Don't go overboard, make sure the keyword
           density isn't too high. Link to other relevant content on
           sites you own, if possible. You can also link out to other
           sites as well, but of course visitors who follow that route
           won't click your ads.

The phrase they were objecting to was “You can also link out to other sites as well“. They think that AdSense pages must include external links to be fully compliant. I've seen this mentioned before, such as in AdSense Arbitrage and Leveraging. It's a misconception, an AdSense myth.

There is no requirement for external linking in either the AdSense Terms and Conditions or the AdSense Program Policies.

I've been on the Web for a long time now — I built my first pages in the early 90's — and I can tell you that I've come across many a page that had no links on it at all, not even back to the site's home page. The reasoning, of course, is that you can simply use the browser's “back” button to go back to where you were. Does this make for good usability? No. But does it prevent the site from being useful? No.

But that's neither here nor there. What does AdSense actually say about this issue? There's nothing in the terms and conditions, so we need to look at the program policies. The closest thing I could find was:

Your site must not contain broken links and must be launched, functioning, and easily navigable.

But this, of course, refers to internal navigation. And since a single-page site has only one page… well, there's nothing else to link to, is there?

Many sites eschew external links, including some major sites. Look at Amazon.com, for example. There are few links to non-Amazon sites and all links pass through an internal redirection script — there are no direct external links. And yet Google loves Amazon.

Of course, the Web wouldn't be the Web if there were no links between sites. So if you want to use them, go ahead. There's nothing wrong with them. They can be beneficial in other ways: users like sites that link to other sites and you get better ad targeting. Most of my sites have external links. But they're not required.

To me, the easiest way to test if it's OK to use AdSense on a page is to disable both JavaScript and CSS within the browser (this is easily done in Firefox with the Web Developer Extension plugin) and see if the page in question provides useful information or not, irrespective of the links it may or may not have. If it does, put AdSense on it and move onto something else.

Sponsored Link: In Uncommon AdSense I describe a different way to use external links on AdSense pages.

Eric Giguere is the author of Uncommon AdSense and
Make Easy Money with Google. His award-nominated AdSense blog is a lot of work to write, but also a lot of fun…

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