Chrome will start removing ads on February 15 from sites rated failing in the Ad Experience Report. Sites with ordinary banners and in-article ads have little to do: read the report, then check your own pages on a phone.

A date at last

Google said on Tuesday that Chrome's ad filter will begin on February 15. Since June, the start had been described only as early next year.

The filter applies to sites that fall short of the Better Ads Standards, a list of the ad formats readers find most intrusive. On those sites, Chrome will remove all the ads, whoever served them.

February 15 is eight weeks from today, with the holidays in between. That is plenty of time for a publisher who looks now, and very little for one who waits until February.

For most small publishers the date changes little. It does put a deadline on a check that was worth doing anyway.

How a site ends up filtered

Google looks at a selection of a site's pages and gives it a status of passing, warning or failing, separately for desktop and for phones. The status appears in the Ad Experience Report, inside Search Console.

A site rated failing is notified and has thirty days to fix the problems and ask for another review. If it is still failing after that, Chrome filters its ads.

Readers using Chrome on a filtered site see its pages with no ads at all. Fixing the problems and passing a new review lifts the filter.

What the standards leave alone

The fourth is the one to measure rather than assume. A slim unit is fine; the same unit served taller by a partner, or seen on a small phone turned sideways, may not be.

Start with the report

Open Search Console, choose the property for the address the site actually uses, and find the Ad Experience Report. Look at both the desktop and the mobile status.

Plenty of small sites show not reviewed, which is not a pass. It means Google has not looked yet, so your own check is the only one so far.

Warning means problems were found that need fixing. Failing starts the thirty days.

Make sure someone receives Search Console messages. A failing notice sent to a developer who left last year starts the clock just the same.

Then look for yourself

The report covers a sample. Readers see every page, so check each kind: the front page, a typical article, a photo gallery and a section page.

Use a phone with any ad blocker turned off and nobody signed in, and load each page several times, since partners rotate formats. Then do the same on a laptop.

Watch for anything that covers the page, counts down before it, follows the reader, flashes or starts with the sound on. For each one, note whether you placed it or a partner did.

A worked example

A quarterly woodworking magazine puts its project plans and shop tips online, paid for by display ads from one network and sponsorships sold to tool makers and lumber yards.

After Tuesday's announcement the editor opened the Ad Experience Report for the first time. Desktop and mobile both said not reviewed.

She and the ad sales manager went through the site on a phone. The banners, the sidebar units, the sponsor credits under each project and the one slim bar at the foot of the screen were all ordinary.

The project plans were the exception. Long plans had an ad after every step, so a reader scrolling through the cutting list on a phone met more ads than instructions.

The plans now carry an ad every few steps, with none inside the cutting list, and the network confirmed in writing that no full-screen formats run on the site.

Nothing else changed, which is what the editor had expected: ordinary ads in ordinary places.

If the report says failing

Fix the problems it lists first, then request a review from the same report. Reviews take time, so the request is better made in January than in the second week of February.

Fix them properly rather than around the review. Google samples pages again, and readers see whatever is actually there.

Keep a note of what changed and when, and which partner or sponsor each problem came from.

Sponsors and direct deals

Ads sold directly to local businesses need the same look as anything from a network. A sponsor's animated banner counts exactly the same as one served by a stranger.

If a package promised something on the list, such as a welcome screen before the front page or a banner fixed over the article, offer a placement inside the page instead, before February.

Most sponsors want to be seen in good company. Few want their name on the format that got a site's ads switched off.

The reader's judgement comes first

The filter reaches only Chrome, and only failing sites. Readers judge every site, in every browser.

A reader annoyed by a format does not wait for Google. They leave, or install an ad blocker that removes every ad everywhere, including the ordinary ones that pay for sites they like.

That is the better reason to look. The standards are a list of what readers dislike most, and February 15 is simply the first consequence with a date on it.

The counter-case

A site that shows no ads has nothing to do, and neither does a business site whose only fixed element is its own call button.

A small publisher with banners in ordinary places, no partner formats and a passing or unreviewed status is very likely fine, and an hour with a phone will confirm it.

Avoid stripping out ordinary ads in a panic, since they are not the target. Still, every site earning from ads should spend that hour before February 15 and change anything on the list.

Before February 15

  1. Open the Ad Experience Report for both platforms.
  2. Confirm who receives Search Console messages.
  3. Load your main templates on a phone, signed out.
  4. Note anything that covers, counts down or follows.
  5. Ask partners in writing which formats they serve.
  6. Offer sponsors placements inside the page instead.
  7. Request a review as soon as problems are fixed.

Step three is where problems actually turn up. The report samples a handful of pages, while readers see every template the site has.

The same plain dealing with readers applies to commissions, covered in affiliate links on a content site and saying so.

Frequently asked questions

When does Chrome start filtering ads?

On February 15, Google announced on Tuesday. Filtering applies to sites rated failing in the Ad Experience Report for the Better Ads Standards, not to every site.

How does a site end up filtered?

Google assesses a selection of its pages. A site rated failing is told, and has thirty days to correct the problems and ask for a fresh review before filtering begins.

What does not reviewed mean?

That nobody at Google has assessed the site so far. It is not a pass, so check your own pages against the list, especially on phones.

Will ordinary banner ads be filtered?

Not on their own. Ordinary banners, sidebar boxes and in-article units are not among the listed formats. Sites are filtered over ads that cover, count down, follow, flash or start with sound.

What happens to a filtered site?

Chrome removes all of its ads, including ones from Google, ordinary banners among them. Fixing the problems and passing a new review lifts the filter.

Should I remove ads to be safe?

No. Ordinary placements are not the target, and removing them costs income for nothing. Fix anything on the list, and leave the rest alone.

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.

Not sure what your ad partners serve?

Send us the site and a list of partners. We will check each template on a phone before February 15.

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