Browsers Blocking Banner Ads – Firefox, Google and More

Recently I was asked a question about new developments in browsers, their ability to block ads, and how they are potentially hurting webmasters. Surprisingly I heard several debates raging over the issue and I will give you a fix and my opinion as well.

What is happening to my banner ads and Adsense ads?

If you haven’t noticed some web browsers are now offering users a way to block ads that appear on website. Now I’m NOT talking about those annoying pop-ups or surveys, I simply talking about regular old banner ads and adsense ads that you have included on your website. Developers of Firefox and other constantly updated web browsers now are adding these features. (Such as AdBlock Plus) It is a simple matter of users “flipping a switch” and they can now view your website, “modified”, without any ads showing. The ads could be affiliate programs, Google Adsense, or even simply ads that people have paid you to place on your websites. Whatever they are there is a simple way to fix some of these issues.

First the debate. More than two views.

Should people have the right to view your website and not your ads? Of course there are two camps of thought here. (As well as some hybrids.) Many webmasters are a little miffed that all their hard work is now not bringing them any rewards. They put a lot of time and work into their sites and simply hope for a small return from advertising. I think that is a fair request. Now keep in mind I am not talking about pop ups or intrusive ads and redirects, but simple ads on a side column that offer a related product or service.

On the other hand, there are a slew of people saying, “They have the right to do whatever they want.” I can also see their point. They want to be able to block banner ads / commercial promotion and view the internet without any commercial presentation. Valid point and many sites are a waste of time and nothing but banner ads.

Are the crowds marching with torches?

Many webmasters have even gone to the point of calling for a “revolt against Firefox”, who apparently was one of the first to offer such an option. I don’t see that as a logical way of handling the issue.

I am not defending Firefox. In fact I think that they are possibly stepping into some legal grounds here. While Firefox (Mozilla) is a “non-profit” organization, many think they are the “pot calling the kettle black”. In 2007 their charitable contributions were $47,143. Now do you know how much they made off search income and product sales? That number is $70,035,553. In case your web browser is acting strange, yes that is 70 MILLION dollars.

This is a growing problem with more than 36 MILLION people that have already downloaded the one plugin.

How can you fix this?
First, you should download the plugin and test it yourself. This is the most critical step in making sure your content is reaching your consumer. There are many ways they block ads such as domains. If an image of ad is served through a certain domain, it is blocked. (Example: google.com)
Tags and folders. If your image is pulled from folders such as /ads or /banners or /affiliates it will be blocked.

The easiest general fix for webmasters is to make sure that all banners are locally hosted on their own website. I will explain in “plain English I hope”. This will fix banners but not Adsense ads.

Now this won’t work for all programs and ads and will NOT allow adense to show.

If you “cut and paste” a piece of code in your HTML or website that generates a banner image, that image is being pulled in from another website / server. There is no actual image “stored” on your webpage. A browser can tell that it is being pulled from another location and “served” to the viewer with a hyperlink back to that site. It classifies this image as a banner ad and blocks it from being viewed / displayed.

In order to get around this:

1- Webmasters should simply get a copy of the banner image and save it to their desktop or computer.

1-A (If at all possible, change the image from a .gif to a .jpg .gifs can be filtered out alone.

2- Now “insert” the image into their website page and save.

3- It is a good habit to also make sure it has an ALT tag. (Right click image, properties, general, fill in the text alt.

4- Then hyperlink the image to the correct website or page. If you are displaying an affiliate banner, make sure you have your correct affiliate code in the hyperlink and test it.

5- Save your page and you are done.

Learning to deal with such issues will become more and more of a task in the future. However, “attacking” the “big boys” will not work. Learning simple work-arounds is the best place to start.

The Irony in all of this?

It is estimated that 85% of Firefox’s income comes from Google. Now they are helping people block Google ads. (hhhmmmm) How long would you bring along a guy fishing that kept throwing rocks in the pond every time you saw a fish?
I believe this will become a HUGE issue over the next 5 years as more and more people are making the switch.

How can I keep my website income up?
It appears that more and more webmasters will be looking for specialized affiliate and advertising programs.
A friend of mine owns a soccer information website. After dealing with these issues he dumped all his pay per click ads and went with 3 programs that allowed him to host banners on his site. (One example is www.SoccerU.com)
Smaller affiliate programs have the potential to help webmasters in the future and we believe the trend will continue.

The future and the next millionaire.

I wish I was a coding / programming geek. Someone will get VERY rich one day by offering webmasters a piece of code to install in their website.
This code will redirect a browser that is trying to display a website in a “modified” fashion.

Example: If someone is trying to access your website with Adblocker running, they will be redirected to a page that says, “You must turn off your Adblocker software. This page is copyrighted and only allowed to be viewed in its original form.”

Put that piece of code on 50 billion websites and people will quickly dump the add on.

A good article on search engine freedom, choices and current issues.

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