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Yesterday, Google announced a new AdSense format named "native ads." The native ads come in two forms, (a) In-feed, In-article, and (b) Matched content. Both these formats are designed to "match the look and feel of your site" and blend into your content - which likely will drive more clicks on your ads - probably due to confusion.
As Glenn Gabe put it, this is exactly what SEOs tell their clients not to do so they don't trigger some quality penalty:
@JohnMu @methode Guys, I think it's time to meet with the AdSense team. What in the world are they recommending? "match the look & feel"??? https://t.co/IcQIJFI34D
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 5, 2017
Here is the In feed ads:
Here is the matched content ads:
We've been saying this for years, that listening to Google AdSense can end up hurting your organic rankings - in theory. Google has an algorithm that specifically is designed to penalized ads in your content and that algorithm is still important today.
We know Google's organic and paid policies don't align but seriously, Google has to do something - it makes them look like huge hypocrites and confuses the heck out of webmasters.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Twitter.
