Yahoo Publisher Network Updates Policies and Quality Guidelines

By Loren Baker, Editor | February 5, 2007

Yahoo Publisher Network has made some updates to its quality guidelines and program policies.

The change which sticks out the most is the limitation of three ad units per page. Google AdSense works in a similar fashion, with the maximum amount of contextual network ads being set at three.

Yahoo has defined some simple quality guidelines for both the display of the ad unit and the quality of the page.

Why are they releasing this now? Probably because Yahoo Search Marketing’s Panama is kicking in its Quality Index scoring system today and with more advertisers coming into the Yahoo Search Marketing network, the more advertisers on YPN, the more YPN will need to expand to fill this demand.

Expect expanded beta testing and perhaps the network to bring in thousands of new publishers in Q2.

Here are the guidelines, from the Yahoo Publisher Network:

The Ad Unit:

* The Ad Unit cannot be obscured in any way
* The Ad Unit must be shown in the requested page, not as a pop-up or pop-under window or in an e-mail
* The user must be able to tell the difference between the Ad Unit and other content on the publisher’s page.
* The Ad Unit must be clearly labeled as “Ads by Yahoo!” and this label should not be confused with other advertising or links on the publisher’s page.
* Images or other media cannot be associated with the Ad Unit.

The Ad Page:

* The Ad Page must be content based, fully functional and not contain any broken links. Non-content pages include domain registration pages, welcome pages, error pages, and Web content generated in or through software applications.
* The Ad page may contain a maximum of three ad units.
* The Ad Page must be in English or Spanish and be consistent with the language of the Listings.
* The Ad Page must respond adequately to user requests.
* The Ad Page must not actively encourage users to click on Ad Units.
* The Ad Page must not disable the browser’s back button.
* The Ad Page must not spawn more than one partial pop-up/pop-under window and this window must not interfere with user navigation.
* The Ad Page must not automatically replace the browser homepage.