Just to add to that – Google only allows ads to be filtered by specific domain names. Nearly everyone with ads on their sites has asked Google to allow us to block by keywords, but that falls on deaf ears. They Are Google. They Know Better.

You are also limited to blocking a maximum of 200 domains, and there is no way to tell if a domain you blocked last month or last year is still buying advertising.

Keeping offensive or inappropriate ads off a web site would require a couple of hours a day, and it still would only be partially effective.

Every time you click on an ad the advertiser is charged money, and some of that goes to the site. So visiting an offending site costs them money and give money to the site you’re visiting from. So you could click the scientology ad over and over and over again. But that would be wrong.

Posted: March 7th 2011

See all questions answered by Dave Hitt

The server costs of running asktheatheists.com are offset by advertising. Google allows advertisers to pay to have their ads appear alongside certain kinds of content. Because of the nature of the content here, it draws many religious ads. It is possible, as a host of google served adverts, to block unwanted advertisers by domain, but there are so many (with new ones popping up all the time), that this is an uphill battle. For the moment you can expect religious ads on ATA to continue.

See also Why the non-secular ads attached to your site?

Posted: March 7th 2011

See all questions answered by bitbutter