How to Keep Your Google AdSense Ads Halal

Did you know you could filter out certain Google AdSense ads from appearing on your blog or website? AdSense has a feature called “Competitive Ad Filter”.  It has been around for a while, but is one that is not often used.  Originally, this was designed so that you can filter out businesses and services that compete with whatever it is your site (blog) is offering.  However, as Muslim bloggers we can use this feature to filter out ads that we should not be advertising for.

The majority of Muslim blogs that are using Google AdSense tend to have advertisements for dating or matrimonial services.  This is not something that is done intentionally but it is definitely not something that happened by chance either.  Businesses pay money to advertise their services on sites with certain keywords such as “Muslim” or “halal” or “haram”.  Muslim blogs often include these keywords and so these AdSense ads will then pop-up on your blog.  Some of the ads that show up may in fact be legit, but my research into this has shown that most of these Google AdSense ads are either haram or, at the very least, questionable.

When it comes to dating sites,for example here’s what I did to find potential problems:

1. Google “Muslim dating”
2. Copy all the links of businesses that advertise
3. Paste them into the Ad Filter in AdSense

Remember that it is against Google’s Terms of Service that you click your own ads for any reason at all.  So if the site’s address isn’t listed in the ad, then you’ll need to use Google for more information. Of course, new sites will always be popping up — so you really have to stay on top of things.

If you are willing to go through this process once in a while, then I recommend you go ahead and use AdSense.  For example, I know that this post includes words such as “dating”.  So for quite some time I will be monitoring the ads that are displayed so that I can add them to the list. On the other hand, if filtering ads is something you just don’t want to deal with then I highly recommend you stay away from advertising – especially content related ads from Google AdSense. Why?  Because the last thing you want is to earn money from haram sources. Do you really want to earn even one penny from someone who clicks on some dating site that advocates haram methods for establishing a relationship?  I’m sure none of us do as it would be something displeasing to Allah.

I’ve compiled a list of sites that you can just copy and paste into the “Competitive Ad Filter”.  Click the icon below to download the file with the list of sites I’ve found questionable so far.  There is also a short tutorial video showing you how to find, search for, and filter site that may be questionable or haram.

Let me know where you stand on the issue of AdSense and targeted ads.  Do you use AdSense on your blog?  If so, have you had a chance to look at the type of ads being displayed?  Did you already know about (and use) the “Competitive Ad Filter” feature before reading this blog post?

(Photo: cgfan)