Google’s policy team recently sat down to discuss the confusion over the placement of images near Google ad units.

Google decided that publishers may not line up images and ads in a way that suggest they’re related. Obviously many developers do this because a picture is worth a thousand words. Google says,:

If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn’t actually being offered. That’s not a good experience for users or advertisers.

There use to be some confusion over whether a line could be placed between the Google ad unit and the image. No! If the ad and image appear to be associated, inserting a small line will not make the ad legit.

Don’t worry… you are still allowed to place images on the same page as your Google ads. Just arrange them in a way that won’t confuse your visitors.

Well, what do unacceptable implementations look like? Here are some examples that wouldn’t comply with Google’s policies.

It’s funny to me that we’re given the ability to customize the style of our Google ads to better “disquise” them, but there is so much controversy over image placement. Of course, styling our ads is more about vanity and placing pictures in misleading ways is more about degrading Google AdSense’s credibility.

This is a good decision. Google AdSense and AdWords only works because Google lays down strict policies. So while you may be pissed off that your CTR will go down, be happy that Google believes in tough love, because it keeps the system from falling apart.

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