Internal Ads on A Site

[CeeC-Blogger]

We serve ads on our site using a sub-domain.

All ads use a re-direct from ads.domain before redirecting users to the proper, normal, internal url.

Most the content on our home page is ad block driven.

Is it possible and does it make sense to enter the sub-domain as url parameter in Google Webmaster tools, letting Google know that this is something to be ignored.

Many thanks

[KristinaKledzik]

Hi,

Google is very aware of ads, so it's entirely possible that Google is aware that that subdomain is for ads only, and isn't indexing it anyway.

To see if Google is indexing it, go to Google and type in "site:ads.domain" to see if it's indexed. If it isn't, Google won't find any results.

If you want to remove that subdomain from Google's index, you won't be able to add it as a URL parameter in Webmaster Tools, since it's an entire URL. Instead, remove it from the index with robots.txt. Google explains how to do that here.

Last, and we have to say this as SEOs, there's a good chance you are or will be penalized for using most of your homepage for ads! We'd strongly recommend that you remove some, or add some more content so that the majority of your homepage is unique content. At the very least, move most ads below the fold.

Hope this helps! Follow up if you have any more questions,

Kristina