If you thought Google was getting annoying with all its new policies, you are going to have to brace yourself for even more guidelines from Google. Google is trying awfully heart to cover itself against liabilities and protect consumers in the process. Whether that has helped small businesses that make money off of Google is another story. While I am not a big fan of a lot of policies that Google has adopted in the past, I actually agree with the latest move by Google to address issues caused by hosted domains (e.g. those on blogspot or Wordpress). There are plenty of people who are spamming on Google by using free hosting services or hosted portals such as Wordpress. The new URL policy addresses that.

Here is what Google is asking its advertisers to do: display the full URL of your website if you are on a domain that hosts multiple websites. Here are a few nuggets from the announcement:

all ads leading to sites on hosted domains will need to have display URLs that accurately reflect their destinations….

Incorrect:

Destination URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com
Display URL: blogspot.com

Correct:

Destination URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com
Display URL: adwords.blogspot.com

Of course, Google is going to give you some hints with your disapproval note. So you are going to know exactly why your ads were denied, and how you can fix them. Unfortunately, unlike everything else that Google does, this policy could lead to more Google slaps and more disapproval headaches. Keep in mind that the 25,35,35,35 rule still applies. So if you have registered a long sub-domain on one of these hosted services, you want to make sure it stays below 35 characters.

A lot of marketers are not going to be happy with this change. I am sure there will be ways to get around this policy. At the same time, a lot of newbie marketers are going to get hit by this change. Transparency is everything these days, so if you have been hiding your display URL or been gaming the system, you’ll have to shift gears. While I hate new policies, this one seems to be a fair one.

Your take: what’s your thought on Adwords new URL policy?