Why I Removed Ads From My Website — And Why You Probably Should Too

Is Putting Ads on Your Website Worth It? The Harsh Truth From My Own Experience

I used to think that connecting Google AdSense to my website would be an easy way to earn a bit of passive income. You know the thinking, if people from all over the world are visiting anyway, why not make a few euro from ads?

And technically, yes, I did make money. But here’s the part nobody tells you: I made it painfully slowly, over months and not days & weeks like I expected. And every cent came at the cost of my website’s credibility, user experience and overall performance which I only found out after the fact.

If you’re thinking about adding third-party ads to your site, especially if it’s something you’ve poured time, effort and pride into, here’s my honest advice after learning the hard way.

The “Income” Looks Good — Until You Do the Maths

At the peak of my AdSense phase, I was convinced I was doing well. The dashboard showed little bits of revenue trickling in and I could see country flags popping up in real time. It felt exciting.

But then reality hit:
AdSense doesn’t pay out until you hit their minimum threshold — around €70.

For many websites, especially niche or Ireland-based ones like mine, that can take months and then you are back to square one again after a payout. I realised I was essentially trading my entire website’s appearance and professionalism for the price of a couple of coffees per month. If I was lucky.

A Marketing Expert Thought My Website Had a Virus

This was the turning point.

I was booked in to meet a marketing consultant, expecting tips on structure or SEO. Instead, the first words out of his mouth were:

“I thought your website was infected with a virus.”

That’s how chaotic the ads appeared to him - flashing, moving, reshuffling the page, pushing content around.
If a professional thinks your site is infected, what chance does a regular visitor have?

In that moment, I realised I was so focused on the tiny earnings that I never stopped to look at the site from a customer’s point of view and from my own point of view trying to sell to customers. I myself detest websites where you have to close multiple ads just to see the page content and here I was offering the same low value experience to my website visitors.

How Many Customers Did the Ads Drive Away?

This question still bothers me.

Every ad slowed my pages down.
Every ad interrupted the flow of my blog posts.
And in many cases, the same ads repeated five times down the page, making the content look cheap and automated.

I’ll never know how many potential customers clicked away instead of scrolling but I’m certain it cost me more than the money I eventually earned.

When your business relies on trust, clarity and professionalism, cheapening the experience is the worst trade-off you can make.

Why Third-Party Ads Slow Your Site Down

Even if you ignore the looks, the technical side is brutal:

● Ad scripts load before your content
● Each ad slot calls external servers
● Poorly-built ads can stall rendering
● Ads can reflow the page (content jumps up and down)
● Tracking scripts pile up in the background

And in a world where Google uses page speed as a ranking factor… slowing yourself down is the last thing you want.

It’s the same reason I’ve written before about Google’s constant unpredictability — when your site is already under pressure (like in my post “Google De-Indexed My Entire Blog Overnight”), the last thing you want is self-inflicted wounds.

Ads Ruin the Reading Experience — Especially on Mobile

Blog posts need flow. Rhythm. Clean layout. A sense of being guided.

AdSense destroys that.

On mobile, some paragraphs ended up split in half by ads. Some ads appeared directly underneath my H2 headings. Others appeared inside my affiliate product sections, which completely confused readers.

If you’re trying to build trust, grow an audience or simply keep people reading to the end, ads work against every goal you have.

This is especially true if you care about delivering a message that matters, something I often talk about in posts like “Why I’m Still Blogging (Even If Google’s New AI Might Bury My Posts)”.

You Don’t Realise the Damage Until You Remove the Ads

Once I finally deleted the entire AdSense setup, the difference was immediate.

I could read my own posts again.
The site loaded faster.
My pages stopped “jumping” as they loaded.
I finally realised and acknowledged that I had done wrong.
Everything felt clean, intentional and professional.

It reminded me of something I wrote in “Why Google Ads Is So Hard for Small Businesses” — the tools are designed for Google’s benefit, not yours.

The same applies here.

If Your Website Means Something to You — Don’t Do It

If you’ve built a site you genuinely care about… a site that speaks for your business… a site that carries your message…
don’t clutter it with ads.

The short-term earnings aren’t worth the long-term damage.

However, if you run a hobby site, something disposable, or a content farm built purely for volume — then sure, AdSense has its place. But if your website is part of your livelihood? Avoid it.

I nearly Fell Into the Same Trap Again

When I started this blog, I knew it was going to be a hard slog. It would take a long time before I’d make any money from it, so I was tempted again to add AdSense — especially because Google made it so easy to integrate on Blogger.

But I remembered what it did to my main website and simply said no. I wasn’t going to do that to my new blog, David Condon Finds.

A few months later, I had the exact same thought when I created Phoenix DVD Blog. And funnily enough, I came to the same conclusion again: it would look bad, harm the reading experience, and damage trust. Leaving ads out was absolutely the right decision.

Both of my new websites will take another year or so to mature, but at least they’re growing cleanly, naturally, and without clutter.

My Simple Recommendation to Any Website Owner

Before you install ads, ask yourself one question:

Are you willing to lose real customers for a few cents per day?

If the answer is no, don’t install AdSense.

Thanks for Reading,

David

About the Author

I’m David Condon, a writer and small business owner based in Tralee, Co. Kerry. Most of my working life revolves around woodcraft and teaching woodturning, but this blog is where I share thoughts and discoveries from beyond the workshop — from everyday experiences to product reviews and tech finds that make life a little easier.

If you’d like to know more, there’s a link in the Note from the Author section below.

💬 Note from the Author
This post was written specially for David Condon Finds. If you enjoyed it, you might also like my other projects:

Phoenix DVD Blog – where I write about DVDs, Blu-rays, and life as a collector
David Condon Woodcraft – my main site focused on woodturning and handmade Irish pieces

If you’d like to support my writing, you can do so through the Buy Me a Coffee button below. It helps keep these side projects going — thank you!

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