Google Adsense is the leading company in web advertising programs which is a large system of earning for your website. Similar to all other great advertising programs, Google Adsense has well define Terms of Service (ToS) that are required to be strictly followed in order to receive benefits from this great opportunity to earn online.
From what I’ve been able to tell, there are two types of people who get their Adsense accounts banned.
- Those who deliberately push the limits. They know there’s a chance of getting their accounts banned and they’re not surprised when they get the notice.
- Those who do not take the time to read the TOS and are crushed when they get their banned notice from Google Adsense
First Lets see a quick list of the ways you can get your Google Adsense account banned.
- Click on your own ads. Sure, accidents happen. But if you’re so “clumsy” that you click on your ads 20 times in 10 minutes, you probably need to be banned. If you do accidentally click on your ads, contact Google Adsense immediately and let them know what happened.
- Put Google Adsense on websites that have questionable or banned content such as Hacker, Warez, Porn, Drug and Gambling sites.
- Showing Adsense ads on Registration or “Thank You” pages.
- Sticking ad relevant images next to your Adsense blocks. For example, tricking people to click on your ads by putting pictures of cell phones next to an Adsense block showing cell phone ads.
- Registering multiple accounts. I’ll just say it’s possible to have multiple accounts legitimately. However, for most of us, one account is all they will let you have.
- Registering an account after you have been banned. See above.
- Taking part in a “Adsense Click Ring”. These are groups of people who click on other members ads. Google is smart enough to figure this out folks!
- Putting Google Adsense on Pop Ups that keep generating other pop ups when a user tries to close them. This gets a lot of Adsense Account holders. This increases your “impression rate” thus messing with your data that Google uses. The best thing to do is to not put them on pop ups anyway. Google also does not want their ads on Pop Unders.
- Asking other people to click on your ads. Google says not to do it, so don’t. Simple as that. I’ve seen video’s and other forms of advertisements where goons asked people to click on their ads. It’s my opinion these people need to be banned!
- Disclosing click through rates, earnings per click and impressions. Although I don’t agree with this one, Adsense TOS says not to do it, so I don’t. Their money, their rules.
- Using malicious automation software such as ‘bots’ to click on your ads. Again, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know this is bad. I don’t feel sorry for these types of people either.
- Putting Adsense on pages with no content. Some people will put up pages with nothing except ads on them.
- Hiring overseas workers to click on your ads. There are companies/individuals who do nothing but click on Adsense ads. Do you really think Google can’t figure this one out?
- Creating Made For Adsense Websites. Google is beginning to really crack down on websites that are made just for Adsense.
- Putting Adsense ads on Hate websites. Bad business, don’t do it.
- Keyword stuffing pages. Google considers this a No-No and may yank your account for it. I use to see this a lot with Mesothelioma pages. (FYI, Mesothelioma use to be one of the highest paying keywords on the Internet)
- Putting Adsense on websites that promote guns & ammo, beer or hard alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, copyrighted infringement content, knockoff clothing or goods and sites that distribute term papers or essays.
- Using excessive profanity. I’m not sure who decides what “excessive” is, but Google will ban your Adsense for it damnit!
There are more, but the ones listed above are the ones I see violated the most. Here’s a link to Googles policy terms.https://www.google.com/adsense/policies and here is their Terms and Conditions page https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/Terms.html
Long story short, if you value your Google Adsense account, play by the rules!
I don’t agree with all of the rules above, but like I say, it’s Google’s money, you have to play by Google’s rules. All the more reason all website and blog owners should diversify their sites income generating streams. If you live by Google Adsense, you might find yourself dying by them.
I am sharing some important Adsense tips; some mistakes which should be avoid in order to protect your Adsense account from getting banned by Google Adsense. These tips are gathered from the Google Terms and Conditions and information from FAQ at Google Adsense. You may already know some of these tips but those who don’t know or new to Google Adsense web advertising program I would try to explain it in very simple manners.* Never try to click your own Adsense ads or get them clicked – You know this one very well. This is a surefire way to close you Adsense account. Never tell your office associates or friends to click on them. Keep a check if your family or children are busy increasing your income by clicking your ads and indirectly trying to stop your income. Don’t even think of offering incentives for clicks, using automated clicking tools, or other deceptive software. Adsense is very smart to detect fraudulent clicks. Check the ads which appear on your pages by the Google Preview tool if required.
* Avoid changing the Adsense code – There are enough means of Adsense optimization & customizations available to change the color, background or border to suit your needs. Do whatever you want to do outside the code, never fiddle within the ad or the search code. They know it when you do. The search code has more limitations to color and placement, but you should adhere to the rules. The code may stop working and violates the TOS.
* Do not run competitive contextual text ad or search services – Never run such ads or services on the same site which offer Google Adsense competition in their field. Never try to create link structures resembling the Adsense ads. Never use other competitive search tools on the same pages which have Adsense powered Google search. They do allow affiliate or limited-text links. Update: Google has allowed you to run contextual advertising like Yahoo ads, Chitika etc provided the ads do not resemble Adsense ads.
* Never launch a New Page for clicked ads by default – Adsense ads should open on the same page. You may be using a base target tag to open all links in a new window or frame by default. Correct it now as they do not want new pages opening from clicked ads.
* One Account suffices for multiple websites – You do not need to create 5 accounts for 5 different websites. One account will do. If you live in the fears that if one account is closed down for violation of TOS, believe me they will close all accounts when they find out. You can keep track of clicks by using channels with real time statistics. They will automatically detect the new site and display relevant ads.
* Place ads only on Content Pages – Advertisers pay only for content based ads. Content drives relevant ads. Although you might manage some clicks from error, login, registration, “thank you” or welcome pages, parking pages or pop ups, it will get you out of the program.
* Do not mask ad elements – Alteration of colors and border is a facility to blend or contrast ads as per your site requirements. I have seen many sites where the URL part is of the same color as the background. While blending the ad with your site is a good idea, hiding relevant components of the ads is not allowed. Also do not block the visibility of ads by overlapping images, pop ups, tables etc.
* Keep track of your content – So Adsense is not allowed on several non content pages. But it is also not allowed on several content pages too. Do not add it on web pages with MP3, Video, News Groups, and Image Results. Also exclude any pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content.
* Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing – Although the definition of ‘excessive’ is a gray area and is subject to discretion, yet Google Adsense with correct placement, focused content and high traffic will get you much more income than other programs, so excessive advertising is not required. Keyword stuffing does target better focused ads, but overdoing it is not required.
* Ensure you Language is Supported – Adsense supports “Chinese (simplified), Japanese, Danish, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, English, Polish, Finnish, Portuguese, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Swedish, Italian and Turkish”. In addition, Adsense for search is available in Czech, Slovak, and Traditional Chinese. If your web pages language is not supported, do not use the code on such pages.
* Do not specify Google ads as your alternate ads – Several services like Chitika eMiniMalls allow you to place alternate URLs, when a targeted paying ad cannot be displayed. This involved creating a simple html page and putting the ad to be displayed instead. Even Adsense allows an alternate URL feature instead of displaying public service ads. But never use Adsense ads as alternate URLs.
* Do not confuse with adjacent images – It was a common policy to increase CTR by placing same number of images as the number of text ads, which falsely gave the impression that the text ads represented an explanation to these images. Inserting a small space or a line between the images and ads is not allowed. Make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors.
It is always better to inquire for Adsense help from the educated staff of Google Adsense. This way you can avoid the common mistakes that could ban your Google Adsense Account.
