You see, the Adsense Policies for it’s program are taken very
seriously and the unsuspecting and somewhat ignorant blogger can wake up
one morning with their account removed and their website banned from
the program, sometimes permanently. The long-term impact of such a ban
is obvious and you never want this to happen as it’s next to impossible
to get back in the program once you’re banned.
Google is strict when it comes to enforcing their policies and
more bloggers have been burned because they simply don’t think they are
being policed – the fact is that you will be Banned.
Ok, it’s not that bad, but I think you’re getting the picture, right?
What I’m going to do is walk you through 6 of the top things you need
to know about the policies and what to look out for.
1. You Must Have a Privacy Policy
This one is easy to do and will take a little bit of your time but is
simple a non-negotiable item if you’re even thinking about engaging
with Adsense – you must have a Privacy Policy in place if you’re going to run Google Adsense.
Google is explicit in this requirement (you can read more about creating a privacy policy right here) and you should have one. One of the no-brainer ways to get banned is forgetting (or not knowing) about this!
2. Invalid Clicks
Besides not having a Privacy Policy in place the number one way that
many people get banned and removed is through “invalid” clicks. There
are a number of ways to trigger an invalid click: Automated Software – People who create or use software to click on links (perhaps their own advertisements) are quickly caught and banned.
Bots – Similar to Automated Software, these scripts
can auto-click or pass through values that can get you in trouble. Stay
away and don’t buy into any “system” or “service” that’ll “automate”
anything for you.
You – One of the top offenders are the site owners
themselves as they “test” their own advertisements and click on them. I
have talked (and counseled) more bloggers who have gotten banned because
of this who said something along the lines of:
I was just testing it to see if it was working! What’s wrong with that?
What’s wrong is that you can’t do that!
Friends, Online Groups – Another quick way to get
banned is asking your friends (or family or a social network or online
group) to “test” it out for you with explicit directions to click on the
advertisements. This is a serious no-no and will get you banned quicker
than you can say “Test my ad for me please!”
Any Other Artificial Click – Sometimes you can get
banned because someone or some business might be targeting your website
by accident or intentionally because they are really mad at you. For
example, you piss off your competitor and they come in and click every
single Google Adsense advertisement on your blog 100 times. Yup, you pay
for this and could get banned.
Is that fair? Absolutely not and Google will help you resolve the
situation if it’s truly malicious. The best way is for you to stay
proactive and check your account activity for any irregular clicks or
patterns consistently. Report anything strange, even in the slightest
and you should be good to go.
3. Misleading or Encouraging Your Readers, Visitors to Click Advertisements
Another common way that bloggers get banned is to either mislead
their visitors and readers to click on the advertisements or even
explicitly asking them to either by saying something as direct as
“Please click my banner advertisements on my sidebar!” or perhaps
something a little more tactful (but still not smart) as “Please support
me and my advertisers by clicking on my ads!” or even having a little
text about the advertisements that say “Check these awesome sites out!”
Don’t do it because Google will catch you.
This essentially violates Adsense policies as the end user may not
know that those clicks are on actual advertisements. The only allowed
text above any Adsense ad is “Ads” or “Advertisement.”
Also, you can mislead your users by way of your blog’s design by
putting content super-close to your advertisements or in such a way that
forces them to click on them to move forward in their user experience.
Putting advertisements next to images is also prohibited as this can
“fool” a user in thinking it’s an image while it’s actually an
advertisement.
Here are two examples that are trying to fool a user into clicking the ads:
As you can see the blogger here is trying to mislead their users into clicking on the links and advertisements.
4. Revealing Adsense Data
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve messed up here in the past and
have had to correct some blog posts that contained too much information
that was available publicly.
The Terms and Conditions state explicitly:
You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google’s prior written consent.
“Google Confidential Information” includes without limitation:
(a) all Google software, technology, programming, specifications,
materials, guidelines and documentation relating to the Program;
(b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Property performance in the Program provided to You by Google; and
(c) any other information designated in writing by Google as “Confidential” or an equivalent designation.
However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google’s gross payments to You pursuant to the Program.
I’ve highlighted in bold the important things to
know and you should be careful with any screenshots that you make of any
part of your program or performance. In fact, screenshots aren’t
explicitly stated as being on the “safe” list so if you want to be
ultra-safe and conservative you’ll never post screenshots – up to you!
You can, of course, share how much you make which is always pretty neat!
5. Purchasing Traffic, 3rd Parties
The last area that typically get’s people banned is when they
purchase traffic from other sources. For many of you this might not
apply (ever) but for some of you who are perhaps more advanced in your
use and marketing strategies you need to be careful.
Adsense says that the following may not be done and all warrant a ban by Google:
Use third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as
paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf and click-exchange programs.
Be promoted through unsolicited mass emails or unwanted advertisements on third-party websites.
Display Google ads, search boxes or search results as a result of the actions of software applications such as toolbars.
Be loaded by any software that can trigger pop-ups, redirect users
to unwanted websites, modify browser settings or otherwise interfere
with site navigation. It is your responsibility to ensure that no ad
network or affiliate uses such methods to direct traffic to pages that
contain your AdSense code.
Receive traffic from online advertising unless the site complies with the spirit of Google’s Landing Page Quality Guidelines. For instance, users should easily be able to find what your ad promises.
6 Do Not Post Copyright Product
Pirate Movies, Music, Videos, Software, Nulled Script, which are copyright product , Don't ever thing of posting of that, your Account can be banned anytime
For many of you this might be “greek” and you’ll be fine but it’s
good for you to know and never buy traffic or buy into a program or
service without knowing all of the nitty-gritty details because it might
end up costing you more than you know!
Finally, it’s just a good thing to read and review both the official Google Terms and Conditions as well as the official Adsense Program Policies. Again, don’t cry to me if you get banned and never actually read what you signed up for!
