I was browsing the affiliate marketing forums last night and saw several new post about people who got their Google Adsense accounts banned. I see these types of post all the time and it leaves me scratching my head. It’s not difficult to follow the Google Adsense Terms Of Service.
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
Group #1 is understandable and most of them know the risk. There is no excuse for Group #2. It’s your responsibility as a Google Adsense Publisher to know the Google Adsense Terms Of Service (TOS).
Here’s 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.
Update: Although not the reason I originally wrote this article, I decided to include it in eMom’s Group Writing Project, go and check it out, you’ll find a whole host of great articles.
If you’re like most of us, you want to know how to make the most money from Google Adsense, I can’t recommend the book “Google AdSense Secrets – 3rd Edition” enough. The tips and tactics I learned from this book helped my Adsense earnings increase far more than I thought they ever could. Give it a try, I know you’ll find it profitable.
Once you have the book, use an Adsense Ready Theme from my list and you’re on your way to creating wealth through the Google Adsense system.
28 responses so far ↓
1 Taylor
It always amazes me the people who don’t read the TOS and then are blown away when their accounts are cancelled. I can’t excuse the people trying to manipulate the system for their own benefit, but at least they are not ignorant.
Luckily there are other ways to monetize, if you’re one of those banned from adsense. There’s a conference coming up in November in Vegas called Postiecon where the pro bloggers are going to share their tips on how to most efficiently monetize your blog. Worth checking out, its totally free and could be quite interesting.
2 Jennifer
You forgot one that I know of: Use materials copyrighted to someone else on your site and get reported by the copyright owner.
3 FYI
Adwords isn’t that great either. You might want to read this first “Why Google Adwords is Not Helpful to Small Business” http://smartstartup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/a-fable-doing-b.html
4 admin
Hey FYI,
Whether or not Adwords is helpful to a small biz probably depends on what the small biz is about. I know it helped me leap frog over my competition until my website reached the top 3 Google SERPS. It made a huge difference many weeks whether or not I had any work. Of course, being a real estate related company, many users go to the web to find us.
I’m not sure if Adwords would have been as successful for us if I’d opened a Feed Store.
Don
5 Rex
I looked through your site and
I really enjoyed it. You have a great thing going.
Now if I could only get up to $50 on Adsense I could retire.
6 Shelli
I don’t use any ads on my blogs because blogging for me is therapy not income, but I really liked this post. It was very well written, clear, interesting and informative. Thanks for this.
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8 Ad Tracker
The confidentiality part is a pain for my site but the TOS really are pretty straightforward. I’m still amased at some of the sites I see out there that are still up eve after the crackdown.
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19 Wayne
Google Horror Stories are far too common and I myself finally succumbed to the google monster and had my adsense account closed as well. I believe that Google looks at us small advertisers and publishers as expendable, so they treat us like crap. Because I belive that all advertisers and publishers should be treated with respect regardless of how big or small we all, I have started http://www.googlehorrorstories.net. This site is designed to allow all advertisers and publishers a place where their voices can be heard in the hope to effect positive change at Google. Please feel free to signup and write you google horror story article..
20 Charles
I got the Google Adsense beatdown some time ago after not having done any of the banned items in the TOS. What I think happened is someone in Europe decided to click the hell out of the ads so I could get banned. The trouble with Google is that you cannot get to a live body to find out just what happened.
If you want to hurt your competition, just click their ads over and over.
21 Imran
I love google adsense. It is a great way to earn money online. I am from Pakistan and my earning is too low though my clicks are in thousands per day. Yet due to less paying keywords i don’t earn too much. Yet I love google adsense as its an online business which every can do.
Cheaters should be blocked and i think google adsense script is strong enough to catch every theft. and also google don’t pays you, its the advertisers who pay you , why people don’t understand this ?
22 Steve Ballmer
You can get other sites banned from making Adwords profits by doing these things on their site. There’s always a way to fuck with google whether it’s making money for yourself or screwing over other sites. Salt the earth!
23 Dana
ohh man you just saved my life! xD i was thinking of asking people to click on my adsense in exchange for finding them free softwares and games online xP i didnt really read google adsense Terms Of Service soo thanks alot for putting this in the simpest way
you know what i’ll post a blog about your blog just for saving me 
24 Kovacs
Our site got banned (but not my account). No warnings from Google, no information that we were banned, no way to follow up. They even closed our search engine.
We had been using AdSense forever (at least 4-5 years IIRC) and now we need to find alternative and more ugly banners. It’s a sad thing that Google has decided to be so die-hard against well-meaning publishers.
25 Ed Castillo
What is your opinion regarding a site with this name.
I contacted Googles legal department and received no response, I also contacted Harvard University and also received no response, any Comments would be appreciated.
26 Julio
I just passed this post to someone asking people to click on their adsense ads.
Good post thank you for posting it.
27 Hamish
Great post. It really is sad to see people on forums who are obviously upset after having their adsense account shut down. They really get quite emotional and the sense of injustice is palpable.
I’ve had an Adsense account for years now and never had any problems. Possibly because I don’t make that much money off it (I stopped Adsense in favour of aff marketing some time ago – more profit I think).
28 Len
I find that you are wrong in the types of people using google accounts. You type people as those who read and abide by the rules and those who do not read the rules at all.
There is also another TYPE of user. The type who read and abide by the rules but are sabotaged by outside influences.
In my case I have been using google for more than 4 years with no problems. Just recently I tried to open my account and found a message stating that my account had been disabled due to invalid clicks. They also said to check to see if they had sent an email, which I did and, no, they did not send an email. Yes, I did check the spam bucket, deleted mail and every other place but they did not send an email. If they had why would they ask me to look for it, shouldn’t they know if they sent it?
There have been no invalid clicks on this account. If they are really checking like they say then they should be able to see that the number of visitors is under 100 per day meaning the number of acctual clicks is under 100 in about 3 months. How can this result in invalid clicks. This site is a free information site not just for a profit.
I recently joined a site reviewing group who review and criticize other sites and other sites view and criticize mine without clicking on adsense ads. Is this is considered invalid clicks?
I have tried every way I can think of to contact google to see what their problem is but google does not have the balls to include any way of contact. Are they afraid of us?
If they keep throwing people off soon there will be no one interested in working with them.