This is a guest post by Kok Siong. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
About a month ago it was the 28th of April, the day I was preparing for my university final examination, I was surprised with an email from Google Adsense that informed me about my Adsense account had been disabled. At first, I was angry as they disabled my account without mentioned any exact reason. I did nothing wrong. How can they disable it? I started to blame Adsense as a scam program as I have accumulated around $80 in my account! I tried to appeal to Adsense about this. Yet, they rejected my appeal a few days later.
Since that day, I started to calm down and try to search some information about this issue. I referred this issue to my blogging buddy, Lee and I have learnt a lesson as a result of this issue. To live good with Adsense, there are 6 things that we need to give attention.
1) Read, Understand and Familiar with Adsense Program Policies
This is what I never do before my account being disabled. When signing up the Adsense account, I just simply skipped this part. Most probably you did the same as what I did. Actually, we need to read through the policies to ensure that we will not violate any of the policies while applying the Adsense code in all of our sites. We would violate the policies although not meaning to do that if we are not familiar with it.
2) Don’t Tell Others about Our Adsense Account
I think everyone knows that clicking on Google Ads on our own or ask others to do so are strictly prohibited. However, if we tell others about our Adsense account especially our family members and our closest friends, even though we never ask, they might click the ads thinking that they are helping us. On the other hand, some people might purposely click the ads repeatedly so that our account will be disabled. Both circumstances will cause us in trouble and our Adsense account will be disabled because of involving in fraud activity.
3) Be Cautious When Using Google Brand Features
According to Adsense Program Policies, we should not mimic any Google pages in our site. Furthermore, we should not use any Google Brand Features like Google trademarks, logos, webpages or screen shots, without prior permission from Google authority. We should respect Google Brand Features. I have used a favicon that mimicking the Google logos before this. It might be one of the reasons why my account was disabled.
4) Drive Constant Unique Visitors to Our Site
We need to drive constant unique visitors to our site so that Adsense can work well for us. It would be a problem if only the same person from the same IP visits our site each day clicking on the ads. This will become one of the fraud activities that can cause our account disabled by Adsense. I will advise you do not to apply the Adsense code in your website if you do not have more than 100 unique visitors each day.
5) Don’t Overdo On Page Search Engine Optimization
In order to be ranked higher in search engine, I have tried to put many keywords in the content although irrelevant. This is prohibited by Adsense too. Therefore, we should not overdo the on page search engine optimization like placing excessive, repetitive or irrelevant keywords in the content of code of webpages.
6) Don’t Use “Google” in Our Domain
Sometimes, we might expect to get some benefits for using the “Google” word in our domain. However, using the “Google” in domain is prohibited too. We might get banned by Google. My previous domain is treatgoogle.com. There is a “Google” in my domain. I suspected it might be one of the reasons why my Adsense account was disabled.
Summing up, I still believe that Google Adsense is not a scam. If we wish to get benefits from this top CPC program, we need to strictly follow the program policies. I hope that the six things above that I have learnt can help you to live well with Adsense in the future.
Do you have any extra things that we need to know to ensure that our Adsense account will not be disabled? Come and share with us!
About Author :
Kok Siong is the founder of TreatGuides and he writes about blogging guides on his blog.
About Lee Ka Hoong
Yep, pretty much any of those things will get you disabled. Instead of trying to build an “adsense” site like so many marketers are selling, you should try to build a site that has great SEO so you get high ranking. Then, after some time (2-3 weeks or longer ) at the top, slowly add adsense blocks. Probably just one, at the top. That’s really all you need to do.
Tia recently posted..Blog SEO: Page 2 of Google Results in 2 days?
Sorry to hear about your AdSense account being disabled, but this learning experience and you sharing very valuable information with readers will help others. Remember when wanting to AdSense your blog that “Search Engine” traffic is the best type of traffic to a blog that wants to earn from AdSense, (Direct) traffic is typically the same people visiting per day and can lead to these type of issues if you have a very high “direct” traffic and low search engine traffic.
Justin Germino recently posted..Tips to Get Your Web Site Noticed by Advertisers
Hi Justin! Yes, i really learnt a lot from this issue. Search engine traffic is important to make money with Adsense. However, it is not easy to be ranked well in search engine. We need to do a serious keyword research to be ranked higher easily. Thanks for your nice information! :)
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
Not get much with GA in the meantime then I remove all of it from my site. I think I faced problem same as famous guy from Eblogviet. Lee, forget it! You have a lot of things than another guy to achive a new goad…
peterkizumaki recently posted..1001 Ways to Stay Young Naturally [Paperback]
Thanks for your nice advice Tia! I have learnt a lot because of this Adsense account being disabled. I think i will not repeat these mistakes anymore. :)
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
Great lesson! The best lesson from this article is that we should optimize our blog traffic from search engine if we want adsense working great.
Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog recently posted..This Blogging Tips Blog is Officially in Atahualpa 3.5.1 Now
Hi Dana! To make money with Adsense, we should have large constant traffic from search engine. However, do not overdo the on-page optimization as i mentioned above. Or you will be banned from Adsense too. Thanks for leaving a nice comment here! :)
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
Yes I feel that many people purposely click on ads to create trouble to others. But I think some wordpress plugins are there to prevent multiplt clicks from same IP. Getting traffic is the only thing needed to succeed with adsense. All the 6 points are correct. Informative post.
Mukundan Srinivasan recently posted..WordPress Theme Building Tutorials
Hi Mukundan! May i know which plugin you used to prevent the multiple clicks from same IP? Maybe i need to use it in my blog too to prevent the multiple clicks. Thanks for leaving a nice comment here! Hope that you really enjoy this article! :)
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
I read everyday on a forum that ‘my account was disabled’.
There could be many reasons for it. But I think you have summed it up very clearly. I think these are the main reasons for an account being disabled by Google.
People firstly blame google, but then they slowly realise that they might not have followed Google’s policy.
Hi Nabeel! You are absolutely right! I blamed Google at first, but realize my mistakes later. We can live well to make money with Google Adsense if we follow strictly its policy. Hope that you enjoy this article! :)
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
Most of them get banned after getting their adsense a/c. I strongly agree with 1st and 2nd points. Posting some pay-per-click article is also one reason to ban adsense account.
There is one WP plugin is their to prevent showing ads to direct visitors, I think using this plugin can helps.
P.K.ARUN @A Shout recently posted..Work 3 minutes and earn max of $2++ and min of $0.10
Thanks for your extra information for us to ensure our Adsense account will not be disabled! Hope that you enjoy to read this article! :)
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
I never read the Adsense policy before clicking that sign up button. Maybe after what you’ve said, I need to reread it again :)
Mike recently posted..How to change the default number of displayed products per page in product grid
Hi Mike! Yes, you should read through every single Adsense policy if you wish to live well with it. We can simply get banned if we ignore those policies.
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
It’s a shame that Google is not more forgiving with AdSense accounts. Once they are suspicious that someone has violated the rules, they ban that person for life no questions asked. So if you rely on AdSense for site income, it is quite important that you read the rules and follow them as closely as possible. Also avoid making any enemies online as they can easily click away on your ads to cause problems.
You forgot the most important lesson about AdSense….it is not the only way to make money from a site and oftentimes it is not the best.
Hi Jeremy! Nice to meet you here. Thanks for your extra information to ensure Adsense account will not be disabled!
I do agree with you that Adsense should not be the only way to make money from a site. However, in my opinion, it is still the best for a health niche blog. I really make some decent money from it for my cancer blog before my account being disabled.
Anyway, it might not the best for a MMO blog. Hope that you enjoy reading this article! :)
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..Monday Blogging Amoeba – 14/6/2010
That’s hurt. Need to find other people to open AdSense account for you lo.
Hi Jayce! Yes, it’s really hurt! I still have some money in the account. I’m trying to ask someone to help me to open another Adsense account.
Kok Siong @ Blogging Guide recently posted..5 Ways to Attract Free Blog Traffic
Be careful with opening another account as Google will ban that person too if they figure out that it is connected to you.
As for adsense being the best way to make money, think of it this way, those advertisers are willing to pay Google twice as much as Google is paying you. So there is often another way to get that advertiser featured on your site.