“Google Banned my Adsense Account”… Yeah, You’re Screwed

Category : Adsense
Tags : adsense banned me, google banned adsense, lost my adsense account

Thousands of people have the same question: “Google banned my Adsense account but I did nothing wrong… What happened?” Let me tell you what happened and why you’re screwed.

I was talking this past weekend to two acquaintances who both had their Google Adsense accounts banned. When you get your account banned the process is you will get a cryptic email telling you the account is banned and then telling you either a vague reason why, or a vague couple of possible reasons why. What is very frustrating for people is that Google will never tell you exactly what your account got the ban hammer. And if you own white hat websites, you try to build useful sites with unique content and good information you feel like you got sucker punched and there’s nothing you can do about it.

In talking to these two guys I tried asking them about their websites, their Adsense stats and whatever else I could glean from them. I also went onto Google (oh the irony) and searched to find articles, comments, and blog posts about this topic and I came up with a few of the common reasons why your Adsense account got banned. I also learned that almost everyone who tried to dispute this and get their Adsense account back failed without so much as a reply from Google. Oh the hubris Google. If you try to find a contact number or email to talk to someone about your Adsense ban don’t bother. You won’t find anything. In fact, you will go through a loop on the Adsense policy FAQS. They simply won’t talk to anyone one on one about this. And the kick in the balls is that whatever money your Adsense account had earned in the last month that has not been paid out yet, plus the money you’ve earned this month so far… well, neither is coming your way. In the email Google tells you that they are returning the money to the advertisers. Imagine if you did nothing wrong and was waiting on a $10,000 paycheck in the next week and then you are told you aren’t getting that or the $5,000 you’ve earned so far this month. I read one blog post from a guy that this happened to. Google did not pay out the $15k and they did not give him a solid reason why. It must be good to make your own rules and not have to care about anyone else.

So let’s talk about some of the reasons why your Adsense account may have been banned according to my findings.

1. Someone is fraudulently clicking the ads on your site. If this is you than shame on you, you deserve to lose your Adsense account. But if it is not you but a jealous competitor, ex-girlfriend, or that kid you picked on in the 3rd grade than this really sucks for you. You are losing out on money that you earned and did not wrong. Seems like this should not be legal, but then again you agreed to the Adsense terms and conditions and when you check that box you are giving Google 1000% control.

2. You are using MFA (Made for Adsense sites). These are thin 5 page sites which are made specifically by you to try to monetize Adsense. If you provide 5 great articles I don’t have a problem with this but Google still does. Does not seem fair to me but than again, you signed the terms and conditions so you are powerless.

3. You own too many sites. This is either truth or an urban legend (only Google can say) but one of the guys I was talking to this weekend had 300 sites and his belief is that Google doesn’t like that and they banned his account. What makes no sense to me is that if I’m Google, I’d love a guy with 300 sites because that is 300 more opportunities for me to generate revenue. This too many sites claim is very popular among people out there so I’m not sure if this one is fact or fiction.

4. Your click through rate is too high. The second guy I was talking to had amazing click through rate… somewhere in the neighborhood of 25%. The average clickthrough rate is something like 2-3%. When Google sees a high clickthrough rate are they assuming that is must be fraudulent activity? In this guy’s case it was not, he found a niche where the advertisers created very enticing ads that solved a problem for people. He put the ads at the top of his site and at the bottom of his site. When people landed on his site a lot of them clicked the ad at the top right away because the ad drove clicks. In his site he gave good informative articles which were filled with great information, but people wanted a solution, and he could not offer them a solution and so when they finished the article they would click the ad at the bottom of his site. An example of this (don’t want to give away his niche) but if you want to have a mole removed. He would have an article about all the possible treatments to have a mole removed, but he didn’t have a product he was selling and he wasn’t a doctor offering this service, so people clicked the ads because the ads promised a solution. This was a strategy he developed by focusing in on action niches that naturally and organically resulted in clickthroughs and he got the ban hammer as a result. I understand he signed the terms and conditions but at what point does it become too much and someone needs to step up to Google and require some accountability on their end. People are working hard to build an online business and it can all be gone without explanation because Google feels like it.

What is hard for people to swallow is after they get the Adsense account ban there is not great alternative that they can easily switch to in order to monetize their site. The other ad companies like Google are very weak. Amazon or Commission Junction are much harder to integrate through a site to maximize effectiveness and those are only product or service driven and a much smaller variety, and trying to sell ad blocks on your site is a challenge in and of itself unless you have a very popular site.

I also read a blog article about a popular website owner who got banned and Matt Cutts even heard about this and commented that it was a shame. Come to find out a few weeks later his Adsense account is reinstated and his site is serving ads again. I guess if you have some clout than Google will take a look into your issue… I guess for the 99% of us that fall outside this than we are all screwed if Google decides to rain on our parade.

Some people create a new Adsense account. Not sure this is the best move out there. If Google finds out you made another one you will get a quick exit stage left from them. Also, it is pretty big footprint if you are placing Adsense on all the sites that were linked to your other account. But to each is own so if you give this a shot than I wish you well.

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Comments

Xello
Google just banned my account 🙁 The reason why i got banned is because in one of my article, there are links from hosting company but it wasn’t my fault 🙁 The links are given by the company (online game) in press release. They upload the client game to hosting company to avoid huge traffic from their user, so their user have more option to download the game (mirror link).
I explained this to google and also removed all the links. But from your posting, seems like i have no hope about that 🙁
I also read a blogger testimonial about her account got banned. She got email from google about invalid click which she didn’t. Someone who jealous to her site might be do it. But how come google have no option or security or something else to track.
— Reply
- Chris
  Xello – if Google decides to ban your Adsense account they either will completely ban it, or they will give you the option to appeal the ban. I would guess that the majority of appeals are denied. If someone is jealous and clickbombed you then you are screwed. Google does not care to help the little guy. If you were pullling in $XX,XXX per day in Adsense then they would look further into it. I would recommend trying to find a CPA offer to use instead of Google. When I was running Adsense on a site once I noticed that the same ad kept constantly appearing. When my Adsense account got banned (for invalid clicks which is bullshit) I contacted the company that was running the Adsense ads and worked out a deal directly with them on a CPA basis, and I actually make 50% more than I was earning with Adsense on that site.
  — Reply
Jp
Wow, nice article. Yeah, keep happening to me, this is my 3rd time getting banned from Adsense. I, 1st, mixing my Adwords campaign, targetting to my frontpage which had Adsense on it, and then it got banned. 2nd time and 3rd time, I didn’t do anything, Adsense banned me, for no obvious reason.
I think after one account got banned, the newly created account would be automatically be banned, because of the blacklist data checking whatever they did.
Do you have any reference any good way to make money from internet beside Adsense?
— Reply
- Chris
  JP – read through Anticareer.com. There are different ways/methods/etc… on how to make money online. You can use CPA companies, revenue share offers, sell ad space, etc…
  — Reply
veyron1995
heyy ,,,u can actually make new account ….with google adsense…i know it because i made it myself after my account got banned for invalid cliks..
— Reply
Samar Anand
I have been one of the victim of the same. Some Exfriend of mine has clicked fraud on my blog to ban the account.
What should be done now?
— Reply
Yingtong Li
‘so people clicked the ads because the ads promised a solution’
*ahem*
‘publishers participating in the AdSense program may not … format site content so that it is difficult to distinguish it from ads’
–AdSense program policies
— Reply
- Chris
  Yingtong – I am not saying to trick people into thinking the ad is not an ad. People will know it is an ad. What I am saying is that you could intentionally make an article about a topic but leave out the solution to that topic, and the ads that get displayed are offering a solution so people will click on the ads. An example… “how to get rid of moles”. Make an article all about what moles are, why you should get rid of them, etc… but don’t answer how precisely to get rid of them. The ads that get displayed (if you use the right keywords within your article) will offer mole removal solutions and your clickthrough rate will be increased because of it.
  — Reply
whats the point.
yeap. Just got adsense banned.
Everytime I heard of someone being banned, i figured they had breached the rules. And now its my turn, I am just in shock, as this was something beyond my control and nothing to do with anything that I had done.
What sucks is that unlike others who are scammers and get $10k checks, I have been with adsense for 2 years and never once received money. There is nothing suspicious about my sites, or advertising methods, and now that I am only a few months away (revenue wise) from reaching the minimum threashold to receive payout, I am banned with no reason.
Just goes to show, that if you work hard, pay $$$$ for unique content, and are legit (and not a scammer / spammer) that you will not be rewarded for your efforts.
— Reply
- lets agree
  I totally agree with you . i had the same situation too.
  But Lets all agree that we cant do anything about this . I had my account banned few days ago for no reason whatsoever . I run few blogs and i have 5 writers uploading unique content to the sites daily . And still , Google want happy about it . No one knows what they want . I wish if Yahoo can get bigger than Google and take over the online search , and kick Google on the side .
  — Reply
Mobile rick
Google banned my account for apparent “invalid click activity”
Now all i know is that i would never do something as stupid as click my own ads or do anything dumb enough to get my account banned “and anyone who thinks they would get away with it is just plain delusional”
I appealed the decision and got knocked back, but frankly i couldn’t give two hoots as adsense pay rubbish money anyway and i think they are just a corrupt bunch of bully boys on the block with one massive superiority complex thats going to come back and bite them on there dishonest little behinds one day …and when that day happens i will be up front and center with my pitch fork and straw torch with the rest of the lynch mob
I did abit of research after my adsense account was banned and it seems Google have truly become too big for their boots, they feel they have no need for any real explanation, everyone is guilty whether they truly are or not ..There is purely no accountability or transparency forced on these guys what so ever
The BBB and other internet watch dogs crap there pants at the mere mention of Google so these authorities are useless too us
Google can just do as they please by the looks of it, and personally when the day comes that Google falls, and history as well as karma dictates that that day will come one of these days ..I for one will be laughing the loudest and heckling the hardest when that day finally does come ..even if it takes the rest of my life to wait for that day it will be worth it.
Now I am not going to try and convince you that I did nothing wrong as it would be pointless as I don’t even know what I did wrong myself. If you knew me you would know that I am the kind of person who follows rules with a blind commitment as I have the good sense knowing that their are people out there much clever than I am that know if you are actually doing wrong or not ..But it seems even if you don’t purposely do wrong it makes no difference, you still get banned.. Ainsi soit-il, that’s life
anyway i am over it and there are some very good alternatives out there that are hot on the heels of those “Froogle azzsenses”
good riddance to bad rubbish
My site is finally free!
#justified rant over# 🙂
— Reply
Jo
“Someone is fraudulently clicking the ads on your site. If this is you than shame on you, you deserve to lose your Adsense account. But if it is not you but a jealous competitor, ex-girlfriend, or that kid you picked on in the 3rd grade than this really sucks for you. You are losing out on money that you earned and did not wrong. Seems like this should not be legal”
It ISNT legal for the person doing this to the AdSense account owner and Google should know better than to ban the account. Instead, they should go after the happy clicker and prosecute them for fraud. Yes, even if they didnt sign an agreement with Google. Fraud is crime is fraud is crime. I dont need to say any more than that.
— Reply
Dave
Ok so this can be a problem. How do you minimise it so that if it happens it doesn’t kill your whole business?
— Reply
- Chris
  A few ways, 1. Have a second Adsense account set up and on hand. 2. Have a backup way to monetize the site 3. Have other monetization methods mixed into the site already. Some good alternatives that could be considered: Amazon Associates program, Ebay Partner Network, CPA firms like Commission Junction, Media.net ad platform, etc…
  — Reply