Wednesday 20 November 2013

AdSense policies: a beginner's guide

We hope that all publishers participating in AdSense have a long and successful partnership with Google. For that to happen, it’s important that you familiarize yourself with the AdSense program policies. The more you know about our policies, the more likely it is that all sites and pages where you display Google ads will fully comply with these policies.
To get you started, we’ve highlighted some of the most important and commonly violated policies below. These simple rules aren't a comprehensive list of our policies, but following them will help keep your account in good standing:

Clicks and impressions

Our specialists carefully monitor clicks and impressions on Google ads, using both automated systems and human reviews, in order to protect your interests and those of our advertisers. We do this so that we can protect our advertisers from artificially inflated costs. Here are some ways you can help ensure that your sites provide the highest quality traffic possible.
  • Don't click on your own Google ads.
    If you'd like more information about one of the advertisers appearing on your site, please type the URL of the ad directly into your browser's address bar.
     
  • Don't ask anyone to click on your Google ads.
    Encouraging users to click on your Google ads is strictly prohibited -- whether directly or indirectly, on your own site, on third-party sites, or via email. Users should always click on Google ads because they're interested in the services being advertised, not to raise money for your site or for a cause, or to generate some sort of reward for themselves.
     
  • Choose the location for your ads carefully.
    Publishers should never use tricks or deceptive practices in order to trigger accidental clicks on ads. Make sure that your ads are well-placed on your site, away from interactive elements, do not mimic the surrounding content and are not placed under misleading headings.
    • Maintain adequate space between the ads and the page controls. For example, on site with games, try to avoid placing ads too close to the game controls. We generally recommend a minimum distance of 150 pixels between the flash player and the ad.
    • Please don't place content ads on interstitial pages, game interfaces, or sites with streaming videos. If you'd like to earn from your video-streaming or game interface by overlaying, in-stream, or interstitial placements, please check out AdSense for videos and AdSense for games.

     
  • Be aware of how your site is promoted.
    Publishers need to be very careful when purchasing traffic or setting up ad campaigns with third parties. Before contracting with any ad network, you should ensure that they will never display your site in pop-ups or as a result of the actions of any software application. Please also keep in mind that publishers using online advertising of any kind must comply Google's Landing Page Quality Guidelines.
     
  • Use Google Analytics.
    If you're not yet using Google Analytics, we encourage you to install it to better understand and optimize your site traffic. Knowing where your traffic comes from goes a long way in getting the most from your site. Learn more about Analytics on their site. Or, watch helpful videos on the Analytics YouTube channel.
     

Content guidelines

Publishers are responsible for the content on every page displaying their ads, even if the content was created by someone else, such as on sites with user-generated content.
  • Content restrictions apply to pages/sites displaying Google ads.
    Google ads may not be displayed alongside any type of content prohibited by our program policies, including adult or maturecopyrightedviolent, or hateful content. It's your responsibility to ensure that all of your pages adhere to these policies.
     
  • Create sites with unique and relevant content.
    Google will take action against domains that don’t add any value to users. Familiarizing yourself with Google's Webmaster Guidelines will introduce you to some best practices of successful publishers, including:
    • Focus on relevant and concise content, since placing excessive, repetitive or irrelevant keywords in the content or code of web pages will not be allowed.
    • Avoid using hidden text or hidden links within your site’s webpages.

Ad implementation

Once the code is created in your account it shouldn’t be altered or placed anywhere that violates AdSense policies such as in pop-ups, in software, or on sites that mimic Google.
  • Don't tamper with the AdSense code.
    Once you've generated your code, we ask that you do not alter any portion of the code or change the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason, unless specifically authorized to do so by Google.
     
  • Don't use pop-up prompts or automatic software installations. 
    Google is dedicated to improving the user experience on the Internet, and promoting responsible software principles is part of that effort. Sites showing Google ads may not prompt users to install software on their machines. Publishers must also not attempt to change users' browser home pages automatically or via pop-up prompts.
     
  • Respect Google trademarks.
    Framing or mimicking Google pages is strictly prohibited by our Guidelines for Use of Google Brand Features. In addition, publishers may not use any Google Brand Features such as Google trademarks, logos, webpages, or screenshots, without prior consent from Google.

Disabled ads or account:

In the event that we ever disable ads to either your site or to your account, the only way to get your ads re-enabled is to carefully read the notification email and to be responsive to our requests.
  • Be responsive.
    In case we ever need to contact you about your account, make sure to keep the email address associated with your account up-to-date. Publishers are asked to carefully read emails sent by the AdSense team and to be responsive to our requests. However, being responsive does not mean that you need to write in to us. If we notify you about problems on one site, please also take the time to clean up any other pages or sites to ensure that your entire network of sites complies with all AdSense policies.
We constantly review publishers for compliance with AdSense program policies and rules noted above. If you believe a site showing ads is in violation of these policies, please let us know.


Stay compliant with our policies

To participate in AdSense and to keep your account in good standing, you'll need to learn and follow our program policies. We've highlighted a few policies below, but this is only a brief overview, so make sure you read the full list of policies.
  1. Don't click on your own ads.
  2. Don't ask others to click on your ads.
  3. Don't include any prohibited site content, including adult content, violence or excessive profanity, drugs (including alcohol and tobacco), or copyrighted material.
  4. Don't modify the AdSense code.
  5. Do follow our Webmaster Quality Guidelines.
  6. Do provide a good user experience.
  7. Don't place more than 3 ad units, 3 link units, and 2 search boxes on any page.
  8. Don't place images near ads in a way that may mislead users into thinking that the images are associated with the ads.
If you're ever concerned that you might be violating policies, there's no need to email us to ask. We're constantly monitoring sites displaying the AdSense code and will contact you if we notice any issues with the way you've implemented the ads.
You can also help us maintain the quality of the AdSense network by sending us a report if you happen to notice a site that is violating Google AdSense program policies.

Webmaster quality guidelines

In order to ensure a good experience for users and advertisers, publishers participating in the AdSense program are required to adhere to the webmaster quality guidelines. These guidelines provide many tips for creating sites that help Google find, index, and rank your site. In general, following these tips will help you to provide a positive experience for your users. The guidelines are quite extensive so we’ve highlighted some important information below:
Please keep in mind that participation in AdSense doesn't affect a site's rank in Google search results and won't queue its webpages for crawling by our main index bots. Publishers wishing to improve their ranking in the search results should visit our Webmaster Central and Webmaster Tools, which are available to all publishers.
Sites that don't meet these guidelines may be removed from the search index and have AdSense ads disabled. If this has happened to one of your sites, you can modify your site so that it does comply with the guidelines and then submit your site for reconsideration.
To learn more about protecting your site content, read our Inside AdSense blog post.

How AdSense policies are enforced

All publishers are reviewed for policy compliance when they submit their application. Also, we actively monitor sites in Google AdSense to check for continued compliance with our policies. If we find sites that do not comply with our policies orTerms and Conditions, we will suspend or disable the accounts. In some cases, payment for clicks may be refused.

Deductions from earnings FAQs

Your earnings may include deductions for various reasons. Google may adjust your earnings if it detects invalid click activity in your account or ad implementations that are not in compliance with AdSense policy. We encourage you to review thepolicy and traffic quality guidelines to learn more.
Here are some answers to questions you may have about the deductions you notice in your account:
  • Why were my earnings deducted..??
Your earnings were deducted either for invalid click activity or for activity that was not in compliance with Google policies. Google periodically reviews publisher accounts for such activity. When we find such activity in your account, we adjust your earnings and reimburse the advertisers who paid for these clicks.
  • I'd like to appeal the deduction.Can I do so..??
Unfortunately you can't appeal the deduction. Please be assured that we have applied due diligence in reviewing the traffic in your account. As mentioned, a deduction is issued only when we find invalid clicks in your account or when we find activity that's not in compliance with Google policy.
  • I notices thay my finalized earnings are different from my estimated earnings. Why would I receive an additional deduction..??
The estimated earnings you see in your account give you a close estimate of recent account activity as and when traffic is accrued in your account. The finalized earnings on the other hand include all revenue you'll be paid for validated clicks and impressions. On some occasions, Google may notice that activity you've already been paid for is invalid or not in compliance with Google policy. In such cases, Google posts an adjustment to your account in the form of a deduction. Find out more about understanding your AdSense earnings better or the difference between estimated and finalized earnings.
  • What was the date range for this deduction..??
We're unable to provide the date range for which your adjustment was issued. Note that per our Terms and Conditions, we credit advertisers for invalid traffic accrued 60 days prior to the date of investigation. Once we complete our investigation and begin processing the credits, it may take up to 30 days for the credits to appear in your account.
  • Can I get more details on the deduction? Which are the channels and domains that resulted in this deduction..??
To maintain the integrity of our invalid activity detection system and to prevent users from circumventing the system, we aren’t able to provide details on what activity we noticed in your account. We suggest you review the policy and traffic quality guidelines FAQ to learn more.

  • How can I prevent this from happening again..??
We encourage publishers to continuously monitor their AdSense accounts for potential signs of invalid click activity. It's important for you to know where your traffic comes from. We understand the need to have ad campaigns to promote your website, but it's equally important to monitor what kind of traffic these promotions generate. To do this successfully we recommend monitoring the traffic driven to your site using a web analytics tool like Google Analytics. You can also try segmenting your traffic into channels and monitoring the traffic from these channels.

  • What should I suspect invalid activity..??
 do if I If you notice any suspicious activity in your account, you can notify us using our online form. Please share as detailed information as possible via the form. Note that we'll keep this information in our records, but we may not respond unless we find a significant issue with your account.

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