A perfect example of a site that should be banned

Content compiled from other sites

[beggers]

<snip>

Obviously this guy spiders sites, picks up random bits of text from their pages, and then compiles all this junk into new pages. Note that the domain name is "<snip>" and yet this page is about "<snip>". Kinda hard to figure out how they are related, isn't it?

Clearly, this particular site exists solely to spam the search engines with our content -- and defraud AdSense. I'd like to hear anyone explain why this person shouldn't be banned from AdSense.

<snip>

[edited by: Jenstar at 8:22 pm (utc) on June 7, 2004]
[edit reason] No specifics, no URLs as per TOS [/edit]

[eWhisper]

Might want to delink the URL - the mods will probably delete it soon.

[ncw164x]

It should be banned, it is against the google TOS to have adsense on a gambling or gambling related site.

<added> it has a nice site map which may be of interest to someone from google as well </added>

ncw164x

[edited by: ncw164x at 8:21 pm (utc) on June 7, 2004]

[loanuniverse]

The link will be snipped, and yes that is one of those directories that scrapes content from other sites. The problem is that the site is not running adsense so it is not really related to the topic of the board. This falls more into a search engine board than here. These types of sites running adsense are the ones that upset me, specially when it is my content the one that they are scrapping.

[dhatz]

Clearly, this particular site exists solely to spam the search engines with our content -- and defraud AdSense. I'd like to hear anyone explain why this person shouldn't be banned from AdSense.

If you read previous threads, you'll find many people think they should be banned.

Search for the infamous "phony/spammy directories" (for lack of a better term afaik)

They exist in all sectors and the sad thing is that they often rank well in Google.

[beggers]

LoanUniverse, the site IS running AdSense. An ad appears at the top and I checked the code:

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

[richmondsteve]

loanuniverse wrote:

<snip>the site is not running adsense</snip>

I see AdSense on the page mentioned in the first post and on other pages I check.

[deejay]

So why dont you use the link on the ads and report the site to Google? See what they do about it.

I've found much worse examples of scraped SERP results (with urls removed or replaced with the site's own homepage) with adsense on them. Found in the normal course of searching - they ticked me off as a user, I reported them, they weren't there the next day.

[beggers]

<snip>
In any case, I submitted the offending site to Google, although frankly I think it's a losing battle. Has any site like this ever been banned from AdSense?

[edited by: Jenstar at 8:31 pm (utc) on June 7, 2004]
[edit reason] No moderation comments, please check stickymail [/edit]

[Jenstar]

Many publishers have been suspended for content-related reasons, or been told to remove AdSense from specific pages due to inappropriate content, not enough content, etc.

It isn't a new problem, but it is becoming less and less common. There were a lot more of these types of sites running AdSense last year until they did their big quality checker clean-up. More on their big clean-up here. [webmasterworld.com]

[ogletree]

Sites get banned from adsense all the time they are quite good about it. They will still rank in Google but that domain will be banned from adsense. If you turn them in they will look at it and give them a chance to fix and then ban if it is not fixed. It won't happen tomorrow it might even take a little while. All you can do is stop them from making money from adsense. They can put up other advertising programs.

[donstar]

I agree with Marcia.
It is good adsense is warning such sites.

I have just been shown an SEO's site which has EXACTLY duplicated probably hundred's of sites using a website copier programme.

They then add their own logo. Then To gain higher ranking on search engines, they take hidden links from Government sites to their own sites. What do you call such people? These people are stealing hard work of others & risking duplicate penalties for those sites. It is also called spamming.

More here

[webmasterworld.com...]

[whizkiddo]

how about sites like that have 30 lines of text, and 6-7 dynamic names which allow the web master to create about 1000 pages. this fellow has absolutely no content. but manages to get traffic because he has used some good seo techniques. however the page is designed in such a way that the user gets no information at all and generally just clicks on the adsense ads which are displayed boldly in the centre of the page.

It hurts especially when I spend a whole day generating about 4 pages of content on sam etopic and this guy does this. Can I / Should I do anything about it?

[beggers]

True, that guy ran a simple program with a few lines of code and is probably making a lot of money from AdSense. The question is: Are we smart because we're spending a huge amount of time making "real" content, or is he smart because he spent a few minutes and AdSense considers his site "real" content anyway?

After today I'm not sure anymore.

He's still not banned at the time of this posting, so if scraping sites are okay with AdSense, bring on some tools so we can have a fair fight! Who's the local expert on this subject?

[kwngian]

There is another of similiar outfit that bids 3 cts for your adsense customers and then lead them to the same directory page with adsense ads all over the page.

Seems like it is also important to know who's ads you are displaying on your content pages.

[tombola]

I believe that Google bans only sites when they receive complaints from advertisers, not from publishers.

[4eyes]

I believe that Google bans only sites when they receive complaints from advertisers, not from publishers.

This is untrue. They also ban sites when they get complaints from customers (ie punters using the Search Engine)

[Macro]

Will someone put some *** in the name and post the domain? Threads like this become increasingly useless as they get longer if people don't know what site the original post was about.

So how about someone in the know posting a w*w.*site dot com?

[dhatz]

Will someone put some *** in the name and post the domain? Threads like this become increasingly useless as they get longer if people don't know what site the original post was about.

I visited the site but didn't keep the URL.

Just a spammy/phony "directory", like all the others. It's a copy-n-paste of Google's SERPs (with formatting, ie bolded keywords).

SEO'd ie keyword everywhere. Covering many high EPC keywords (mortgage, hosting, pharma etc) via different pages, interlinked via sitemap.html

I think real "content publishers" have a big incentive to clean the Adsense network of those sites. Maybe a bigger incentive than advertisers.

Because advertisers can simply opt-out of the entire content network.

I notice big swings in number of advertisers on the same subject from week to week (not in competitive sectors of the Web, but in competitive sectors of the real economy).