New Adsense ad got rejected for pops - now site traffic down... hmm

New Adsense user got rejected for pops - now site traffic down

[Ed_Gilmour]

I operate a site that has always had a pop up upon a new user's page view. The site has been sitting on a PR of 5 and has been for months (and still does).

Meanwhile, I opened a little adsense acct to test a campaign and got rejected for pops...which is fine.

Then at the same moment of rejection, my organic traffic is at 50% of norm. I checked error logs, with nothing appearing unusual. I think it's by Google natural traffic that has dropped off.

Any chance the adsense team nicked my natural search ranks somehow and it has yet to appear on the Google Bar PR rank? Any suggestions or thoughts would help.

[richmondsteve]

In addition to your error logs, check your regular web server logs to compare referrals from Google to historical referral levels. Perhaps someone reported your AdSense Terms and Conditions violation (pop-unders) to the AdSense team who passed it on to the Google SE team, who flagged your site for pop-unders, resulting in lower SERP positioning. But there are many explanations and factors that can result in lower traffic. You need to isolate the cause by investigating a change in Google referrals and Google SERP positioning. After you report back the % change in referrals and findings about SERP position changes there will be more reason to discuss.

[mike schmitz]

Regardless if your events are connected, popups are the scourge of the internet. You will have better karma if you don't annoy your user base.

M

[JohnKelly]

I believe pop-unders are allowed by the TOS?

[richmondsteve]

JohnKelly wrote:

I believe pop-unders are allowed by the TOS?

I was wrong early when I said they aren't permitted per the AdSense Terms and Conditions. They're actually covered in the Google AdSense Program Policies [google.com], not the T&C.

Under the section "Ad Placement":

"No AdWords ads or Google search box may be displayed on any domain parking websites, pop-ups, pop-unders, error, registration, or "thank you" pages, or in any email."

Under the section "Site Content"

"Site may not include:...Pop-ups, pop-unders or exit windows that interfere with site navigation, obscure AdWords ads, change user preferences, or are for downloads. Other types of pop-ups, pop-unders, or exit windows may be allowed, provided that they do not exceed a combined total of 5 per user session"

So it appears that pop-unders are permitted, but with restrictions. Ed_Gilmour, did your pop-unders violate the policies above? In any case, my original point was that he needs to analyze data to determine if Google organic referrals have really dropped significantly, though that won't confirm that it's related to the AdSense rejection.

[Jenstar]

Ed_Gilmour, are you referring to AdWords (you pay Google to advertise via PPC) or AdSense (Google pays you to display their AdWords ads)?