Google AdSense ad serving has been disabled

Not what you want in your inbox...

[m0thman]

I received one of these emails tonight. My site covers a wide variety of topics and has user forums. As it happens the URL they gave me was a visitor post that hadn't been caught by the filters or picked up manually. The page in question was perhaps borderline and did attract some stupid comments but the question is, how can you be sure that there isn't something else lurking out there that will get you into trouble one day. With thousands of comments posted every week it's difficult to catch them all and the 'mature content' thing is quite a grey area. For example, is talking about alcohol free beer a mature subject?

I've been in the AdSense business since about 2005 and always tried to make sure things are clean and this time I got burnt. Interestingly enough, ad serving hasn't been disabled site wide yet - perhaps that takes time to kick in. Anyway I've completely removed the page and all related comments and can't think of anything else that might be a problem. Here's hoping.... I'd hate to have to get a 9-5 again.

[Lame_Wolf]

...but the question is, how can you be sure that there isn't something else lurking out there that will get you into trouble one day.

By only having adsense on pages that you control the content on.
Once you have it on user generated pages, expect the worse.

[m0thman]

Yeah, that's an excuse for an overhaul. I wonder how visitors would feel about being deflected to a separate page to comment on the article they were reading. I'd (probably) be safe then, but would no doubt take a traffic hit. I noticed a while back when I made a change that involved stripping visitor comments out that it had an affect. When there's a buzz about the subject and it's on the page it's good overall, but as you say.... to be safe.

The page in question was perhaps risky and I'd toned it down and monitored it in the past but obviously not enough. As far as I'm aware in a 1000 or so pages it's the only one that could have been a problem, but as I'm sure many have felt.. I'm paranoid now because this is my living.

[m0thman]

Any idea why ad serving hasn't been disabled as promised in the email?

[Captaffy]

My experience is that it takes a while (more than a day in my case) for the ads to stop serving.

It then takes even longer for them to recognize that you have fixed the problem.

In my case it went like this-
- Received notice to fix problem within 48 hours or else ads would be disabled on the site
- I fixed the problem within 24 hours
- Received notice saying I did not fix the problem and that ads would be disabled
- Ads disabled over a day later
- A few days (maybe a week) after that, notice that they see I fixed the problem and that ads would be enabled
- About a day later ads were enabled again

[edited by: Captaffy at 1:39 am (utc) on Aug 5, 2010]

[m0thman]

Crap... let's hope that the reinstatement process is quicker then.

[Captaffy]

My site doesn't make any money, so I can understand Google not really caring. If it was my one site that does make money I would hope they would be faster about these things.

[m0thman]

Well ads still there, but it's like waiting for the axe to fall. It's also a matter of pride. I'm gutted that this happened.

[HuskyPup]

No doubt I am going to get some some flack over this but it pi$$e$ me off hugely that Google feel they are the moral guardian$ of the Internet...American pseudo church style!

They now have many dubious practices and allegiances yet seem to get away with them all AND continue to serve adult related ads on specific sites.

Do no evil means nothing to them, their mantra is do as we say where and when we dictate.

And I ain't ducking, they're now like the Hydra, chop them off at one point and two even more evil heads grow.

[Lame_Wolf]

Google has been acting in a rather strange way lately. I have seen sites that have been allowed back into the adsense program, after they were committing fraud.

[m0thman]

Looks like they've finally disabled the ads, nearly 24hrs later. I'm currently putting on some adbrite ads as I can't go days/weeks without any income - apparently Google takes that long to sort things out. I've already done the work to rectify the problem but had no response. Very disheartened by all this.

[m0thman]

For the first time in five years I'm not feeling the Google love today. For what appears on the surface to be a minor infraction (which I have corrected very rapidly) I have been heavily penalised and there's very little communication - actually, apart from that email none at all!

This is a very different picture to the one painted by the guys at Google when I was lucky enough to visit the offices in London a couple of months ago. I believe there were around 60-80 fellow UK publishers up there that day and we were made to feel warm and important to Google's business. I guess we were just numbers with a "pub-" in front of us after all.

Sorry for being so glum :-/

[ron15]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. Certainly every Adsense publishers worst nightmare. Please keep us updated on your progress.

I'm wondering, do you have other sites, and if so, are they still displaying ads?

Let us know how Adbrite does compared to Adsense. Thanks.

[m0thman]

I have one other site and a page on another domain. They're still serving ads. Will keep you posted on AdBrite, no ads yet though.

[Captaffy]

My experience suggested that the entire thing was automated.

There is a form somewhere in the Adsense help pages you can submit to say that you have fixed the problem, which I did (after the automated system said the problem had still not been fixed). That may have led to the site being approved again, or not. I really couldn't say.

[m0thman]

Still waiting on Google to get back to me. Using AdBrite has been pretty disappointing, but there again compared to AdSense I expected that. Might look around and see what else there is, anyone got any suggestions?

[onepointone]

On most of my sites affiliate ads or direct advertising always outperforms adsense. of course they require a bit more babysitting.

But I would just sit tight & hope for the best if adsense is your proven moneymaker.

[m0thman]

Still waiting on Google Adsense to get back to me as my reports shows a fairly flat line. Unfortunately there's no way to call in a crash cart and jump start my income again. Have to just wait I guess.

Tried AdBrite, pretty poor. Used amazon affiliate ads but finding their contextual widgets not particularly contextual, there again I think they are best suited to particular types of pages. Also in the process of trying something called Ad dynamo and whilst the ads look nice they're not very well targeted at all (as bad as the rest really) so not making anything.

It's all quite frustrating and I guess it's highlighted just how lucky I was with Adsense

[m0thman]

Has anyone got any idea how long it takes to get this back up again?

Seriously, fixed the problem in under an hour and nearly two weeks later still haven't heard a thing. Not even a "we received your request" type of email. That at least would have been nice. Who knows if somewhere along the line the form didn't submit and my "communication" didn't get received! Personally I always strive to reply to communication because it's rude not to.

I'm banging on about this because it's loosing hundreds of pounds a week for myself, a big inconvenience. I'm the kind of person who likes to fix stuff - make it right, but obviously that's not important! Presumably Google has enough money to afford loosing a cut of my earnings, on the other hand it's something I can ill afford considering the current economic climate.

You know that "we got your message" email would have gone some way, but just not knowing is driving me nuts. It's just rude and so unprofessional.

Guess I'll carry on waiting!

[Lucky_Ray]

I received an e-mail from adsense last night saying the same thing. I happened to be at work reading my e-mail remotely so when I got home this morning I fixed the issue but a few hours later, they stopped serving ads as promised.

In my case the problem, according to the e-mail, was that I disguised an ad. I wouldn't call it disguised... I removed the border, made the background the same color as the rest of the content and made the link the same color as my headings --blended it. I admit it did look similar to the rest of the content next to it but I didn't consider it disguising or know it was illegal. And it's been like that for years. It kind of bugs me that I wasn't given a warning. I guess Google wants to put the fear of God into people. I can't complain too much though because adsense is an easy program to use, accepted me without question, and has provided a steady income for a long time.

So I have at least two weeks to wait, eh? Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe this will force me to find alternatives that I should have looked into before. Oh well. :)

[brassneck]

Sorry to hear your troubles.

One of my sites was hacked in February and got taken down by adsense for not serving appropriate ads. I fixed immediately and put in request to be re-added but still waiting. I never followed it up again as it is just one of many sites we have but I agree that the lack of proper communication channels is frustrating to tsay the leart.

[m0thman]

It's not the waiting, it's the waiting and not knowing if someone's going to eventually look into it. I'd be happy enough (kind of) if I'd received an email saying "We've received your message, someone will look into it in about six weeks time".

As I said earlier, at the event I attended in London we were told how "mportant publishers were". Maybe that should have been "important until there's a problem".

Currently developing alternate revenue streams. AdSense perhaps allowed me to get comfortable and lazy.

[Lucky_Ray]

Down since February?! Holy cow, I had no idea it would take so long. I guess I'd better start looking for alternatives a little harder.

[m0thman]

I wonder if AdsenseAdvisor might be able to provide an insight as to why it takes so long for a review and why there is a lack of communication when this happens?

[Lame_Wolf]

what AdsenseAdvisor ?
There isn't one at present.

[netmeg]

We're between AdSenseAdvisors at the moment.

I'd email them again and politely remind them that you have made the required changes and would like to know when you can expect your ads to start running again.

[m0thman]

Hi Netmeg,

I've just submitted the form again that they've provided to let them know the problem has been fixed. Not going to hold my breath though.

Ironically, I'm on the new AdSense interface and it provides you with helpful little messages and today I saw this. I nearly fell off my chair laughing.

You’re missing out on extra AdSense earnings

Our system analysed 795 pages across your domain, and found only two Google ad units per page on over 686 of your pages. The AdSense program currently allows placing up to three ad units on each page, and we strongly suggest you do so.

Since a large portion of your site is not fully monetised, consider adding any of our top performing units (336x280, 300x250, 728x90 or 160x600) to pages currently showing only two ads in the placements our heatmap suggests:

Well okay... I would if I could, please start serving ads then! :-)

[maximillianos]

User-generated content can be both a blessing and a curse. I would recommend getting more mods on board to help keep up with the content.

[m0thman]

I can generally keep up with the flow, only 50-100 messages a day and automatic filters help somewhat. The post in question was adult in nature, and yet didn't use any rude language.

I keep a keener eye on this these days and as it happens have had some regular visitors who have offered to help out.

[bbunlock]

I got a the same "ad serving has been disabled" email yesterday, solved every problem even though they were borderline violations at best and did it within a couple of hours

submited my site to have ad serving re-enabled and now waiting, I was hoping it wasnt going to take long but this thread isnt promising

ive been with adsense for aprox 6 years and now this, my other sites are not effected however this site outperforms them and is my main source of income

if I dont get ad serving re-enabled then im officialy unemployed for the first time in 6 years OUCH!

regards

wayne