Adsense account disabled without any notice

[AlexDumitru]

Hi,

Two days ago my Adsense account has been disabled. I noticed that my ads don't show on my websites anymore and when I try to log in I get the message below.

Your AdSense account for this login is currently disabled. We recommend checking your email inboxes for any messages we may have sent you regarding your account status. Sometimes our messages can be caught by email filters, so please be sure to check the Bulk/Spam folders of your email accounts as well.

I have been an Adsense user for 5 or 6 years I believe and I've had tens of millions of impressions. I haven't broken the ToS and I only have legit blogs with unique content. I don't ask users to click on the ads, I don't have anything illegal on them and I really don't understand why did they suspend my account.

The worst part is I didn't even get an email telling me that my account got disabled and a reason.

I've submitted the form ( [google.com...] ) and currently I'm waiting for a response. Hopefully they will answer fast because I'm losing a lot of money.

I've never heard of a disabled account without any further notice or at least an email after that, so I'm thinking this might be a mistake.

What do you think about it ?

Thanks

[wyweb]

@AlexDumitru

What do you think about it

I think you need to take it up with them.

Without knowing full details of your site, it's impossible for anyone to even guess. Well I guess we could guess. It's time consuming though.

I'll take a shot at it.

They said they sent you an email. You say you didn't get it. I'm guessing you did get it but just don't know where it's at. Look around.

I've never heard of a disabled account without any further notice or at least an email after that, so I'm thinking this might be a mistake.

No, I'm thinking you got banned.

Are you letting other people post on your blog?

[AlexDumitru]

I'm only using that email address for Adsense so it was impossible to get the email and miss it.

Yes, I allow others to post on my blog, but it's moderated and I don't have anything that doesn't comply with the terms. I'm very cautious about it because I never wanted something like this to happen. I actually have a network of blogs with a lot of writers that work full-time at my office, so it's a pretty delicate situation, considering my company relies mostly on Adsense.

[Rockyou]

AlexDumitru no one want to put their hands in mud, but if you think you have not broken any Adsense Tos,
You are banned bcoz your traffic is worthless, they are not converting for their advertisers.
Google will never tell you this openly.

[AlexDumitru]

@Rockyou I really don't think my traffic is worthless. I have about 5 million unique visitors / month, mostly from Google.
I also use some affiliate programs on my websites which convert very well and these can prove my traffic is not worthless.

[eniac]

my account was disabed today too. they say

"After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account poses a risk of generating invalid activity."

this is really good surprise for me today :(
I wish they warn us instead of closing account.

[StoutFiles]

What kind of content? Any naughty words or topics ever grace the blog?

[AlexDumitru]

It's possible bad words slipped through the comments, because we get hundreds of comments daily, but in the content generated by us there isn't anything inappropriate.

[Rockyou]

People sitting in Google office are brainy people they will only ban you if your site is non converting for advertisers.
"I can show many websites with Bad words ranking in serps" so i don't think this any reason to get banned.

[walkman]

Wow, that is scary. All of the sudden a serious way of making money, just disappears all of the sudden, with no warning (or appeal)

[ken_b]

...Google ... will only ban you if your site is non converting for advertisers.

That is nowhere near accurate.

There are all kinds of reasons Google might ban an AdSense publisher account. Over the years we've seen many of those reasons mentioned here.

[AlexDumitru]

Lately I've been talking to hundreds of banned people and it seems like Google makes a lot of mistakes and many got banned because the employees didn't understand very well what the website is about or didn't take the time to look better. I really start hating Google.

[incrediBILL]

It's not what the website is about, it's whether the advertisers dollars are being wasted or not by the traffic that frequents your site.

If you have a lot of UGC then you run the risk of people "tipping" the site owner.

[wyweb]

I really start hating Google.

Welcome to my world.

[wheel]

It's not what the website is about, it's whether the advertisers dollars are being wasted or not by the traffic that frequents your site.

WHich is as it should be.

It's also probably not about how many visitors you get (that could be a function of rankings) or how much money you're making - particularly since if you get banned, you're making $0.

I would think that if you've got a decent site with good content, you're safe. Otherwise, you're always on the edge.

Frankly, I don't know why Google allows the crap I run adsense on. I guess because I make like $100 a month, they don't care.

[wyweb]

There have been publishers before who have gotten banned and been reinstated. There was actually an excellent thread of that experience happening here in this forum.

My advice: Be polite. Be humble. Promise to immediately correct any problems. Keep fingers crossed. Assure them it will never happen again.

Or just ban them too. Go with direct advertising.

[BillyS]

You are banned bcoz your traffic is worthless, they are not converting for their advertisers.

Although I don't agree with how it's being said, I think Rockyou is on target here...

Google doesn't ban people for fun, there is a reason. You've already stated you don't break their TOS, so that really only leaves one other reason.: The clicks are not converting. Some people have already mentioned how that can happen (tipping the site owner, invalid clicks...).

That said, companies do make mistakes. Google is a big company but they will work with webmasters - unless they think you're cheating them.

Best of luck, hope things do work out for you.

[ken_b]

so that really only leaves one other reason.: The clicks are not converting.

I thought that Smart Pricing was the answer to low quality clicks?

In this case I'd be more inclined to look at things like:

Business model: a catch phrase with no clear definition if there ever was one.

Outbound links: To sites that might contain content that G doesn't allow AdSense publishers to link to. (Gaming, etc)

Disallowed content that may have slipped thru the UGC filters/edits/etc.

[caran1]

Sometimes "webmaster guidelines" are a problem even if clicks convert well.

[allie]

Guys, what does 'tipping the site owner' mean?

Do you mean the owner is encouraging clicks on his/her site?

Thanks

[walkman]

"Do you mean the owner is encouraging clicks on his/her site? "

I've seen that with a Paypal link, with "Buy me a coffee" too

[ken_b]

Guys, what does 'tipping the site owner' mean?

It just means visitors who think they are doing the site owner a favor by clicking on the ads. They aren't really interested in buying anything, just want to help the site out.

Misguided good intentions.

And the site owner doesn't need to do any encouraging. Helping is something people just like to do, it's human nature. They need to find another way to help though.

Do you mean the owner is encouraging clicks on his/her site?

Nope, that is a whole different thing.
.

[allie]

Ahh, thank you for the explanation. I'd hope that Google would be able to tell the difference and if a small enough percentage of clicks were of that nature, just count them as invalid rather than outright banning.

[BillyS]

Here's a good example of a sailor that was banned from Adsense for encouraging clicks. [webmasterworld.com ]

It's interesting to see that he's running Adsense ads again. Nice...

[walkman]

"It's interesting to see that he's running Adsense ads again. Nice... "

The site where the article is is not his. Just checked his Yotube and his site but saw no G ads.

[StoutFiles]

Yeah, the sailor stayed banned. Google has given second chances before, but that was a long time ago. I haven't heard of anyone overturning a Google decision in the past couple years.

[walkman]

Google has given second chances before, but that was a long time ago. I haven't heard of anyone overturning a Google decision in the past couple years.

They've become too big to care now, earnings are still increasing. Not excusing those that urge users to click, but people can be reformed. He even admitted that people email to tell him about clicking to help his site! Definitely didn't help his case.

[Lame_Wolf]

I haven't heard of anyone overturning a Google decision in the past couple years.

I have, and it was blatant fraud on what they [site] did.

[netmeg]

Look, there's eleventy billion AdSense publishers, and a limited amount of Google staff (and even more limited when it comes to support) When you're allocating resources, and resources are limited, it makes sense to devote them to the people who bothered to read the TOS, and who stay in compliance (or mostly in compliance such that you can give them the benefit of the doubt and just email them if they wander out on some small point) On the scale that Google operates, it makes a lot more sense to recruit new publishers than try to rehabilitate old ones. Even if it's an unintentional violation. That's the harsh reality. Deal.

(And if I were Google, I'd put a statement to that effect in the signup sheet - "READ the TOS, and make sure you understand them, because if you eff up, you're out and you won't be allowed back in. Period. You have been warned.")