Adsense account penalty or domain penalty or bug?

My Adsense account is blue

[karkadan]

Hi there,

I've been with Adsense since 2004. At 2005, I got some very good earnings and they stayed steady until 2012. Some culprits were Panda/Penguin, and then later some changes to the algos, they began tweaking the detection of missclicks. At the end of 2012, my site went to 50% revenue just from November to December. At 2014, I was at 30%. At December 2014, 10%. And now, January, I am at 4%.

I am not sure if my domain is being punished somehow, or if it is my account (my father has a small site with similar smaller content, and it has similar earnings now... I have tons of content, and he has one section with few visitors).

I don't know if I should throw the towel. Or if I should start a new website, or rework the whole site. :S

[lammert]

Is it the site you are talking about here? [webmasterworld.com...]

Image galleries often do not have much text content and your tanking earnings can be because Google has problems finding matching ads. Also AdWords advertisers can select the site categories on which they want to display their ads, and it could be that some big advertisers excluded your site category, or that the category selection for your site in the AdWords system has changed.

[RedBar]

And now, January, I am at 4%.

I'm about 2% v my very top earnings, there's nothing wrong with my sites, it's just the way Google has changed many things insofar as my widgets and industry are concerned.

Or if I should start a new website, or rework the whole site.

Do that and you may easily have a minimum 6 months further wait if this thread has anything to do with it:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[netmeg]

I am not sure if my domain is being punished somehow, or if it is my account (my father has a small site with similar smaller content, and it has similar earnings now... I have tons of content, and he has one section with few visitors).

It's not likely you're being "punished" per se, but the AdSense train may be rolling past you.

What about your traffic? What about your competitors? Are you seeing the same advertisers? Is it, in fact, a gallery site? Are you mobile friendly? Do you actually get mobile traffic? There have been a TON of AdWords changes since 2005, and some have been good for publishers and some have not.

I don't think you want to toss out your existing site, but maybe you can find a way to get more out of it by adding a different focus or topic, going out and finding new types of users, changing up your layouts, etc.

[jbayabas]

It's good to read this kind of post because we are in the same boat. I'm at 30% now, which is staggering. I never imagined my earnings could go that low. Surprisingly, my alternative network earnings are matching Adsense's so it's like i'm at 60%, which comforts me a little bit.

[karkadan]

I will reply tomorrow. I had a kidney problem so I am totally tired and in pain now. Thanks for your input. I will explain or debate more about these issues.

[karkadan]

I am sorry for not replying for a while. I was sick.

Lammert. Yes, that was my statement back then. It is an image gallery. Another reason it might be failing more, is because the website is in Spanish.

I just checked today's behaviour, comparing my dad's and my account, and mine did better in CPC. Except that the Portuguese mini site did 3 times better.

My dad's numbers are different each day. Portuguese clicks sometimes lead, sometimes it is the Spanish content. Apparently, part of my issue is seasonal. January is always low.

Except the first three days were extremely low.

Right now I am around 4-5% of what I used to gain. Every month, even when I have not lost traffic, I am gaining less. Per example, I have gained like 5% visitors compared to last month. And I have a 50% loss in earnings compared to last month.

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Redbar, I've been hit by Panda and Penguin a couple of times, even Caffeine when it was launched.

I get that I will lose earnings when I am hit. I understand this. But the loss of traffic compared to the loss of earnings are out of proportion.

I will have to rework my website... more about that, since I need to reply the next one.

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netmeg, no, my site is not mobile ready. Reasons?

- Old static website, I need to spend a life working on it. The suddent loss of earnings + debt (the investment I did in my business), forced me to work again. That means, no time for working in the website. (until Jan 16, I have a new job that lets me work on my site).

- 2nd reason: when I moved to mobile, Adsense earnings in those mobile sections dropped like dead flies. No earnings whatsoever. I need time to study what I should do.

And yes, mobile ready or even having https (which btw, will also kill your Adsense inventory if implemented) has effects in SEO.

I have one page that is responsive, and that page got back into Google's first page. So, reworking the website will help me get more traffic.

Still, how Adsense reacts now, is sometimes like poison.

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I might explore the US market. I am afraid to do so. I invested heavily in my own "brand", paying artists to make like super heroes arts (concepts owned by me) but I am worried it is not the correct time. I guess I will have to work with writers or find another source of income. The original idea was nice. Let's see what holds the future.