I have the Two Click Penalty every month

[franciscosalek]

I don't know what to do

I'm having issues with adsense since last october, every month I got the "two click penalty".

I only have two ads,
The ads are spaced from the content
I don't click on my ads, I don't even have a lot of clicks.
My normal CTR is 0,7
My website is "Normal" in Page Speed Test
i have nothing on my policy center.

[not2easy]

By any chance are you using link units for your AdSense ads? I have noticed that many posts about second-click penalty have decided that is the cause.

[franciscosalek]

I'm using Native Ads but I realized that sometimes adsense change the native ads for "Display Units" or "Link Units" :(

[not2easy]

I don't use native ads, can't help much. You may find helpful answers using the search here in the upper right corner to search. Searching for "double click penalty" turns up a lot of results.

[JS_Harris]

I think Google gets it wrong sometimes on sites where they can't gather enough data to make an informed decision. More traffic always seems to cure adsense woes.

[Grapetimes]

How long does it usually last when you get it?

[franciscosalek]

The last time was 2 days!
But in the past has been between 2 to 3 weeks...

[Grapetimes]

Thanks for letting me know. Did you ever make any changes on your site or did it just go back on it’s own?

[franciscosalek]

I just found out that my site had a large main.css that sometimes the "Mobile Friendly Test" failed to load.

Check your site several times in the test and check the results

If sometimes comes up with the result that your site is not mobile friendly, make your css critical and load the rest of the css on the footer.

[Grapetimes]

Doesn’t it mostly have to do with invalid clicks or too high of a CTR?

[franciscosalek]

If google fails to load your css, the design of your site will be messy and the ads will be "very close to the content" and the penalty will be applied.

The best you can do is to optimize the "Pagespeed" to the maximum.

[Grapetimes]

Did you make changes every time or did it just go back to normal by itself? And what was the longest that this penalty lasted for you?

[franciscosalek]

No, I only make changes the last time, but the other times, Google detected "changes" because my css failed to load.

Try to speed up your site, I think that is the key.

The longest time i had the penalty was 3 weeks...

[Grapetimes]

Alright thank you for letting me know. And it was 21 days exactly that time or just during the 3rd week?

[runfun review]

Improving pagespeed, lol, the worst objects for my pagespeed are the ads from Google and the Google searchbox.

[franciscosalek]

I know what you mean, I was in the same position, the only thing that worked for me, was improve my css.

My css was blocking the rendering of my website, and I tried to separate the "critical css" and the problem solved.

The logic I found is: Sometimes the googlebot can't load the style.css because is too large, it sounds stupid, but I checked with the mobile friendly tool and most of the times, my website was not mobile friendly because of this.

If the style.css is not loaded, your website is going to look messy, and if your design is messy, the adsense bot will apply the double click penalty.

Try to google: "how to generate critical css"

P.D.: Sorry for my english, I'm from Bolivia.

[tangor]

CSS too large? Maybe you're not doing it right. Are there redundancies in the CSS? (same result, different classes used in different situations) (or doing something simple the hard way)

CSS is kind of wonderful... but it is not magic and can be used wrong.

[Grapetimes]

A lot of people have been dealing with this issue... I have seen where one person has dealt with since around February 10th, what is the longest someone has ever dealt with this issue? I have seen on the Adsense help forum that someone has this issue for around 5 weeks.

[tangor]

@Grapetimes... dealt with what? Messy CSS or g giving no love?

[Grapetimes]

Dealing with the Two Click Penalty

[tangor]

Okay ... why? Pretty sure there are obvious excesses your side involved. Why? Never saw it, never experienced it, never over did it.

When one is pushing the margins expect push back.

Check layout, margins, and ... as noted above, CSS, too. :)

[Grapetimes]

Thank you. I have made all the necessary changes, I’ve removed ads, added advertisement tags and added around 50px of padding around each ad so there is no way they are ever near content. Also, my CTR was never very high. I am just looking to see what others may have done that have dealt with this penalty before.

[Grapetimes]

I’ve actually heard of people receiving this penalty when their CTR was only .7% and others that have received it after using auto ads

[Runfun]

50 pixels padding is a lot... I've opened a topic here about padding but 50 pixels sounds extreme.

[Grapetimes]

@runfun what amount of px would you recommend?

[tangor]

Enough to avoid problems? The actual amount varies. I've seen suggestions as low as 4 to as much as and absurd 150 ... pick a number (most times 14-15 is sufficient). Whatever number is selected, you will have to run it several months to see if there is a difference.

[Grapetimes]

Google believes 30px is sufficient to avoid problems I hear. I was just wondering what others may use and may have found works for them

[Runfun]

"Google believes 30px is sufficient to avoid problems I hear." That sounds strange... Google believes... I hear... so you're not sure (me neither). I've no idea what's the best but 150 pixels sounds a lot, I'm using a space of 30 pixels since last week and it was about 20 pixels earlier.

There's a topic about padding and the space between ads and links and content: [webmasterworld.com...]

[tangor]

Could it be that g's algo has a new subroutine for "fat finger syndrome among small screen surfers"?

Anything to claw back payouts so they can keep the coffers filled? And send a report to advertisers already spending more than they wish that "we got that much back! See, we are working on YOUR side!"

Consider this a marketing/speculation/chuckles comment.

And then think about it. :)