The destination url in question is simply a page on one of our servers which loads a javascript redirect to the website of a client merchant we advertise for. We believe this merchant is reputable and can't see anything which would fit the "malicious software" description when we browse through their website.
Might anyone have any idea what might be causing this?
Would the javascript redirect possibly be a cause of the issue? I can't imagine that it would - it's just a line of javascript code which redirects to the merchant's webpage, but I'm at a loss as to what's going on here....
Any help much appreciated.
What may happen in your case is that Google could not fully determine what you’ve been doing so they have suspended your account. For sure, they never spend too much time in giving explanations or asking questions. Finally, they have (or at least believe to have) enough knowledge about what’s going on in online world, so they don’t really need to ask anything, they just do it.
At the end, why you do not link directly to the merchant you advertise for? The answer may be there.
Google could not fully determine what you’ve been doing so they have suspended your account.
siteadvisor.com
to see if it's a domain that's been flagged by macafee's service as being involved with bad downloads.
i doubt this is how G does their policing or algorithmic examination of downloads... and siteadvisor certainly doesn't catch everything... but it sees a lot of funk. when i get a new client or prospect, i check their domains there and if they're flagged for bad downloads, i just take a pass. if they're flagged for bad affiliations with other sites that are flagged, i inspect that and sometimes discuss it with the client to figure out how they can keep their nose clean.
1. The destination url is the same as the display url after the redirect runs its course. On occasion we've fallen foul of that rule because of a typo, but when that happened the adgroup was suspended until the ad was revised, not the whole account. This is a claim of malware not of mismatching urls.
2. We are advertising for this merchant on an affiliate basis, i.e. we are using affiliate links. The ad network involved is one of the big three and is definitely reputable - no malware on any of the intermediate sites.
3. Since we're affiliates, we're never able to put the merchant url directly into the destination url box. It would mean we have no way of setting a cookie on the user machine to get credit for our commissions. We have to set the affiliate cookie first, then redirect to the merchant site. If Google considers this "malware", then I guess it's the end of affiliate advertising on Google :(
[edited by: La_Valette at 2:17 pm (utc) on Jan. 10, 2008]
So now it looks like all we can do is wait for somebody somewhere to act on this. Until then the account remains suspended and business is being lost...
By the way, I tried the siteadvisor thing and both my redirect website as well as the merchant I was ultimately redirecting to passed with flying colors. I have no idea what's going on here...
[edited by: La_Valette at 4:41 pm (utc) on Jan. 10, 2008]
Despite some comments about unknown, anything unclear to Google will rather be suppressed then let going.
If there was anything wrong with the merchant site we ultimately redirected to, well we deleted their advertisement now to be on the safe side. The site in question was a reputable merchant and I'm sure they weren't doing anything malicious.
I can't understand why an entire account would be suspended over a single adgroup either - there are a couple of hundred unrelated adgroups in this account, and they're all stopped now. Still no news from Google.
[edited by: La_Valette at 10:53 pm (utc) on Jan. 10, 2008]
You say you’ve deleted ads in question. Try giving them another call and explain the situation. It may be that folks behind the front line of customer service are simply too busy (as they are) and that they need more time to get to it.
One thing I’ve experienced in the past is that an account from time to time could be under review. While under review, ads would not be showing and it would be for the whole account. No information would be provided. If you called they would tell you if review was going on.
No reply to the emails. The phone & chat reps said I'd hear back from the technical team once they re-review "your website". I have no idea what they mean by "your website" - if it's my redirect server, that's just a repository for redirect webpages; if it's the merchant website redirected to, that ad has been deleted...
I could communicate all the above to an astute tech guy in less than 2 minutes if there was some direct line of communication to whoever's responsible for the suspension. As things stand I have to go through the general ad support lines (explaining the whole story again each time I call and just being told the tech department will look into it anyway at the end of the conversation) or the email system, and neither of those is producing any results fast.
[edited by: La_Valette at 11:59 pm (utc) on Jan. 10, 2008]
Do a Google site: search for your domain and the other one. Make sure neither is flagged as "This site may harm your computer".
I heard from Google support today - they said the tech team is still investigating and the account wouldn't be suspended in the meantime. It's still suspended as of right now though...
That, and I'm also probably stuck with an extra 100 gray hairs as a result of this incident...
[edited by: La_Valette at 4:00 pm (utc) on Jan. 11, 2008]
Each time this happens, an entire account full of completely unrelated ads for other merchants is being suspended.
What this is really going to force is for each account to contain no more than one merchant website. If you advertise for many merchants as we do, this is going to result in a large difficult-to-manage set of accounts... of course, if it's the javascript redirect causing the issue then all of those accounts will themselves be eventually flagged and suspended too.
[edited by: La_Valette at 3:23 pm (utc) on Jan. 17, 2008]
Still being told there is "possible malicious software" at the destination urls in the deleted advertisements.
Frankly I'm clueless as to what to do here.
