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We’re dedicated to providing additional transparency into our policy processes and hope that the recent blog posts have helped you understand specific policy triggers and the actions to take if you’ve violated a policy.  To further help you stay policy compliant, here’re 8 best practices to help avoid policy violations and keep your account in good standing. 1. Don’t click on your own ads Don’t click your own ads, or ask others to click them. These kinds of clicks won’t count toward revenue and may get you suspended. Even if you’re interested in an ad or looking for its destination URL, clicking on your own ads is prohibited. Instead, use the Google Publisher Toolbar . 2. Think like a user  Make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for. Follow the Webmaster Guidelines to provide content that’s useful, interesting, and adds value. Immerse yourself into the user experience however you can. Try to discover the emotions that guide users’ behaviors and try to uncover ...

Have you received an email from adsense-adclicks-noreply@google.com with a warning that you’ve violated the AdSense policies? These warnings are usually issued in instances of mild violations that we believe can be fixed quickly. In addition to an email, you’ll receive a notification in your AdSense account under the “Status” tab. Both the email and notification will explain where your violation occurred and how to fix it and by clicking the link provided, you’ll be sent to the page where the violation has occurred. To resolve the issue, you can either fix the content that violates AdSense policies across your site or remove the AdSense code. Remember, your site must be compliant in order to participate in the AdSense program. When you’ve made all the necessary changes to your site, check “Resolved” on the site level violation notification in the “Status” tab of your AdSense account. You don’t need to notify us when you’ve fixed the violation; however, you do need to resolve it in a t...

Today we’ll highlight some of the top triggers of policy violation warnings to help you avoid common pitfalls. If you haven’t already, download the All-In-One Policy Compliance Guide to help you understand the what's and why's of our policy processes so you can always stay one step ahead. As a general guideline to building a strong policy compliant foundation, ensure that the pages within your site offer a unique value for users and comply with AdSense policies. Let’s get started. 1. Copyrighted Material Google ads cannot be placed on pages that infringe on copyrighted materials. Don’t try to monetize content that isn’t yours or you don’t have permission to use.    2. Deceptive Layout Because users come to your site for the content, it should then be easy for users of your site to distinguish ads from content at all times. Ads that blend in or that are situated too close to content and navigational icons can cause invalid clicks. AdSense will deduct clicks that are determined ...

Unfortunately, even for AdSense publishers, there’s always the risk of an unauthorized source compromising your secure login credentials. In these instances, you might be locked out of your AdSense account. Here’s what you can do to recover your account and avoid the same issue in the future: For starters, these triggers can help you identify if your account has been compromised.   You’ve noticed suspicious account activity (for example: there are new users that you haven’t granted access to; the payment details have changed without your permission; your security settings have been updated; and your email notification settings have changed). You cannot login to your AdSense account.  If you’ve found that your account has been compromised, follow these steps to resolve the issue: Run a malware scan on your devices Visit our Login Troubleshooter. If you’re locked out of your account, the troubleshooter will help you recover your Google Account. Once you’ve recovered your Googl...

We’ve shared that high quality content and consistency are key ingredients to earning and maintaining the trust of online users. What about maintaining the trust of your ad networks so that you can continue to earn revenue? For AdSense, it’s important to protect the interests of everyone in the online ecosystem, including our users, our advertisers, and our publishers. This focus on maintaining a healthy balance is the reason we set strict policies about AdSense for everyone in the ecosystem to follow. Your feedback helped us realize that some publishers may be confused by some of our policies, which is why we’re launching a series of blog posts, infographics, new notifications, access to customer support, and #AskAdSense office hours to help increase transparency about AdSense policy processes. We hope that these insights can help turn your #PassionIntoProfit and grow your business as you focus on your users and provide unique content. We have found that there are two types of publis...

Publishers are constantly faced with the question of how to balance content and ads to provide the best possible experience for your users. And as you might have found, there’s no easy one-size-fits-all approach. Every site and app is different, with different types of content, objectives, and users, which means that balancing content and ads will look different from publisher to publisher. When faced with this challenge, it’s important to ensure that you give your users what they're looking for in a format that’s easy to find and navigate, and this includes the ads on your page or app. Here are a few tips to help you balance ads and content. 1. Content is king. Your content is the reason users are visiting your site or app. If you think about it, your users are visiting your site for a reason, whether they are looking for a recipe, how to build a birdhouse, or trying to find out what’s happening in their town. By providing them with the information they're looking for, you sat...

We’ve expanded AdSense support to our English AdSense  Twitter and Google+  pages. Join our weekly #AskAdSense office hours and speak directly with our support specialists on topics like: ad placements, mobile implementation, account activation, account suspension, ad formats, and much more. #AskAdSense office hours will be held every Thursday morning 9:30am Pacific Daylight Time beginning September 29th, 2016. Participating is easy: Follow AdSense on Twitter and Google+  Tweet, post, comment, or reply to AdSense on Twitter or Google+ asking your question during the office hours.  Please do not provide personally identifiable information in your tweets or comments. If you can’t attend during our office hour times, be sure to use #AskAdSense in your tweet, post, comment or reply to AdSense and we’ll do our best to respond during our weekly office hours. On October 27th, John Brown , Head of Publisher Policy Communications for Google, will be joining our office ...

We’ve all been there. You’re trying to send an article from your phone to a friend, or you’re playing a mobile game while waiting in line for a movie, when you accidentally touch an ad on your screen. You weren’t interested in the ad -- heck, you didn’t even have time to see what it was for -- but now you’re hitting the back button to get back to what you were doing. Not only do accidental clicks like these annoy users, but left unaddressed, they can drive down the value of ads. Over the last four years, we’ve introduced a series of protections across mobile web and mobile apps to prevent accidental clicks like these on ads. Today we are continuing this commitment to protecting users and advertisers by extending accidental click protections to native ad formats. Native ads were developed to help publishers and developers implement ads that complement the look and feel of their content. Since our teams started instituting various click protections, we’ve learned quite a bit along the...

In a previous publisher blog post, we discussed tips for writing a successful policy appeal . In today's topic, we’re exploring what happens when publisher accounts are disabled due to invalid traffic, when to submit an appeal , and tips for making those appeals successful. Invalid traffic includes any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. Invalid traffic covers intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks. In the ads ecosystem, advertisers rely on the relevance of our ad placement and the quality of the interaction their ads receive. Publishers in turn count on advertiser participation that contributes to the success of their apps and business. Without this trust, the Google advertising network could not exist. Google treats invalid traffic very seriously, analyzing all clicks and impressions to determine whether they fit a pattern of use that might artificially drive up an advertiser's co...

At Google we defend our ad systems from fraud using technology in a variety of ways. Often our investment in these defenses goes beyond protecting against only known threats. Our engineering and operations teams are continually working to identify new and emerging threats.  Once a new ad fraud threat is found, we move quickly to defend our systems against it using a combination of technology, operations, and policy. Recently we identified “ Clickjacking ” (aka UI Redress) as an emerging threat to cost-per-click display ads, and we’ve rolled out new defenses to protect advertisers against this threat. Clickjacking is a type of web attack where the appearance of a website is changed so that a victim does not realize they are taking an important action, in this case clicking on one or more ads. For example, a user may intend to click on a video play button or menu item, but instead clicks an invisible ad unit. Figure 1: An example of a clickable ad hidden behind a video playback butto...

As part of our continued effort to be as transparent and accessible to publishers as possible, we’ve launched a collaboration with Search Engine Journal with a column titled “ Ask the AdSense Guy ”. In this monthly column, we’ll answer questions on topics of interest from the readership of the Search Engine Journal, as well as provide insight into best practices for publishers of all sizes. Our hope is that these external collaborations strengthen overall understanding of our policy positions and allow publishers to scale their long term growth in ways that provide value for their users, as well as advertisers who place ads on publisher sites. A Search Engine Journal managing partner, Brent Csutoras, interviewed me at Pubcon 2015 to get a glimpse of what investments Google is making to help the entire ecosystem: users, advertisers, and publishers.  Follow our column and share your questions, or submit them as a comment below.  We will answer questions posted on Search En...

I’ve been posting a series to this blog relating to demystifying AdSense policies. Today we’re exploring what happens when ads are disabled from publisher sites, when to submit an appeal, and tips for making those appeals successful. Our policies are designed to foster a healthy ecosystem which protects users, advertisers, and publishers. In 2014, the vast majority of publishers ( >98 %) did not receive a policy violation notice from us. In order to ensure a healthy ecosystem we continuously monitor our ad network and periodically review AdSense sites. We use a combination of sophisticated, automated systems and manual reviews to identify violations. If you’ve received a policy violation or ad serving on your website has been disabled have a look at our Help Center and review our Program Policies . You will find information on how to fix the violation and apply for an appeal. Here are some useful tips, should you need to submit an appeal: 1. Understand the violation . If you recei...

Editor’s note: John Brown, the Head of Publisher Policy Communications, is explaining what to do if you receive a policy warning message. In this post, I’d like to talk about policy warning messages and what steps you should take if you receive one. I’ll also answer some of the most common questions around warning messages. What is a warning message? We send out warning messages to our publishers if their site, or a page of their site, violates our AdSense policies. For minor policy violations that can be fixed fairly easily, our first step is to issue a warning. Where can I see my warning message? Warning messages are sent to the email address associated with your AdSense account. You can manage your contact email address under Personal Settings in your account. You can also check out outstanding policy violations by visiting the Status page in your AdSense account. What do I do if I get a warning? If you receive a warning message, follow these steps to fix the violation as quickly...

Editor’s note: John Brown, the Head of Publisher Policy Communications, is sharing insights about understanding your traffic and how you can prevent invalid activity. Last week , I explained why we take invalid activity seriously and how AdSense policies protect users, advertisers and publishers. This week, I’d like to give you some tips to help you keep your account in good standing. What can you do as a publisher? Here are some best practices to prevent invalid activity on your site: Understand your traffic and site visitors by breaking down your traffic reports into meaningful segments/channels. Monitor your analytics often to spot traffic anomalies. Setting up Analytics alerts can be very useful. For instance, you can set Analytics alerts to see if an unusual amount of traffic comes from a country you wouldn’t expect for your site. Be very careful when purchasing any traffic , and review the traffic provider checklist to help guide your discussions with any traffic provider yo...

Editor’s note:  John Brown, the Head of Publisher Policy Communications, is sharing insights and answering most common questions about invalid activity. In this post, I want to stress why we take invalid clicks so seriously and clarify a few questions related to traffic quality and invalid clicks. Let’s take a step back and think about the digital ad ecosystem. The relationships between Google, advertisers, and publishers are built on trust. A strong and healthy digital ecosystem needs: Users who trust the system and have a good experience, Advertisers safely investing in digital ads, Publishers who can sustain their business. To protect those relationships, it’s very important to make sure that clicks and impressions are based on genuine user intent. That’s why at Google we have a global team that monitors the traffic across Google's ad network, and prevents advertisers from paying for invalid traffic. Now, I'd like to address some of the most common questions and concerns fr...