Site Banned By Google Adsense - Can I appeal?

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mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
Google have blocked one of my sites from Adsense
The wording is very confusing
Their initial email suggested that I could rectify the situation, but now it sounds like the site is out - with no possible respite

I'm confused and annoyed
 

Satanta

New Member
The wording is very confusing
They have been working on providing clearer feedback to webmasters in their communications, but obviously still a long way to go. Especially with something like AdSense, where fraudulent clicks could be the cause and the owner be oblivious to it, the guidance does need to improve.

There is an appeal procedure for AdSense, although you're probably better off reviewing the site in detail first and seeing what might have triggered the ban. If you can't see anything obviously in breach of the T&C's (e.g. if it's a public forum, is there material being posted that's a breach of copyright? etc.), it might be worth asking for a review on the official forum or if you're happy to share the URL here I'm sure a few users would be happy to give it a quick once over.
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
They provided a link in their initial message to a URL which breached their policies. I removed the adsense code from that entire sub-directory to ensure that there could be no future issue, but they seem to have permanently banned the site regardless :(
 

Satanta

New Member
but they seem to have permanently banned the site regardless :(
I was dealing with something similar last week.

After moving the content (in that case to a subdomain - is a sub-directory enough? I'd have to double check the guidelines there), it took approx 4 days after the appeal was submitted for the site to be reinstated. Fingers crossed you'll be back in action shortly.
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
The content was always in a sub-directory. TBH the site in question's content has barely changed in the last couple of years - there are some dynamic elements which get pulled in from a couple of web services (eg. Amazon's catalogue) and I wouldn't have 100% control over all of that, but that's basically one sub-directory. With the adsense code removed there's no way that ads could display beside the supposedly offensive content (stuff for sale from Amazon is hardly "offensive"!)
 

Satanta

New Member
(stuff for sale from Amazon is hardly "offensive"!)
Amazon do carry a fairly extensive range of 'adult' products, though far from 'offensive' as you mentioned. It's a common enough issue, publishers have been pushing for an intelligent filter type fix for for years.

Now that you've removed the ads from those pages, a quick appeal and you should be up and running again in a few days.
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
Hmmmz

The email I got from them yesterday (which led to me starting this thread) was as follows:

"Thanks for your email. However, please be aware that because your site was
found to be in violation of our program policies, it is no longer eligible
for participation in the AdSense program.

Your account remains active, and you are welcome to place Google ads on
other sites which comply with AdSense policies."
 

Satanta

New Member
The email I got from them yesterday (which led to me starting this thread)
Was this part of the initial mail or in response to an appeal already submitted?

I've seen sites with far more serious breaches (and in far less honest circumstances) get reinstated, so I'd be shocked if the entire site has been blacklisted for good on foot of a very honest (and minor) breach. It's one I've seen happen various times in the past, always with the sites being reinstated once the conflicting amazon/adsense problems were resolved. I'd be very surprised if they outright refuse to reconsider the site and reinstate it, although it might/will take a few days.

Please do let us know how it pans out, I'd be very keen to see (and very surprised) if they're starting to take a hard line stance on what is a very innocent mistake.
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
Well I got an email earlier this evening from them saying that I've been given the "all clear":
Hello Michele,

I've reviewed www.xxxxxxx and can confirm that it now complies with our
program policies. I've updated your account records to indicate compliance
with our program policies and you should see Google ads appearing on your
site again within 48 hours.

To make sure your account continues to comply with our policies in the
future, I'd encourage you to thoroughly review our policies:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&stc=aspe-2pp-en.
Please be aware that if you site is found to be in violation of our
program policies in the future, we reserve the right to review your
participation in the program anew.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

xxxxxx
The Google AdSense Team

So I'll know what's going on in about 48 hours .. ..

I've also setup a forwarder / filter in gmail so that any of the emails from them get sent on to my usual email account (I never check my Gmail account and only use it cos I ended up with it for one of my Google accounts .. )

What does worry me, however, is that you could easily end up getting yourself banned simply because you didn't login for a couple of days :(

Anyway - thanks for the supportive words and useful links . From what I recall they used to ban people permanently back in the day .. and that would really suck, as I've had the Adsense account for 10 years!

Michele
 

Satanta

New Member
Now what?
As mentioned earlier, it took approx 4 days in a similar case for the ads to start showing again.

I'd need to double check the timeline, but if I remember correctly the reply to the appeal came the following day and ads appeared 3 days after that... suggesting Monday or possibly Tuesday (if it goes by working days rather than just days - it shouldn't, but who knows) in your case?
 
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