Does Google Think We’re Spammers?

Posted on by Scott Hendison

When we first set up this blog, we applied for an AdSense account, but for whatever reason, we decided not to add the AdSense code to this blog, so I never did. The account is there, and I’ve even got the code in a widget (I think), but I never made it go live.

Now, this past week, we received this e-mail from the AdSense team:

Dear Scott Orth (ed. – SEMpdx Treasurer)

While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.

Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any questions about your account or the actions we’ve taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by visiting here.

 

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

We’re a “significant risk”? To whom, and exactly how?

I could understand disabling our account due to inactivity, but why would keeping our account in the Google publisher network “financially damage their advertisers in the future”?

Is it because I’ve been critical of putting clients in the content network at all? – I doubt that.

Is it because I’ve pointed out some inconsistencies in their unfair and stupid rules? – I hardly think so.

Is it because I’ve taken occasional and random jabs at them in the SEMpdx forum? – Not a chance, right?

So what then? How exactly are we a danger to Googles advertisers, especially if we haven’t even put in the code?

5 thoughts on “Does Google Think We’re Spammers?”

  1. While I agree the wording you quote is lame, I can imagine the practice. It could be that a significant percentage of those that join adsense and then don’t install the code after some period then later Google catches abusing the system.

    It is a pretty lame email though. If that is the case they could just say you have not installed the code therefore we are disabling your account.

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  3. Google is definitely odd about which accounts they ban and disable. I’ll bet John is right that they disabled it due to inactivity. But I think they also disabling accounts somewhat randomly to keep people scared. If you’re not sure what will get you in trouble, you tend to be a little more reserved in your behavior. 🙂

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  4. Google recently did a massive Adsense purge and a ton of accounts were disabled (including mine). They typically suggest you were involved with invalid click activity, but I think the purge is mainly to clear out low quality MFA producers, or those with high CTR and payouts

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  5. Interesting – High CTR and payouts? That certainly doesn’t apply to us, since we never put the code on the site, but if it were true, that would be serious news…

    Reply

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