How to Minimize Your Chances of AdSense Click Fraud and Getting Banned

People often ask me for help when it comes to dealing with disabled AdSense accounts and preventing click fraud.  So I did some digging over the weekend.

You may not realize it, but Google has quite a bit of documentation on these topics to help AdSense publishers keep their accounts in good standing.

Preventing Invalid Activity

While there’s nothing you can do to completely protect your account from sabotage, the following article has some tips and guidelines that may help you guard against invalid click activity.

Click here for more details.

Pay special attention to the tip about “partnering with untrusted websites.”  They used the example of paying for traffic from questionable sources.

Often times these services send artificial traffic via bots which can generate false impressions and clicks on your ads.  That’s a surefire way to get banned from AdSense.

Always do your homework before signing up with any “traffic generation service.”  If it isn’t clear how they are generating the traffic to your website, that should always raise red flags.

Notice Anything Suspicious?

Google encourages you to monitor your traffic logs, and if you notice any reports that indicate suspicious IP addresses, referrers or requests, complete this form.

Analytics does not provide visitor IP information, but you can use a service like PIWIK or the WordPress StatCounter plugin to obtain such information.  Your web hosting control panel should also provide more detailed log info should you need to research visitor information.

A lady once told me she was able to get her AdSense account reinstated after producing a report with her appeal that showed a pattern of suspicious activity from an IP address on the day she was banned.

How to Appeal Your Disabled Account

Let’s face it.  Sometimes Google gets it wrong and disables accounts owned by people who were playing by the rules.  If you feel your account has been wrongfully disabled, you can appeal using this form.

“AdSense is a Scam!”

People often claim AdSense is a scam when their accounts become disabled.

AdSense is far from being a scam. Google actually wants AdSense Publishers to succeed because the more quality, relevant websites their advertisers have access to, the more revenue Google can potentially earn.

That’s why they have an AdSense Optimization Team — a task force dedicated to helping publishers maximize their earnings so Google can ultimately earn more.

My point is, Google really has nothing to gain by disabling AdSense accounts for “no good reason.”  So I’ve never understood the scam complaints I often receive in the comments of my YouTube videos.

If Google disabled your account, it’s because they believe there’s a risk or evidence it has produced invalid clicks — which is not fair to their advertisers.

You have to realize that the AdWords advertisers are Google’s customers and top priority — not us, the AdSense publishers.

If they suspect click fraud or notice any strange patterns with our AdSense accounts, they will do what is necessary to ensure their advertiser’s money is not being wasted on invalid clicks.

Unfortunately this sometimes results in people’s accounts getting wrongfully disabled.  That is why they allow you to appeal.

At the end of the day, Google is doing what’s best for their business and that is protecting their top revenue source — which is the AdWords advertisers.

It’s impossible to protect your account 100% of the time, but if you follow the guidelines on the articles above, you can minimize the chances of your account becoming disabled.