If you’ve read anything at all online about AdSense, you’ve probably seen the phrase “familiarize yourself with the AdSense Program Policies” at least as many times as you’ve seen the moon. There’s good reason for that. Google is very strict about AdSense users (publishers, in their jargon) following the guidelines set forth in the AdSense Program Policies document. If you
don’t adhere to the program policies, Google reserves the right to disable your AdSense account. And Google will — faster than you can say “What did I do wrong?” They’re that serious about the guidelines because the appearance of your site and your adherence to their guidelines determine how people view the advertisements. Google wants to be in users’ good graces,
and your cooperation helps to accomplish that. The program policies aren’t filled with quite as much legalese as you might find in other policy documents, but you’ll encounter ten-dollar words like pursuant. Here’s a quick list of what you’ll encounter in the policy document:
* Legalese
* Invalid clicks and impressions
* Encouraging clicks
* Site content
* Copyrighted materials
* Webmaster Guidelines
* Site and ad behavior
* Ad placement
* Competitive ads and services
* Product-specific policies
In the next few pages, I deal with each of these points in greater detail.
(Remember: This is just an overview. Read the document completely before
you agree to the policy requirements of the program.)
Legalese
The document starts with an explanation of Google’s legal rights. Basically, the Google lawyers are telling you that you need to be nicer and follow the guidelines Google sets forth or Google can — and will, if it becomes necessary — disable your AdSense account. The rub here is that after your account is disabled, you’re just finished. You can’t use AdSense anymore.
(Yes, you could try to cheat fate by creating a new account, but if Google finds out it’s you, they’ll just shut you down all over again.)
Invalid clicks and impressions
“Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest.”
That’s the first line of the most highly debated section of the program policies. This section of the policy lays out the guidelines for what constitutes a valid click. If you click your own ads, those clicks are invalid. If you program (or purchase) some piece of software to click your ads, those clicks are invalid. And these types of invalid clicks are click fraud. Click fraud is fraudulently
clicking your own or someone else’s ads with the intent of affecting AdSense revenues or AdWords costs and is enough to get you banned from AdSense completely, no questions asked — and please don’t re-apply. A valid click or impression has these qualities:
* It’s initiated by a real user to your Web site.
* The actual click is performed by a real, live person.
* The click is the result of genuine interest in the content of the advertisement by the real, live person.
Any clicks that don’t meet these requirements can be (and usually are) considered invalid clicks. Clicking your own ad even one time could get you banned from AdSense. It’s not worth it.
You don’t have to say it. I hear your objection: How are you supposed to know how the ads apply to your site if you can’t follow them? Or how will you know how the ads will look or how they will integrate into your Web site?
Well . . . it’s half about trust and half about testing. Trying to view every single ad that’s shown on your Web site probably isn’t prudent. Because ads rotate constantly and each site visitor might see a different ad set — also called an ad group or an ad block — you probably couldn’t view all the ads, even if you wanted to.
Instead, AdSense has a testing capability — the AdSense preview tool. It’s a small application you have to download and add to your computer’s registry, which allows you to see what the ads look like and how they behave without having to click your own ads. Download the preview tool from the AdSense Help Center at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/. In the Help Center, search for preview tool. You should be taken to a search results page where the top result is a link to the page from which you can download the preview tool. The directions
on the page walk you through downloading and installing the preview tool. Here’s one catch: If you’re a Firefox user, the preview tool won’t be much help. It only works with Internet Explorer. For the purposes of previewing your AdSense ad blocks, it might be wise to keep Internet Explorer as a backup browser. You don’t have to use it all the time — just when you want to preview your AdSense ad blocks.
Encouraging clicks
The next section of the AdSense Program Policy document addresses the kinds of things you shouldn’t pull in an attempt to encourage people to click on your ads. I know this is a little negative, but it’s important that you pay attention to these no-nos because ignoring them could have dire consequences. You can’t point out ads. You can’t pay people to click your ads. You also
can’t use any kind of misleading titling around the ads (for example, using a Favorite Sites title when the ads really are just advertisements), and you must be cautious about the graphics you include around ad blocks. If they’re at all misleading and appear to be associated with the ads, that’s more fodder for the banning machine. In short, all you can really do to encourage ad unit clicks is to place the ads in the best possible locations. Make them appealing with the design tools
that Google provides and then leave them alone. Much more than that and you run the risk of landing on Google’s black list.
Site content
Here’s where the program policies begin to get interesting. Okay, not really. There is rarely anything interesting about program policies. But a lot of meat is in this section of the program policies, and you should pay close attention to what’s here.
Google’s requirements for site content are basic: no violent content, no adult content, nothing related to gambling, and nothing associated with any type of illegal activities. But that’s not all. Google also frowns on Web sites that are related to anything that could be construed as controversial — tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs, and weaponry of any kind. Google stops just short of disallowing ads on political pages, though that might not be a bad idea.
Think of it this way: If you were Google, what would you not want your name associated with? Just about anything you come up with will probably be on the restricted list that Google’s created. Read the list closely. Google doesn’t accept I didn’t know as a good excuse for violating the policies.
Copyrighted materials
This should really go without saying, but plagiarized content will ensure that Google pulls your AdSense access. Copyright infringement is a serious crime; one that’s more prevalent on the Internet than grains of sand on a beach. Many people mistakenly believe that because articles and other content on the Web are on the Web, they’re free for anyone to use. That’s not the
case, and Google is a bulldog in the copyright protection arena. The Google crawler, which is the program that looks at your Web site to determine the main topics, or keywords, that are relevant to the site, can determine if the content on your page is original or if it appears in another place on the Web. If it’s not original and you can’t prove you have permission to use it, you’ll pay the price. So, be kind; use original content. Take the time to read about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Google’s stance on that piece of legislation. The details are on the Web at www.google.com/adsense_dmca.html. Not only will copyright infringement
and plagiarism get you banned from AdSense, but they can also get you thrown in jail, so use original content. You not only protect your investment in AdSense, but your Web site will probably rank better in search results, too, because search engines — and site visitors — love fresh, original content. Having fresh, original content would naturally make your site more popular.
Webmaster Guidelines
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines tell you everything you need to know about what the company expects from the design of a Web site. The document is pretty complicated, but it can be summed up in one word: simplicity. Keep your Web site simple, easy to use, and relevant to your site visitors, and you shouldn’t run into any problems with Google where site design is concerned. Of course, it still doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with and follow
the Webmaster Guidelines. Read them here: www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769#quality
A more in-depth discussion of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines can be found in next webpages. There’s even a bonus to using this set of guidelines — Google is the search engine to rank in. Following these guidelines helps ensure that you rank well in its search results.
Site and ad behavior Need a few more guidelines for how your site should be designed? Not necessarily? Well, tough because Google’s giving a few more anyway. In this section
of the program policies, Google outlines yet more no-nos. You can’t use pop-ups or pop-unders in your site design. (Pop-ups are those annoying little windows that pop up out of nowhere when you click a link leading to a Web site or when you click away from the site. Pop-unders are the same except the window appears under your Web browser so you don’t see them until you
close the browser window.)
You also can’t try to deceive your visitors into clicking through ads by disguising the ads or hiding them within text, behind graphics, or in the background of the Web page. The ads must appear as ads and not as sponsored links of any kind. And to take it all one step further, Google also has Landing Page Quality Guidelines to help ensure that your landing page — the first page that site visitors land on when they click into your Web site — is designed well and
adheres to the AdSense Program Policy requirements. These guidelines ask the following of you and your site:
* That you have relevant and original content on your site
* That your site is clear in your intent and the nature of your business (if that’s relevant)
* That it’s clear how your visitors’ information will be used
* That users can find their way around your site, or navigate the site, easily
I recommend checking out the full set of Landing Page Quality Guidelines at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46675&hl=en. The real key to staying in Google’s good graces (for both search engine ranking and the AdSense program) is to design your Web site with the end user in mind. If you’re designing a site strictly to collect ad clicks, you might get a high number of visitors for a short time, but that number will fall like a
penny dropped from the Empire State building as soon as users figure out what you’re up to. Or worse, Google will figure it out first and ban you from AdSense and probably from search engine rankings, too.
A much better idea is to design your site for site visitors. Provide the information that visitors are looking for. They’ll spend more time on your site, which means more exposure to AdSense ads, which means ultimately more clicks. And Google will leave you alone to make your money. Not a bad trade for doing things the right way instead of trying to deceive site visitors.
Ad placement In case there was any doubt, Google set up guidelines for how and where ad
units can be placed on your site. The policy document lists the particulars, but it’s safe to say that Google wants ads tastefully displayed and in context. Google also doesn’t want visitors overwhelmed by the number of ads on a page, so, you’ll also find guidelines for how many ad blocks of each type you can have on any given Web page.
More information about how to actually place ads on your Web site — as well as information about creating appealing ads — can be found in next few pages.
Competitive ads and services
This isn’t about your competition; it’s about Google’s competition. Like any good contender, Google doesn’t want competitors competing for its share of the prize money. So, you can’t display ads from any competing services that could be confused with AdSense ads.
For example, it’s okay to include ads on your site from Amazon or other retail services. And you can even include other pay-per-click ads, as long as they don’t mimics AdSense ads. Ads that look like they belong to AdSense but do not are a real no-no — that could really stir Google’s pot!
Google stops just this side of saying you can’t use other advertising services, but only because denying your freedom to use any program without thought of how it could be misconstrued as a Google capability is creating a monopoly. And monopolies draw the attention of Big Brother. He’s a sibling no one wants to spend time with.
Product-specific policies
AdSense has a few different divisions, such as Internet ads, video ads, radio ads, and a massive variety of content ads. Google is slowing working into many other types of advertising as well. Because there are so many different types of media in which you can use AdSense, and all those media differ in some way, there have to be policies that directly address some of the differences
for each medium. You can find those guidelines at www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=71600. The AdSense Program Policy document seems pretty tame on first glance. But as you look closer at the contents of the policy, you can quickly see that
there are additional bits and pieces about those program policies scattered behind several different Web links. And after you start getting into those links, you can truly see how complicated Google’s policies get. Don’t skip anything, though. Read through all the policy documentation and then read it all again. And read it again as you need to, to stay on the right
side of Google’s good graces, because if you get booted, it’s hard to reestablish your presence on the Web.
