Committing Google AdSense Fraud
Hurts Everyone

Google AdSense fraud... One problem website owners have when attempting to earn extra income with Google AdSense is not understanding the rules.

By attempting to increase the amount of money they can earn they do things that constitute fraud in the eyes of Google and their account gets shut down.

The sad thing is, this problem is avoidable. All of the rules for using Google’s AdSense are right on their website.

When you first sign up for an account you are required to check a box stating that you have read and will comply with the Terms of Service (TOS).

Obey the Terms of Service

When you read the TOS you will find some very specific things listed stating what is and what is not acceptable in using AdSense on your website. They list all of the things that you are not allowed to do when using this service.

If you violate the terms, you will be banned from the service.

Google AdSense fraud is committed any time a link in an ad box is clicked for any reason other than genuine interest in the product being advertised. If you click or cause anyone else to click a link for any other reason, it is considered fraud.

One form of violation of the TOS is clicking on an ad on your website. Despite the many warnings against doing this, new AdSense users get caught doing this all too often. Here is a word of advice: Do not ever click ads on your own site. Ever!

Clicking Your Own Ads

When you are first getting started it is tempting to click on a link just to see what would happen. Resist that temptation because clicking the link even once could get you banned from the service. If you are banned for Google AdSense Fraud, it is a lifetime ban.

Another thing that marketers do that gets them banned is to offer incentives to visitors if they click on a link.

That is not allowed. All you can do is to display the ad and then allow people to choose whether or not to follow the ad. There can be no reward for clicking on an ad.

Make it Clear

There have also been problems with site owners trying to disguise the ad. They look for ways to incorporate the ad in their site so it appears to be a link to another page within the same site. Google does not allow this type of trickery. The ads are designed so people know they are clicking an ad.

There are things Google allows you to do to make the ad space look like a natural addition to your page.

You can change font and link colors and change the style and color of the borders. It can look like it flows with the rest of your site, but it still must be a separate ad.

Along the same lines, you cannot use arrows to point to the ad, or have the words, ”Click Here” appearing too close to the ad box. If it is felt that you intentionally put those words there to fool you visitors, it will be considered Google AdSense Fraud.

You need to understand what Google is doing with the AdSense program.

They are charging their customers a fee every time an ad box is clicked. In return for that fee they attempt to place the ads on sites that are in the same niche. This puts the ads in front of people that are already interested.

If too many people that are not really interested start clicking on links, it will cost the ad owner more money. If they are paying too much money with no return on that money they will soon stop advertising. Google and the individual website owners lose in the long run.

If you want to keep your account active and avoid being banned, you need to avoid committing Google AdSense fraud. Follow the Terms of Service that you agreed to and everybody wins.