Adsense ads gone = Banned Adsense account?

If you visited this site a few weeks ago, you probably noticed a few blank spaces previously occupied by Google Adsense ads. What happened, you ask?

The simple answer: we were banned in Google Adsense — although temporarily.

A few days before the ban, we received an email warning from Google about a policy violation we supposedly committed. The email goes:

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies.

For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as http://www.pinoymoneytalk.com/forum/archive.php?BetDos+March+Madness+Special!/18820. Please note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of your website.

As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on sites with content related to gambling or casinos. This policy includes driving traffic to online gambling sites through links or advertisements.

Please make any necessary changes to your webpages in the next 72 hours. Once you update your site, we will automatically detect the changes and ad serving will not be affected. If you choose not to make the changes to your account within the next three days, your account will remain active but you will no longer be able to display ads on the site.

Now, you should feel lucky if you receive such an email. Why? Because Google still gave you a chance to correct your mistake. There are several instances before wherein Adsense publishers were not given any warning emails. Their Adsense accounts were instantly banned on the first policy violation.

In our case, upon receiving Google Adsense’s email, we removed the post from the PMT forum. What we didn’t know, however, was that the archived page of that post is not automatically deleted even if the forum post is already removed. Thus, the page in question remained and Adsense did not recognize any change made. As a consequence, ad serving was disabled on our site.

We wrote Adsense to ask why the ads went missing and they replied that the page about gambling which they want removed is still on the site. We then manually removed the archived page and wrote Google back about the change. Their reply:

Thank you for making the requested changes to your site in order to comply with our policies. We have now re-enabled ad serving to your site.

Please note that because ad serving to your site was temporarily disabled, there may be a delay of up to 48 hours or more before ads begin appearing on your site again.

Adsense ads on our site reappeared one and a half days after ad serving was disabled. Income was slightly affected but still we’re happy we were not banned permanently.

Lessons from the experience:

1. If you received an email from Adsense stating you violated one of their Program Policies, act immediately to rectify your mistake. Not acting on it might cause ad serving to be disabled which means no income for you.
2. Do not argue with Google regarding the violation you  committed. They know it best because they created the rules. Ask them what you need to do in order to bring the ads back to your site.
3. Make sure you follow Adsense’s Program Policies every time. Ignorance of the rules excuses no one.

Other related readings:

• Banned by Google Adsense? Here’s how to reinstate your account
• The beginning of the end of Adsense?
• Google Adsense, click fraud and invalid clicks