AdSense 30 Day Suspensions - How to Fix

A recent change in how AdSense deals with invalid clicks has publishers wondering how to deal with it, and naturally, all of them want to "fix" it, and everyone wants to appeal it.

The 30-day suspension period isn't fixable.  This is a decision AdSense has made in order to give the publisher time to try and correct the violations that caused the suspension.

"We may temporarily suspend if our policies are repeatedly or egregiously violated. This will provide you with a final opportunity to review all of your sites and take the necessary corrective actions so that your account is not disabled.

Please note that we’ll continue monitoring your account for compliance. If additional violations are accrued then we may need to disable your entire account. If this occurs then we may withhold earnings for a period of 60 days prior to the date that we disable your account.

We encourage publishers to use this 30 day suspension period to review all of their content, remove existing violations, and put safeguards in place to avoid future policy issues. When reviewing your sites for compliance, we recommend paying close attention to our content and ad placement policies."

For further help and links to steps to take see the help page in the AdSense Help Center.

"An account suspension provides the publisher with 30 days to make the relevant changes to their sites. If you have been suspended, you'll still be able to log into your AdSense account. However, no ads will be shown for 30 days, and you'll notice a payment hold automatically added to your account.

At the end of this suspension period, we'll automatically re-enable ad serving, remove the payment hold, and monitor your account to ensure compliance. Please be aware that if additional issues with policy violations or invalid activity persist following an account's suspension period, we may permanently disable the account.Note that account suspensions are unappealable."

Additional information on this page in AdSense. 

And before you start complaining about this 30 day period, consider the alternative. In the past, Adsense would simply have disabled the AdSense account, and most of the time, that disabled account is permanent. It means no more Adsense. If you received a 30-day suspension, you have a chance to fix the problems.

What Problems?

Most of the time the suspension is related to invalid clicks, invalid activity, or traffic problems. We've discussed invalid clicks and invalid activity in the past - this doesn't necessarily mean that you've clicked your own ads or asked others to do so (but if you have, then stop it. NOW.) Invalid clicks/activity/ can come from lots of other activities. Just a few of the things that might cause problems:

- people using the same IP as you
- clicks from small groups of people, like forum members, or from schools, or internet cafes, etc.
- on a website or blog, even improper ad placement can cause invalid clicks
- improper ad placement on mobile devices (ads are too large or cover too much of the screen)
- using links exchanges
- using sub4sub
- improper promotion of your property (website/blog/channel/app)
- traffic coming from bad backlinks
- advertising improperly using social media or ads on social media (there's a right way, and wrong way)

Before suspending your Account, AdSense has thoroughly examined your account, your account history, your traffic patterns and the properties you are monetizing. They haven't done this "automatically"; it hasn't been suspended by bot; it hasn't been flagged by some visitor; it hasn't been done without an investigation. And that's probably one of the reasons it cannot be appealed.

AdSense has 2 choices: they can suspend your account for 30 days, or they just disable your account totally.  This 30 days suspension can be looked at as a warning that something isn't right with your account/site/traffic, and should be a "wake-up" call.

Why the Suspension?

Really? The answer may not be what you think. It's not to punish you.  Given Adsense's history of disabling publishers for non-compliance, you might think this is just another way to make your life miserable.

Well, it isn't.

AdSense wants to help you keep your account; to become better publishers and to gain a better understanding of the right way to do things. They want to give you a chance to be better - to do better!

What to Do During the 30 Days

The first thing is "what not to do" ... don't just sit around for 30 days waiting for the suspension to be lifted. Although the problem may not have been caused by you, the is a change that it might have been caused by you unknowingly.  This is particularly true if you haven't reviewed the policies recently (they do change from time-to-time, so it's important to keep on top of this). This means it important for you to figure out what the problem(s) might be, otherwise you won't know how or what to fix.

What you need to do is launch your own investigation.

- check your traffic sources (ie: referrals, where traffic is coming from)
- if using unauthorized traffic, get it stopped asap
- make sure you haven't used poor or non-allowed methods of generating traffic
- make sure your traffic is organic
- check your ad placements/locations and sizes
- thoroughly review the policies with respect to ad allowances per page/sizes allowed where
- make sure you take steps to protect your properties as well as possible
- if you did/are clicking your own ads ... shame on you. Stop it. Don't do it again. Ever.

Take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that there are no further problems: do this BEFORE the 30 days are up. Show AdSense that you are taking pro-active steps to try and correct whatever the issue is.

No, they aren't likely to tell you "exactly" what is wrong. Whatever wording is in the email you received is about the only wording you'll get from AdSense directly. If you've taken time to investigate and still aren't sure what the problem is, or if you've fixed the problem then ask for help in the AdSense forum. The forum questions are mostly answered by your peers - others who may have already had to deal with a suspension, or others who might understand the best way to figure out the possible issues. Discussion is a good way to double check what you've already fixed and make sure you didn't miss something.

Be pro-active and reactive. Don't loaf!

posted by J. Gracey Stinson