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How does Google check compliance?

Ronnyy

11:28 am on Mar 31, 2016 (gmt 0)

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Hi,

We all know that Adsense comes with its own policy that you must abide to.
However how does Google check that?

The reason why I'm asking this is that I've placed an ad unit maybe too close to the menu (let's say that the menu itself has padding), but how do I know if I've broken any rules in terms of accidental clicks...

What I'm trying to say is that we are all trying to get our ads clicked and if you set them at 300px away from the content you will get very little clicks, but if you set them at 5px from a clickable button they could get accidental clicks.

So how does Goodle check that? do they have robots that scan your site and analyse it, or do they react based on compliants of advertisers or of third parties...

I have read all the little fuzzy recommendations of Google, but for example for the distance between one clickable element and one ad unit there is no recommendation (I know there is one for flash games, but for normal content there is none...).

How shall I go about it? Do you worry about these things? I think it's also linked to the personality of publishers, some are risk takers, others like me sometimes worrying monkeys... others would never care...

Many thanks

trebuchet

3:11 pm on Mar 31, 2016 (gmt 0)

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So how does Goodle check that? do they have robots that scan your site and analyse it, or do they react based on compliants of advertisers or of third parties...

Google's internal reporting would show up accidental clicks (i.e. those with immediate clickback). Only speculating but if a particular ad unit has a high proportion of accidental clicks, it probably gets human-reviewed. If they deem it too close to menus or other navigation elements, the publisher gets a policy violation notice.

Advertisers and users can also lodge complaints but they tend to be about content, not ad placement. I had a policy violation a few years ago for an "inappropriate image" (a girl in a tight t-shirt holding a micrometer, long story). I've also lodged complaints about MFA sites using my scraped content.

Ronnyy

5:21 pm on Mar 31, 2016 (gmt 0)

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Merci trebuchet,

I'm having a feeling that I'm forgotten by Google... I'm running Adsense for several years, and I've realized that I had an ad on the privacy policy page. I removed it but it wasn't detected.

Maybe it's because I have a website with less than 1.000 ads served on a daily basis.

I do not understand what you mean by immediate clickback, but even if the ad is well separated from the content it can still be that a user clicks on it fast...
Anyway I can imagine that they have some algorithm or some internal rules, and this is not my question, my question was wheather they have regular automatic checkups that could mean that after one year if there is no complaint I could consider that it's acceptable...

I'm one of the persons that is more careful and wants to avoid any policy violation but I have a feeling that if you want to earn a bit more you have to be in the gray area(e.g. ad at 10px from navigation)... right?

Many thanks for your feedback

buckworks

6:41 pm on Mar 31, 2016 (gmt 0)

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immediate clickback

The user lands on a page then leaves right away. That's often a signal that the page is of less interest than the user expected, or he/she didn't intend to go there in the first place. If it happens too often you can expect your site to be considered a lower value placement.

if you want to earn a bit more you have to be in the gray area... right?

No, not right. What will earn you the most over time is to deliver well-targeted traffic that's genuinely interested what your advertisers have to offer. What it takes to achieve that will vary depending on what your site is about, but that's the meat of the matter. If the algos and the advertisers notice that traffic from your site engages well and better yet, converts well, your value will go up.
On the advertiser's side of things I periodically check the placement reports and if I see that traffic from certain sites never does anything of value to me, I'll block them or at least reduce the bids. Once in a while I spot a site whose performance inspires me to bid more to be seen there.
The root question to think about is, "What will create sustainable value for the advertiser?"

tangor

6:50 pm on Mar 31, 2016 (gmt 0)

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In many cases your gut will tell the right thing to do. If that ad is that close to a regular menu you will end up with accidental clicks. Over time that error rate will rise and might come to haunt you. When others have asked me the same question I ask them if they think it looks dodgy ... and they usually nod and change it.

martinibuster

9:32 pm on Mar 31, 2016 (gmt 0)

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Google can render your site like a regular person and see it as a regular person. That's why they download your JS and CSS files. It's an easy thing for Google to know what your layout looks like. Run a mobile-unfriendly URL through their Mobile Friendly test [google.com] and see all the errors related to size of screen, size of font, bad layout etc. that Google can detect about a web page. It's an uncomplicated process to see if your ads are too close to navigation.

Ronnyy

6:44 pm on Apr 1, 2016 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Yes of course, but I assume that they have a bot or something...
Anyway, can I assume that if it runs and I get no policy violation after 6 months, that the possible issue it's just in my head?

not2easy

8:29 pm on Apr 1, 2016 (gmt 0)

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The bot for AdSense is their "Mediapartners-Google" bot. I see their visits every day, some days more, some days less. So yes, they have a bot for that. I don't know but I always thought that was to help them figure out what to show more than anything.

martinibuster

12:45 am on Apr 2, 2016 (gmt 0)

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....and I get no policy violation after 6 months, that the possible issue it's just in my head?

Your observations are correct. Violations do go without notices being sent. Nevertheless, if you spot one it's in your best interest, your long term interest, to fix it before Google spots it.