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So irritated with Adsense I could just spit >:-(

csdude55

5:52 pm on Aug 19, 2023 (gmt 0)

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I truly couldn't be more irritated with Adsense these days.

I've mentioned before how I think that they're targeting my sites for some reason. I don't know what I did, but it seems like I have a new problem with them every day! Others have mentioned that they're targeting sites with user generated content; I honestly think that they're trying to kill us all so that the only thing left is Fakebook.

But I digress. Here's this weeks problem:

For the last several months, I would keep getting an email that one of my sites is at risk of being restricted due to a high number of policy violations. But there would be no violations! I posted in the Google Help forum and they said it was a known bug, just ignore. OK, cool.

Recently I had a legit violation on my largest site, someone had posted that they wanted to buy a gun in the classifieds. The Policy Center says that it's not a big deal:

Some advertisers are choosing not to advertise on your page because of issues with your content. If you're okay with the advertiser demand restriction, you don't need to do anything.

But within an hour, I got another notification that my entire site is now being restricted, due to a high number of policy violations! I guess "high number" means "one"?!

Next thing you know, I have 10 more policy violations pop up. But these are on pages that don't have ads! There's no preconnect or dns-prefetch for Adsense or GAM, either. I submitted them for review, but all were declined with no explanation. There's nowhere that I can make a comment to point out that there are no ads on these pages, either.

Ironically, the Want to Buy ad that triggered this doesn't show up as a policy violation anymore.

Best I can tell, this unwarranted attack has cost me $634! It's just not funny anymore >:-(

Peter_S

10:41 am on Aug 21, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Sorry to hear about your problems with the Adsense Policy Center.

Some years ago, there was a wave of complains from advertisers, some even pausing or quitting Google's ad network, because of the bad buzz of having their ads showing on page with "bad" content. This is since that time, that Adsense became very picky and for not risking to loose advertisers.

Adsense does inspect the content of pages, even if they are not showing ads, in order to categorize the site, and see if it can be negative for advertisers to be associated with such or such site.

CommandDork

3:03 pm on Aug 21, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Ya, sometimes their system is a *little too sensitive* and other times completely wrong about a violation. If it is not a legit violation, these messages tend to clear themselves up in a few hours/days or so.

Just this weekend I had four pop up for a site that is as benign as it gets in regards to content - the violation stating "downloadable / malicious software" or whatnot (which I presume one of Adsense's OWN ads was providing). Before the end of the day, all four had cleared. Adsense support themselves have told me that false positives are possible and not to worry about them.

I've seen violations for things like 'flying boats' and 'submarines' - which I guess might be dirty street talk for the kids these days, I dunno. But those I have to get Adsense to review (and they always clear the review, but still, a waste of my time).

I have found over the years that firearms are an EXTREMELY touchy subject with Adsense.

LucasPerez

4:02 pm on Aug 21, 2023 (gmt 0)

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The problem with Adsense is that it is unfair, there are bad websites that have Adsense, and good websites that do not have Adsense.

Clear evidence that they are not fair with their criteria.

csdude55

5:58 pm on Aug 21, 2023 (gmt 0)

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I have found over the years that firearms are an EXTREMELY touchy subject with Adsense.

My sites do include classifieds, and I have a section for guns and hunting equipment. But I don't have ads on those pages, and haven't in years.

I direct sell ads for this section, and of course it drives traffic to other sections. So I can't just remove it, it directly accounts for about 30% of my revenue! And there's no way of knowing how much more revenue comes when those users continue looking at other pages.

It's entirely possible that Google is punishing me for daring to allow people to post guns, even when it doesn't affect Google at all. But when there are no policy violations that explain the problem, how am I supposed to read their mind?

Just today I had another warning of a "high volume of restrictions" on one of my sites. But I looked and the Policy Center shows no violations for that site, and I've never had any other emails regarding that site >:-(

gatormark

3:22 am on Aug 22, 2023 (gmt 0)

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I just replace sensitive keywords with *******.

For sensitive topics on my sites, I dynamically change the page template to a template with ads from a provider other than Google.

csdude55

3:44 am on Aug 22, 2023 (gmt 0)

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I just replace sensitive keywords with *******.

Same :-)

For sensitive topics on my sites, I dynamically change the page template to a template with ads from a provider other than Google.

Do you mind sharing the name of that other provider?

csdude55

5:43 pm on Aug 22, 2023 (gmt 0)

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A few days ago I had a policy violation on another page with no ads. I submitted it for review... declined.

Today, the violation is gone. I changed nothing on my end.

This is why it's so frustrating, they keep flagging me for violations that don't exist and appear to have punished my entire site based on their mistakes! But it's not like there's a real alternative to Google, so all I can do is take it on the chin. By now I've lost an estimated $1300 because of this, and I guess that means that this month's bills are going on a credit card >:-(

gatormark

7:17 pm on Aug 22, 2023 (gmt 0)

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@csdude55

Exponential

tangor

12:54 am on Aug 23, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Almost makes you think g is finding violations because you are making too much off of them.

csdude55

1:13 am on Aug 23, 2023 (gmt 0)

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That's exactly what I think, tangor! I'm not even joking, I feel like I've been targeted for awhile now. My revenue is a fraction of what it was a few years ago, even though my traffic numbers are about the same. And I'm almost constantly getting reports of policy violations, etc. It's like they're looking for an excuse to kick me off >:-(

I recently had a thread from 2008 flagged as a "must fix", claiming that it had "dangerous or derogatory content". The thread started with a guy asking if there were any gay-friendly bars in town, and someone replied that there was one several years ago that had been burned down by a group of Christians (a true story, they were convicted). Obviously nothing dangerous or derogatory, just citing a fact! But of course there's nowhere for me to explain that, my only option was to delete the thread.

Why are they picking up a thread from 15 years ago, you might ask? No clue, but again, it certainly feels like I'm being targeted.

csdude55

6:15 pm on Aug 31, 2023 (gmt 0)

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For the sake of posterity, the site-level restriction was removed today! I didn't change anything on the site, though, so there's simply no reason for the restriction to have happened in the first place.

Since then I've had 8 more page-level restrictions.

Two of them were on pages that don't even have ads on them! I submitted them for review, and both were denied with no explanation.

The other 6 page-level restrictions are obviously false; like a "sexual content" warning on a page about dogs! Two of them were removed overnight, the other 4 are still pending review.

I'm concerned that all of these false restrictions are going to cause another site-level restriction, but I don't know what I can possibly do about it.

CommandDork

1:15 pm on Sep 1, 2023 (gmt 0)

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I've found there is nothing you can do about it except wait it out. But glad things cleared up for you, they always do for me too.

csdude55

5:19 pm on Sep 2, 2023 (gmt 0)

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I think that I've figured out the problem! It's on Google's end, though, so there's not a dang thing I can do about it.

Yesterday I had a page level violation, citing "weapons". I looked at the page, it was to a user's list of classified ads and the only listing was for a clock! Nothing even close to a weapon.

But then I noticed that this violation actually had a screenshot. I looked at that, and saw that the ads listed expired in April! This list did have weapons on it, but no ads; my script automatically removes all ads if there's a gun on the page.

So what's happening is that Google is looking at cached content to see if the page has a weapon or whatever else they don't like, but then looking at the live page to see if it's showing an ad.

VieX

6:32 pm on Sep 24, 2023 (gmt 0)

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You should quickly start to search for an AdX Partner.

tangor

9:37 pm on Sep 24, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Google makes hoop jumping required to address their cache...

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