AdSense Rules for Publishers

The simplicity of AdSense makes it an easy target for cheats. The fact that simple act of clicking a link on an ad could actually result in an AdSense publisher earning money seems too tempting for those webmasters that want to earn a quick buck. So in order to curb the activities of the more ‘adventurous’ webmasters Google have outlined a number of general AdSense rules regarding publisher behaviour.

The rules focus primarily on the more extreme techniques often used to boost search engine rankings, these include:

• Using hidden text and links within websites
• Using inappropriate keywords, irrelevant keywords or excessively repeated keywords within the content (or code) of website
• Creating ‘doorway’ pages primarily for search engines with little to no content

None of the techniques above are allowed to be used in conjunction with AdSense.

Included, are quality guidelines for webmasters. Sites submitted for inclusion for the scheme must be of a certain standard. Poorly constructed sites will be rejected by Google. For more information about these rules go to Google’s site.

AdSense Rules about Traffic Sources

Traffic is the lifeblood of AdSense. Due to the low pay outs of most ads the only way to make money using AdSense is to try and generate as much traffic for your site as possible. The more traffic flowing through your site the more clicks you will have on average.

Artificially boosting traffic levels is therefore another way to cheat Google AdSense. In order to circumvent cheating, Google has drawn out another set of rules relating to traffic sources these include:

• Publishers may not use the services of paid-to-click merchants
• Webmasters are prohibited from using services that may artificially inflate impressions such as click-exchange-programmes
• AdSense publishers cannot use mass unsolicited emails to promote their site
• Webmaster cannot use software that trigger pop-ups, redirect users to unwanted websites etc...
• And publishers cannot use online advertising (like Adwords, MSN adcenter etc...) unless the site complies with Google’s landing page quality guidelines

The last rule in the list is included to stop publishers using the arbitrage method of earning AdSense cash. AdSense arbitrage users often create ‘extreme’ landing pages for their advertised sites, to boost CTRs. If they are forced to comply with Google’s landing page quality guidelines, their CTRs will be drastically reduced, cutting their profits and forcing them to quit the method.

For more about Google AdSense rules look at:

AdSense rules about click behaviour

AdSense rules about the treatment of ads