Hi! Would like to ask if LinkReferral.com violates Adsense policy? Also, does being a member of LinkReferral adversely affect search engine ranking or other SEO issues? I was told that LinkReferral went against Adsense TOS and was not favored by Google.. just wanted to get some more opinions about it .. thanks!
Kim Malone had some things to say about traffic from dubious source in JenSense's first radio show (Listen here) From my notes about this show: # To avoid getting kicked out of AdSense make sure to avoid “scumwareâ€, Pay-to-surf programs, and any source of traffic that uses pop-ups. Also avoid clicking on your own ads. # Like usual for Google, Kim avoided saying anything very specific about smartpricing, but suggested to avoid poor quality traffic
Thanks! Linkreferral.com doesn't seem to encourage mutual ad clicking nor is it a pay-to-surf program or link exchange. Anyone else has any opinion on Linkreferral? Please reply!
To me it does look like a pay-to-surf program. You don't get paid cash, but to get clicks you need to visit other sites. They call it "Click For Credit", which sounds a lot like pay-to-surf to me.
I'm asking around the Google Adsense Groups to get some extra opinions. I'm just interested in knowing if it violates Adsense policy.. not debating about the merit of the program itself. Will post a note if I get some definitive answers.
Hello, Mike here, I represent linkreferral.com, I surf around every once in a while just to see what is being talked about, and I've seen this question more than once, very much to my surprise and looks like it is something we will have to address in the FAQs... Does it violate adsense policy? short answer.... NO! Now of course our directory surfing part of the program is incentivized to visit one anothers websites, but that's it. in no way do we offer any benefit nor could track the next step of clicking through an (adsense) ad on your website.... that is completely the visitors choice. In fact, if we find out there is any sort of inflated adsense clicking between members of linkreferral, we will disable their account. the idea that we are not favored by Google is nonsense, just look up the term 'free advertising' and we are on the first page.... we have been listed within them for years, have close to 100,000 pages index by them (all in the main index, not supplementary) and have done additional paid advertising with them consistently as well... being part of our directory will do nothing but help your SEO efforts....
I'm going to have to disagree with you here. If you read the AdSense program policies you see: I would say linkreferral dot com falls under the "third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf, and click-exchange programs" category. That's pretty clear to me. Being listed in the Google index has nothing to do with whether or not using the program will get you banned by AdSense. You can find plenty of sites in Google's index for things like "Adsense Traffic Exchange", which clearly violates the policies.
The whole thing is "iffy" enough for me not to want to partake. If you value your adsense account (for those whose accounts are profiting well)...I'd would suggest you stay away from this type of acitvity. A
Have you used the program? There is really no way it could be 'clear' until you understand how it works by using it... the 'traffic exchange' part of our program is not really an exchange at all, it's a directory of members websites, which the membership community visits and uses, and includes a written review process as well... Obviously Google has the last word on it, but please don't assume it to be like other programs without knowing how it works, and I would certainly argue on it's merits that it does not fall into the category to which Google is opposed. and you are correct, they are indeed two different things, and the second part of my rebuttal 'the idea that we are not favored by Google is nonsense....' was directed towards the specific quote and general concept that 'linkreferral is not favored by Google' and any resulting SEO efforts. It was not intended as evidence that it does not violate Adsense policies - that I already addressed in the first part of my rebuttal... the big problem is now Google has gone to a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model for Adsense, and so just viewing a page that has an ad on it costs the advertiser. So conceivably, if you are working on your own site, reloading your own page to view as you edit it, you are 'violating Adsense terms' and could be banned as a result. Google is literally dictating who and how visitors view your webpages (if you want to do business with them via Adsense). CPM is fine for B2B that know what they are getting, but it's a poor model for such a global undertaking. Bottom line is, If it's an ongoing issue, and if you feel you are being held hostage, there are several other big names out there, for instance, Adbrite.com, which does a CPC (cost per click) model and flat cost/time and so who and how visitors view your webpage is no longer an issue.
Thanks for clarification...I'm pro-linkreferral fella' but launched it in a site with no google adsense. But I'm getting good number of backlinks...