well i received the same message from google yesterday .. I think they re changing their policy agaisnt images next ads ... here s the message : ----------------------------------------- Hello, While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as (link) Publishers may not implement Google ads in a manner that disguises the ads in any way, for instance, by formatting neighboring content to look similar to the ads, or by making ads look like games or forum threads. Additionally, publishers may not attempt to associate specific images with the individual ads appearing on their sites. Such an implementation may confuse users who assume that the image is directly related to the advertiser's offerings. Please make any necessary changes to your web pages in the next 3 business days. We also suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) to ensure that all of your other pages are in compliance. Once you update your site, we will automatically detect the changes and ad serving will not be affected. If you choose not to make the changes to your account within the next three days, your account will remain active but you will no longer be able to display ads on the site. Please note, however, that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future. Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team ---------------- To help keep your account in good standing, we recommend all publishers review the policy guidelines found here: https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=23921 ----------------------------------------------------------------- the funny thing is I checked my website and there s absolutly nothing ..the email is somehow vague and doesn t specify exactly what s wrong ... apart from the images near the ads i can t think of anything else ..normal blending and in no way misleading people to click ... I hope they can make their policy clearer when it comes to things like that ..cause one time they tell you it s ok and then the next day you receive a message like tthis one ....
I got a similar email from google informing me that they detected I had been generated false clicks by clicking on my own ads. I have never ever clicked my own ads or created any sort of automated bot to do so, so I emailed them back and asked them to furnish proof of their findings, and the response I got was this: Hello, In order to protect your interests as well as those of our advertisers, Google monitors clicks on Google ads to prevent any abuse of the AdSense program. Google's proprietary technology analyzes all ad clicks for invalid click activity that is intended to artificially drive up an advertiser's clicks or a publisher's earnings. The email you received is a service to let you know that we have detected clicks that we consider to be invalid, but we feel that these clicks can be avoided. A good way to ensure that you do not create invalid clicks is by reviewing and remaining in compliance with our Terms and Conditions and program policies: https://www.google.com/adsense/terms https://www.google.com/adsense/policies In addition, you can review your site's traffic logs for suspicious activity and notify us with any findings at https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/request.py?contact=invalid_clicks_contact. This information can help us in resolving any issues, although as outlined in our Terms and Conditions, Google will use its sole discretion when determining instances of invalid clicks. For more information, please refer to the following Google search terms: Webmaster resources Website tracking and logging Site traffic analysis SO basically they wont furnish any proof of their claims as they cannot disclose their top secret fake click detector which is obviosly flawed because I have never clicked my own ads or encourged anyone to do so. I do not trust google adsense at this point and am just waiting for the 15th of the month for their next excuse to not send my payment.
i ve emailed them like 6 times yesterday and today as the warning they gave me is 3 days .. i asked them to review the changes i made and if they need me to make more changes ..but NO REPLY !!!!! it really sucks ..a warning without even explainig what exactly you should do and then they don t even reply .. i guess tomorrow i ll know the hard way if my changes are ok or if i m banned
I have heard that if you have images close to your ads than you should use a border around the ads to distinguish them from the images.
Can you show us the site? I think many members have the same layout. But you are lucky at least they warned you and YOU better do as they tell you before you have time to answer this.
Yeah, you have to be careful with the pictures. I see more and more people doing it, and it's always very obvious that the intent is to associate the image with the ads. How often do you see an image near an ad unit, that doesn't look like it's there to mislead visitors and increase CTR? I think a lot of people are going to get busted.
The problem that swedish, spanish or what ever Google office are not updated and go by the same rules as Google US. I have many problem with my swedish office and then i turn to the US office no problem.
Images next to ads are designed for one thing: IMAGE ---> AD = LIKE THIS? CLICK ON THIS ---> FOR MORE! I'm actually shock Adsense hasn't started outlawing this yet instead of sending out bot forms to violators. So many people are using this gimmick now that it's ridiculous. I see it 9 out of every 10 times I hit a site with Adsense ads.
I took out the images next to the ads on my site. Even though I get a lower CTR now, it's much safer. Google don't know what they want so it's better to be safe that sorry.
Images next to ads are a bit of a gimic anyway. I find them helpful on low traffic sites, but high traffic sites will generate a good amount of quality clicks, with none of the risk. On the other hand, images can be great space filler when ads appear in content and don't fit the specifications of the given table, etc, you may be working with.