Have you ever wondered how Google actually generates an income? It has a very large network of ads, with which it earns and also shares some revenue with publishers (people who put up AdSense ads on their websites). It's a very elaborate system, with Advertisers trusting Google, and investing their money with it in order to grow their own exposure. Google then shares some of that revenue with the publishers. Now it naturally follows, that Google has to make provisions to maintain the trust of its advertisers, and for that, it has to ensure that publishers don't cheat, or use fraudulant methods of clicking on ads to glean more money out of advertisers. Such bad clicks might result in the ban of your AdSense account. So what can you do to prevent such a thing from happening, even if you're not creating any mischief on your side?
Unfortunately, this happens to the best of us. You can't always control invalid click activity on your blog. Indeed, there are some bad fish out there who feel jealous or threatened from other blogs, so they perform invalid click activity in spite. In this way, even good publishers might come under the spotlight, let alone bad publishers who get banned outright.
If you were in Google's position, you would see how bad clicks are against the best interests of Advertisers, and ultimately those of Google. Advertisers wouldn't like it if they had to pay extra for clicks that didn't really help them. So Google has some tools that keep bad traffic and bad sites out of their network. Unfortunately, these tools can't tell when you're a good publisher who is just subjected to unknown bad-click activity. So to solve this problem, here are some changes Google is making that you might find helpful.
Trusted publishers
Google will now be considering tenure more actively in response to detected invalid activity. If you are a good publisher, and don't have a notorious history, Google will just suspend your account, instead of terminating it. So you should always try to keep it on the safe side of Google. Also, Google is working on a new system wherein it will work more closely with publishers to ensure that they don't even face the inconvenience of getting their accounts disabled, provided that they are trusted publishers.
Activity reports
Google also will send you emails and notifications in case invalid activity is detected. It will let you know about the type of activity, so that you can get to root of the problem. It will also provide you further instructions on getting rid of the invalid activity. So keep checking your email at a regular basis.
Support
Google is now providing publishers with tools to help them submit appeals. The new forms let them tell Google about their plight in more detail, and provide more information. This would hopefully improve the process of submitting appeals and reconsideration requests to Google.
Google has also launched an expanded AdSense Academy, which will detail beginners and pros alike on the do's and don'ts of AdSense. In addition, Google is starting a video series that will explain AdSense policies, and discuss best practises.
We're really looking forward to seeing these changes being implemented, and we'll keep you updated on the latest happenings in this regard. Stay tuned, and keep reading :)
