Google treats policy violations and invalid traffic very seriously in order to protect the users, publishers and advertisers who make up our advertising ecosystem. While we usually notify publishers and take action for policy and invalid traffic at the site level, there may be times when we'll need to suspend or disable accounts due to policy violations or invalid traffic.
An account suspension gives you time to make the relevant changes to your site. Suspensions can last for different lengths of time. The duration of your suspension will be specified in your email notification. If you've been suspended, you’ll still be able to sign in to your AdSense account. However, no ads will be shown for the duration of your suspension. Site reviews and account upgrades will be paused until the suspension is lifted. You’ll also see that a payment hold has been automatically added to your account.
If your account is suspended, you’ll receive an email stating whether this action was due to policy violations or invalid traffic. Please search your email for a message from AdSense and review the relevant section below:
- Account suspension for policy violation(s)
- Account suspension for invalid traffic
- Common reasons why AdSense accounts are suspended for invalid traffic
Account suspension for policy violation(s)
Our programme policies are in place to help ensure a positive experience for everyone who makes up our advertising ecosystem. When we come across a violating site, we either a) send a warning message asking you to fix the site or b) disable ad serving to the site immediately, if the violation is severe.
If our policies are repeatedly or egregiously violated then we may need to move beyond action at the individual website level and take action at the account level. We may temporarily suspend your account to provide you with an opportunity to review all of your content, fix violations and put safeguards in place to help ensure your policy compliance.
To learn more about the policy issues that contributed to your suspensions, sign in to your account and review your violation history. For tips on monitoring your websites for policy violations and clarification about our policies, we recommend reviewing the following resources:
- Content filtering
- Using site: search to find violations
- Top reasons for account closure
- Inside AdSense blog (programme policies posts)
Our hope is that you'll be able to resolve your policy issues during the suspension period. If you continue to violate our policies after the suspension period then your account will be disabled. If this occurs, then we may withhold earnings associated with violations, up to your total earnings in the past 60 days, in order to refund impacted advertisers (where appropriate and possible).
Account suspension for invalid traffic
In addition to monitoring for policy violations, we analyse all clicks and impressions to determine whether they fit a pattern of use that might artificially drive up an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. If we determine that your account has invalid traffic, then we may suspend or disable your account. If this occurs, then we may withhold earnings associated with violations, up to your total earnings in the past 60 days, in order to refund impacted advertisers (where appropriate and possible).
Account suspension gives you time to investigate the sources of invalid traffic, identify and block suspicious traffic and put measures in place to ensure clean traffic. Suspensions cannot be appealed. We recommend learning how to segment your traffic to help you best understand, monitor and evaluate the traffic to your website. This may also help you to identify sources of invalid traffic. For more information visit our Ad Traffic Quality Resource Centre.
Please note that, if any additional issues are found in your AdSense account in the interim period of suspension, your account may be permanently disabled even before the suspension period ends. If, after your account has been unsuspended, invalid traffic persists and continues to provide low-value traffic to our ads ecosystem, then we may limit or disable ad serving, re-suspend your account or disable your account to protect our advertisers and users.
To help you understand the possible reasons that publishers may have their accounts suspended for invalid traffic, we’ve outlined the most common reasons below. Note that this is not a complete list, but the main causes.
Common reasons why AdSense accounts are suspended for invalid traffic
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Publishers must not click on the ads on their website or YouTube channel, and must not artificially inflate the impressions or clicks that the ads receive, either by automated or manual means. Additionally, YouTube publishers should skip ads when viewing their own videos to avoid artificially inflating advertiser costs.
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If you'd like more information about one of the advertisers appearing on your website, please type the URL of the ad directly into your browser's address bar.
- Publishers may not ask others to refresh or click their ads. This includes asking for users to support your website or channel, offering rewards to users for viewing ads or performing searches and promising to raise money for third parties for such behaviour.
