Google is banning adwords accounts, Beware!

[DRB]

I have heard a few marketers have had their adwords accounts banned. Reasons given by Google are for having repeated low quality landing pages although apparently having good quality scores. How widespread is this getting?

[George Wright]

Just when I thought it was save to go back into the water. Never mind. "look alike" ads for me now for sure.

You know it's not the "fact" of it happening. It's the constant threat of it happening.

George Wright

[DRB]

I remember in 2005 when everyone was talking about their adsense accounts going! Its different when you are paying Google and still getting banned!

Great .. Think I will go use my $100 gift now ....lol

James

[Sean Ski]

Man, they are clamping down and pushing affiliates out... Even though its probably affiliate marketers who were the pioneers of Adwords... ingrates.

If you don't want any problems better be sure you have a unique quality site; here's the litmus test - if you wouldn't want to show/sell it to your mom then don't submit it to Google, they're getting real stingy!!

[DRB]

My question is what kind of affiliate redirects to use? instant PHP redirects seem OK as long as they are "nofollow" links however I have seen an increase in big sites using meta refresh with "you are being redirected to". Anyone shed any light on this?

[DRB]

Is there not anyone out there who has an opinion on this?

Originally Posted by DRB

My question is what kind of affiliate redirects to use? instant PHP redirects seem OK as long as they are "nofollow" links however I have seen an increase in big sites using meta refresh with "you are being redirected to". Anyone shed any light on this?

Sell your own product and do not use a landing page, send people directly to your site selling your own product... Thats the simple solution..

James

[DRB]

Well yes that is the way if you have your own product.....but if you are an affiliate with a high quality site, then what is the best way?

[wordwizard]

No landing page? i.e., no sales page? Or do you mean no squeeze page?

What kind of uhm, page should we send them to if none of the above? A blog or an
information only page (with a subtle link somewhere?

Originally Posted by DRB

Well yes that is the way if you have your own product.....but if you are an affiliate with a high quality site, then what is the best way?

Maybe don't use redirects ...

Maybe don't use a spammy looking "give me your email now" landing page...

Remember what everyone says "The search engines want to provide their users with quality" Not everyone is visiting your site to be annoyed with a stupid opt-in form or worse yet a freaking popup...

Not saying your site has this but just giving you "maybe that is the problem" ....

James

[DRB]

I am not saying my site has a problem at all. I am not promoting an IM product but more a comparison site of real products. Al I am saying is that I have noticed quite a few of the larger product comparison sites opting to use a "you are being redirected page" and wondered if anyone else had noticed and could offer an explanation as to the shift to this situation.

[jbode]

Why not use Yahoo or Microsoft or any of the other traffic buying sites, although I do like Google's Content Network (not as strict as their search network and a ton more traffic).

[DRB]

I do use all the PPC channels. My point was that Google have started wide scale banning of adwords accounts and was hoping to provoke a little enthusiasm into talking about that. Not looking at other options. I thought that google banning adwords accounts may have a big consequence for fellow warriors.

[GeorgeWhitaker]

This goes to show you that Google does not care at all about the small affiliates. They really only care about the big guys (the giant corporations) that spend thousands just to get their brand recognized on the first page for extremely competitive keywords.

[Catalyst eMarketing]

Most of the bans I've heard about have involved certain types of affiliate sites and offers.

Anything with Google in the name, like Google Money Tree which not only trademark infringed but was a scam. Dodgy get rich quick schemes, some dodgy rebill offers and affiliate review sites.

I do agree it seems G is cracking down lately, but affiliates that pay close attention to what she wants can still do effective PPC. Google tells affiliate marketers what she does and does not approve of on these 2 pages.

What should I know as an affiliate advertiser? - AdWords Help

Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines - AdWords Help

Originality:

• Feature unique content that can't be found on another site. This guideline is particularly applicable to resellers whose site is identical or highly similar to another reseller's or the parent company's site, and to affiliates that use the following types of pages:
  • Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company
  • Mirror pages: Pages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site; your site should not mirror (be similar or nearly identical in appearance to) your parent company's or any other advertiser's site
• Provide substantial information. If your ad does link to a page consisting mostly of ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), provide additional, unique content.

[wordwizard]

Hi Linda,

thanks for the info and the links. Very helpful.

Elisabeth

[nichenews]

I think they just want rid of all the horrible fake weight loss blogs, work at home scams and rebill offers, and I don't blame them.

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by GeorgeWhitaker

This goes to show you that Google does not care at all about the small affiliates. They really only care about the big guys (the giant corporations) that spend thousands just to get their brand recognized on the first page for extremely competitive keywords.

The ban is for all accounts that have affiliate pages. Doesn't matter what the product or service is, they don't want you to use Adwords to promote an affiliate, or what they call a bridge page. Sending the click directly to the merchant's page is OK.

The reason? Too many affiliates using Adwords promoting the same things. Bad user experience.

By the way, a landing page is the page where the user lands on when they click an ad or a SERP link for that matter. It can be any page that exists on the Net.