Google Says My Site Was Disabled For Arbitrage/MFA - need your input

[LifestyleTrans]

Hey guys, here's my situation I'm looking for input on:

I've been using Adwords for my remedy website and it's been working well. About 3 weeks into my campaign I noticed I stopped getting CPC traffic and next to my ads it was saying "Low Quality Score".

I contacted Google Adwords and they first said:

I've looked into your account and confirm that your keywords have a low Quality Score as your landing page quality is poor. Further, we can confirm that your site has been flagged for Unacceptable Business Practices and was consequently disabled.

Please know that in response to multiple complaints received from users and publishers about this category of ads, it is Google’s policy to not accept ads that make inaccurate or misleading claims regarding the product being promoted.

I e-mailed them back and questioned what they said, because nothing on my website is misleading or unacceptable and was wondering if they could be more specific. Then they said this:

I am sorry for any confusion our previous email may have caused. The website in your account has been disabled for Arbitrage/MFA.

ARBITRAGE

To be considered compliant, you must either reduce the number of ads on the page, reduce the area on the page taken up by ads, or reduce both the number of ads and the area that they occupy. Additionally, you must ensure that there is unique, original and relevant content on the page.

To check that your website complies with our arbitrage policy:

1. Open the site in a new browser.
2. Expand the browser to a minimum of a 1024 x 768 pixel display.
3. Make sure you have minimal browser menus and your font is set to medium or normal.
4. Scroll to the very top of the page, as evaluation is based on what appears above the fold.
5. The site is considered compliant if the area of ads is less than or equal to the area of content.

MFA

When evaluating arbitrage, we assess the ratio of sponsored content to original content that is visible on a page above the fold (i.e. without scrolling), on a minimum 1024 x 768 pixel display. When evaluating MFA (Made for AdSense), we assess whether the function of the site is only to drive users to click on sponsored links.

A site can be flagged for violating both Arbitrage and MFA policies at the same time.

To be considered compliant, you must remove any excessive ad content (including any interstitial ad content) from the site, as well as ensure that you are providing users with unique, original and relevant content.

Now, from what I understand and from my research, "Arbitrage/MFA" is when you are using Google Adsense on your page (or any other PPC) and using Adwords to drive traffic to make money from Adsense. Is that correct?

On my site there's no ads, sponsored links, or anything like that. No adsense on my landing page (only in some blog posts).

My site is a standard sales page. When you go to it, there's a Wordpress pop-up opt-in box. There's a banner. A menu. A headline. About myself, my product, testimonials, a money back guarantee, and then a purchase button.

I've been e-mailing them back and fourth and no luck so far.

Has this happened to anyone before? What changes do I need to make to meet their guidelines? How can I fix this?

Your input is important to me, thank you!

[Mcrofts]

I Saw your Website, is it a PLR Website? or is it your's & Unique?

[LifestyleTrans]

Yes it's my website that I created. My copywriting, my design, and everything else. Just all on wordpress. Everything there is original and unique.

[Mcrofts]

I Wouldn't know why, it look's like Quality Content.
I saw the Adsense, they wouldn't be happy if your using Adword's and your getting a High Ratio of Click's on Adsense Compared to Site View's

Other than that Good Luck, Hopefully someone with good Adword's Experience Will be able to help you out

[alpacabob]

This is not particularly helpful to the situation, but reading that email got me thinking and I couldn't help sharing.

As I was reading, something struck me- so I pulled out a ruler and tested Google's search results by those standards. They fail to meet them- miserably. Way more above the fold is sponsored advertising than anything else. They should ban themselves...

In the meantime- did you get this figured out? I'd be curious what the resolution was.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by Mcrofts

I saw the Adsense, they wouldn't be happy if your using Adword's and your getting a High Ratio of Click's on Adsense Compared to Site View's

That makes no sense. Google not wanting adsense clicks?????

What they mean is the adsense is okay as a sideline. Here is a perfect example.

A plastic surgeon in LA is using adwords to drive traffic to the site.

But many people are not in LA, don't like him, too expensive, etc.

So, he tosses up adsense for those people. A sideline. For more info.

This is actually a case study that google shares. I posted the link
somewhere on this forum.

When your main focus is on getting adsense clicks, that's not the
purpose of adwords. Makes sense to me.

I've also mentioned above the fold many times as part of google TOS.
Each time, I get laughed at. Go figure.

Paul

[LifestyleTrans]

Hey, nope nothing has been resolved with Google.

After talking to them more, they said it wasn't for arbitrage (they got confused or something??) and said that my site didn't meet their guidelines. They wouldn't go into specifics or give me details of what was wrong with it or what needs to be changed.

I've tried submitting other landing pages with them, but have kept getting disapproved.

Has anyone found out what's the easiest way to get a website approved?

Maybe I can't submit a landing page or sales page to them... perhaps I should just create a page with some content on it and a link? Not sure what to do with them.

I've been using Microsoft Adcenter and they've approved me no problem. They have better customer support too.

But, I would still like to use Google Ads...

[mathmo]

Seems a little odd you would have adsense on landing pages.... as those pages out of all the pages on your website are very clearly there for you as you want to sell stuff. Why dilute the message with ads? (as you make far more from one sale than many adsense clicks) I'd keep them if you want them, just elsewhere on your site.

Originally Posted by alpacabob

This is not particularly helpful to the situation, but reading that email got me thinking and I couldn't help sharing.

As I was reading, something struck me- so I pulled out a ruler and tested Google's search results by those standards. They fail to meet them- miserably. Way more above the fold is sponsored advertising than anything else. They should ban themselves...

LOL! That is true, but only for certain searches. I a random search... then I realised I should of course pick one with lots of advertising. Such as "buy laptop". Indeed! What happens when Google bans Google?

[WealthWithin]

Originally Posted by LifestyleTrans

Hey, nope nothing has been resolved with Google.

After talking to them more, they said it wasn't for arbitrage (they got confused or something??) and said that my site didn't meet their guidelines. They wouldn't go into specifics or give me details of what was wrong with it or what needs to be changed.

I've tried submitting other landing pages with them, but have kept getting disapproved.

Has anyone found out what's the easiest way to get a website approved?

Maybe I can't submit a landing page or sales page to them... perhaps I should just create a page with some content on it and a link? Not sure what to do with them.

I've been using Microsoft Adcenter and they've approved me no problem. They have better customer support too.

But, I would still like to use Google Ads...

I suggest that you start over with a new domain. It's really hard to fix things with Google once they get flagged.

Create a 3-5 page website. Don't put a long sales letter in there. Have a short pre-sales page with good content, a strong call to action and an opt-in FORM. Remove all pop-ups, and any other PPC ads. Also make sure to have a contact form, privacy policy, about us etc.

Just focus on lead gen, and not sales at this point. Google hates pop-ups on websites.

This should get things moving.

[alpacabob]

Originally Posted by WealthWithin

I suggest that you start over with a new domain. It's really hard to fix things with Google once they get flagged.

Create a 3-5 page website. Don't put a long sales letter in there. Have a short pre-sales page with good content, a strong call to action and an opt-in FORM. Remove all pop-ups, and any other PPC ads. Also make sure to have a contact form, privacy policy, about us etc.

Just focus on lead gen, and not sales at this point. Google hates pop-ups on websites.

This should get things moving.

I think this great advice- I'd add to it to sign up a new email and do a new adwords account entirely. Right now you're starting from already demonized. If everything was new- domain name, email, etc., the past obnoxiousness they caused probably wouldn't follow you.

Also- add in the advertising slowly.

As an interesting aside, I've known many people who work for Google. Just for a little insight- AdWords is where they toss new hires on a really nasty kind of probationary period where you can get fired for small violations- so they tend to be new, inexperienced, and stressed out beyond belief trying to secure a job. It's unfortunate- it's their biggest money maker and they put it in the hands of people who can't think clearly because they're too scared of losing their job.

Also- everyone I knew at Google has left. They were all there in part because they believed in the company and they all became disillusioned. It's pretty sad- they really were a benevolent company of nerds who thought indexing information was a really cool project. Now they act in the nasty ways that you find in so many industries.

[LifestyleTrans]

Thanks, this is really solid advice guys!

A few questions...

Would I have to use a new credit card or anything?

For the domain, would I have to register a new domain entirely? Or would you just use a wordpress domain or something?

Would it work if I just created a wordpress blog or a simple webpage with a few articles or content on it (nothing sales oriented). And then get APPROVED FIRST. And then after a few days, slowly change the site a bit to add a link to a sales page, maybe a banner, maybe an opt-in box, etc... see how things go, and then keep making a few changes and optimize it better for sales?

Originally Posted by alpacabob

I think this great advice- I'd add to it to sign up a new email and do a new adwords account entirely. Right now you're starting from already demonized. If everything was new- domain name, email, etc., the past obnoxiousness they caused probably wouldn't follow you.

Also- add in the advertising slowly.

As an interesting aside, I've known many people who work for Google. Just for a little insight- AdWords is where they toss new hires on a really nasty kind of probationary period where you can get fired for small violations- so they tend to be new, inexperienced, and stressed out beyond belief trying to secure a job. It's unfortunate- it's their biggest money maker and they put it in the hands of people who can't think clearly because they're too scared of losing their job.

Also- everyone I knew at Google has left. They were all there in part because they believed in the company and they all became disillusioned. It's pretty sad- they really were a benevolent company of nerds who thought indexing information was a really cool project. Now they act in the nasty ways that you find in so many industries.

[mathmo]

Yes, get a domain. Only costs ten bucks or so per year and looks a LOT better to your viewers.

[LifestyleTrans]

Wanted to update everyone with my status with Adwords.

I decided to just test things to see if I get approved with Adwords using just a wordpress.com site and domain. I made a Wordpress blog that just has an article on it, a picture, and some content. In the article just a link back to my primary site.

When I put in the ads, they were disapproved almost instantly. It's almost like the computer disapproved them and someone wasn't even reviewing them. Not sure about this though, maybe it was manually reviewed.

I also used a different Adwords account then I've previously used.

I got this e-mail from them:

Please note that when a site is found to be in violation of our Landing Page and Site Policies, the site is disabled within your AdWords account and respective ads are disapproved for "Site Policy." Disabling is an action applied at the domain level, and it results in a low landing page quality score and termination of ad traffic. If multiple ad groups have landing pages with the same disabled domain, the keywords in those ad groups will have identical landing page quality scores as well.

To learn more about our Landing Page and Site Policies, please visit Landing page and site policies - AdWords Help.

Multiple or egregious violations of our Landing Page and Site Policies may result in the suspension of your account and any related accounts, and your ads will no longer run on Google. Domains with egregious Landing Page and Site Policy violations may require significant site changes or a change in business practices to comply with our policies. For a list of Landing Page and Site Policies that may be classified as egregious as well as information on our AdWords suspension policies, please visit https://adwords.google.com/support/a...&page=guide.cs.

It says it was disapproved at the DOMAIN level. So does that mean the domain keywords I'm using are the reason for the disapproval? If so, maybe I should test using a totally unrelated domain name.

Any thoughts on this?

[mathmo]

Sounds like it was disallowed because it only had one page?

[WealthWithin]

Originally Posted by LifestyleTrans

Wanted to update everyone with my status with Adwords.

I decided to just test things to see if I get approved with Adwords using just a wordpress.com site and domain. I made a Wordpress blog that just has an article on it, a picture, and some content. In the article just a link back to my primary site.

When I put in the ads, they were disapproved almost instantly. It's almost like the computer disapproved them and someone wasn't even reviewing them. Not sure about this though, maybe it was manually reviewed.

I also used a different Adwords account then I've previously used.

I got this e-mail from them:



It says it was disapproved at the DOMAIN level. So does that mean the domain keywords I'm using are the reason for the disapproval? If so, maybe I should test using a totally unrelated domain name.

Any thoughts on this?

May I ask why are you playing with fire? (Google AdWords and foreign domains)

If money is an issue, at least get a .info for $0.99.

[superSEO2011]

Google is so odd at times!