Article Submission = Google Adwords policy violation?

by minion
7 replies
A few months ago I launched a website promoting backlink packages - I set up a few articles, spun them and submitted them over a few weeks.

I also set up an adwords account and ending up spending over $700 (lesson learned - About 90% of those clicks originated from China).

After a few weeks, I decided to move away from the automated article spinning and focus on providing a more white-hat solution to customers. I took the website down and spent a few months developing the back-end for the relaunch.

Last week I launched a local website promoting website development services and tried setting up adwords using my existing account.
I noticed that the ads weren't running - After contacting Google, they responded with an email stating my account had been suspended for policy violation.

My question is: Is it possible that these automated backlinks I submitted months ago were detected and my account suspended as a result? Or was it more likely because I was offering an article submission service (though the website was taken completely offline)?
#adwords #article #google #policy #submission #violation
  • Profile picture of the author paulpower
    Hmmm, good question.

    I would probably say that Google found out that you had spun your article and had not actually rewritten them.

    Article spinners are great as long as you have loaded the synonym database yourself, otherwise most of the time, they look unreadable, although I am sure you made sure yours were readable.

    Google has definitely got a lot smarter with spun articles though, and I would always recommend that you rewrite your articles yourself instead, as that way you know they are 100% different from the original.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5117514].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author minion
      Thanks for the response - I'm pretty sure it was the spun articles that caused it as well.

      I won't be using spun articles anymore. There are so many mixed opinions on whether they're a good idea or not - even with a good synonym database, I'm sure Google will figure out a way to detect them.
      It makes sense that if we automatically spin articles using synonyms, then it is possible for Google to automatically un-spin them using a similar database - whether or not they actually do that now, I'm sure they'll try to find a way to detect these. It has to be safer to manually write articles - I don't want to take the chance
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5118355].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Matt.Lake
    I'm not entirely sure if I understand what you're saying but if you think that your Adwords account got suspended due to the backlinks pointing to your website, I'd say that that's not the case.

    SEO and Adwords are generally separate, in that your site can take a hit in the organic rankings whilst still being perfectly Adwords compliant. And likewise, your site can experience problems with Adwords whilst still managing to rank organically perfectly fine.

    I think the more obvious reason your account was suspended is that you were promoting backlink packages. If that's the case, then why is it so hard to understand? You're trying to promote something that Google is actively against on Adwords!! I mean come on!

    Also, it's a bit irrelevant now but a lesson to you and others... to be getting thousands of ppc clicks from China, you clearly didn't set which country you want your ads to appear in. I'd say it's common sense that you'd want to only target english speaking countries... that's just obvious... and a daily budget I might add.

    Anyway, it's quite obvious why you were suspended and I almost guarantee it has nothing to do with spun articles... just thought I'd clear this up.

    Matt
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5118487].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by minion View Post

    they responded with an email stating my account had been suspended for policy violation.
    Yes, it will have been, won't it, if you were selling backlinking packages and getting thousands of clicks from China?! :rolleyes:

    Much though I hate spun articles, myself, this story clearly had nothing to do with that at all.

    Originally Posted by paulpower View Post

    I would probably say that Google found out that you had spun your article and had not actually rewritten them.
    Amazon.com: Why People Believe Weird Things:...Amazon.com: Why People Believe Weird Things:...
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5118861].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author minion
      All valid points - I'd normally agree that the reason was because I was promoting a backlink package site, but I wasn't convinced for the following reasons:
      1 - I ran the promotion without problems for a couple of months. Surely they could have picked up these almost immediately.
      2 - I can still see websites paying for the same ads that were around when my site was live. (About 6 months ago now)
      3 - Why don't they just block the keywords? I've noticed they've done it on other keywords (ie: can't place ads on them).

      I do remember wondering if I would be suspended because of the nature of the site though - maybe it just took some time. Either way, I'm just going to play it safe from now on.

      I've seen many people saying that adwords and organic search are kept seperate - but I worked for a company a few years ago selling paintball gear. They had adwords set up which did quite well, but for some reason decided to stop paying them. I'm not sure how much they owed Google, but it was a reasonable amount.
      Shortly after that our organic search position completely dropped off and disappeared for a couple of months - and it didn't return until the bill was paid.
      Coincidence? Maybe. But a very suspicious one.

      And re: the China links - I had thought the Filter by language would be enough - obviously it wasn't. I didn't check my analytics for a few days, quickly fixed it once I saw the problem though. I made many stupid mistakes, ones I definitely won't repeat

      Edit:
      Also should point out that I've had an adwords rep look over my account. They couldn't find any problems and have forwarded it to the tech team. The backlink campaigns are still clearly visible - just paused. I would assume that if this was the problem, they would have identified it straight away.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5120440].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Backlink packages would also be a Google TOS violation. They don't like people selling backlinks to game the serps, so I suspect that the product itself was in violation of their TOS
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5121515].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author kennykjtan
      To be honest, Google loves to ban people. They have gotten their head so big and acting live they control the internet world. If they are a bit more considerate then I believe everyone will love Google. One the other hand, if they are not strict, we got junks from the net so .....

      Thank to the emergence of Facebook. They are much more considerate and that is the reason why they are overtaking Google by storm. As of why you are suspended, you need to clarify that with Google. If article submission is a violation then something is very wrong Google.

      I believe you've not 100% compliance to their TOC. Even though you look study their TOC, it's so general and basically everyone has got a product or something to sell, will not be accepted.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5121868].message }}

Trending Topics