Got Google Slapped - What Next?

24 replies
  • SEO
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Well.......my very first ever Adwords PPC campaign and just got the Google Slap email telling me I violated Adword advertising policies, etc., therefore my account level was suspended and shut down.

I thought I had a really good landing page. I designed it myself, had Privacy, Contact, a blog, articles, Site Map, etc. The landing page had 3 affiliate banners and a few links to the affiliate product page. Would that be what made Google shut me down?

It appeared the landing page was a good quality. I've seen worse being advertised. The product was not of risky nature.

Now I did have the campaign suspended for awhile to figure out how to make it better and was just fixing to make changed to put out a squeeze page to build a list giving subscribers a free E-book, etc and then going the AWeber route.

Any ideas why Google shut my account down in the first place and what is my next option if I want to do Adword PPC ads in the future?

Thank you!
#google #slapped
  • Profile picture of the author bravo75
    What were you advertising?
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    • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
      An all natural hemorrhoid treatment.
      I did my research before I started and saw plenty of other ads in the same niche and the same product.
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      • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
        Update to the first post!

        I was able to sign into my Google Adwords account no problem. There are no announcements, messages, or warnings and I was able to re-start the campaign I paused........

        Yet, I received that email about shutting my Adwords account down at the account level????

        What's up with that? :confused:
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        • Profile picture of the author littlefrenchgirl
          Originally Posted by zosowolfpacker View Post

          Update to the first post!

          I was able to sign into my Google Adwords account no problem. There are no announcements, messages, or warnings and I was able to re-start the campaign I paused........

          Yet, I received that email about shutting my Adwords account down at the account level????

          What's up with that? :confused:
          do you mean all is actually OK even though they said they banned your account? your ads are running OK?
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        • Profile picture of the author UKTim29
          Originally Posted by zosowolfpacker View Post

          Update to the first post!

          I was able to sign into my Google Adwords account no problem. There are no announcements, messages, or warnings and I was able to re-start the campaign I paused........

          Yet, I received that email about shutting my Adwords account down at the account level????

          What's up with that? :confused:
          I've had something similar but I hadn't used my account for a year and had no live or paused campaigns. Went to my account and it was fine.

          You'd assume it was a phishing email but it wasn't, no links in it, no attachments.

          Don't know what was up?
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  • Profile picture of the author bravo75
    Wish I could help you out. Maybe Google doesn't like banners any more. Really don't know. All I know is that I gave up using adwords a while ago. There are plenty of other traffic sources that are not so picky. Google just seem to do whatever they want whenever they want. I am sure there will be some senior warriors over here to give you a few useful answers
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    • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
      Man, I hope some of the senior warriors drop by here. I am completely baffled. Maybe I should have masked the links to the affiliate product page with a php script or something. Don't know

      My main question now is how will I be able to sign up for Adwords again?
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  • Profile picture of the author Wide
    Contact them and ask?
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    • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
      Originally Posted by Wide View Post

      Contact them and ask?
      Just did. Will wait to hear what they say.
      Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author askloz
    they may look at your site as acting as a "Bridge Page" which is against the TOS. A bridge page is where you send traffic to your site in the hopes to make commission from a 3rd party site.

    Would be better if you could show us your domain so I can take a look at it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
      Originally Posted by askloz View Post

      they may look at your site as acting as a "Bridge Page" which is against the TOS. A bridge page is where you send traffic to your site in the hopes to make commission from a 3rd party site.

      Would be better if you could show us your domain so I can take a look at it.
      Here is the domain:

      www.natural-hemorrhoidcure.net


      Now, what you will see currently has never actually been advertised. I had a previous landing page that was similar but I was in the process of making changes. My campaign has been on hold while I finished up the landing page you will see in my domain. I still have to put content on the blog and fix a couple of links.
      But the page they probably dinged me for was very, very similar and yes

      they probably did see it as a bridge page.

      don't laugh it was my very first landing page.
      My wife thought it was too loud and aggressive and was planning to tone the wording down some too.
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      • Profile picture of the author askloz
        Hi ya,

        Ok, the site looks ok in regards to the information you have on there.

        However, you have excessively used a lot of links pointing to the same affiliate link and this is classed as a bridge page.

        You have nothing of value on the site, just text that anyone can get from any site, this does not increase user experience when they can get the same information from other sites like wikipedia, etc.

        Your articles are all duplicate, I ran a search and your articles are all over the place

        Google result - for your article

        Google don't like this... try making your site more unique, then in google's eyes it will make you come across more of an authority...

        Now I'm not saying if this is the cause other than the affiliate links in plane view with no php redirect attached to them, but from a visitors point of view, I'd rather see different type of content...

        One could say, well how does the average person know if it's dup content if they know nothing about search engines and the way they work... well, that's not the point I'm making.

        If the visitor you're trying to get around that niche to your site, has more than likely done their research before and chances are, they've read that article before somewhere, more so since your articles are spread all over the place...

        Im not sure if you posted those articles to those other places or if they're from a PLR package you got. If you do use PLR articles, you're better off going to Mass Article Control, or Article Apps and rewriting that article so they all come off as unique, or at least 80%+ unique.

        ==============
        now this page

        H Miracle - The 100% All Natural Hemorrhoid Cure Presented By Natural-HemorrhoidCure.net - Conventional Hemorrhoid Treatments

        when you click on the home page link again, it doens't take you to the right place, a 404 error, so work on ensuring your links are working before uploading them...

        and don't use capital letters in any of your page names, Google punishes people on bad site structure that's not following the conventional methods of site design and structure. It makes you come across as an amateur .

        =================

        Your title text it says "home page" remove that, it's not needed.
        Also remove your domain name from the title as well and use your main keyword and related SLI keywords in there as well

        ===================

        this is your code

        Code:
        <title>H Miracle - The 100% All Natural Hemorrhoid Cure Presented By Natural-HemorrhoidCure.net - Home Page</title>
        <meta NAME="Keywords" Content="hemorrhoid cure, hemorrhoid, hemorrhoids, hemorrhoid relief, hemorrhoid treatment">
        <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="xsp_styles.css">
        
        <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="LEFT_MENU.css">
        <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="FOOTER_MENU.css">
        <script type="text/javascript" src="milonic_src.js"></script>
        you have no description tag, so therefore, no call to action is being made in these tags, and theres no keywords in there, or any related keywords in there.

        and when you use adwords, make use of the meta keyword and add up to 8 keywords that are highly related to your page and the keywords you're bidding on.

        and also when you're creating your adverts, try to use the same wording, sentences, in your ads as well.

        I see you're using X Site Pro, dude, learn how to use Dreamweaver, X-Site Pro is a load of crap and isn't SE friendly at all.

        it puts so much junk in those pages that is not needed that hogs up loading times that google hates.
        make the loading page more streamlined with CSS and you'll also rank higher in the SE's.

        ===============

        Any ways, make sure you fix those affiliate links and the broken links, as broken links decrease user experience.


        <script type="text/javascript" src="mmenudom.js"></script>
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        • Profile picture of the author warrior123
          Are you positive the email came from Google?

          It's not uncommon for competitors to send out fake emails.
          Signature

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        • Profile picture of the author btl1
          I agree..it doesn't look like you are really adding value to your user experience..your just selling them more on something. Why not try doing a review or detailed product comparisson. Really seek out alternatives and write honest opinions of the pro's and cons'

          Google does not have problems with affiliate links, it does have problems with landing pages that add little or no value to a user experience. Try a different approach and think what would a customer want to see/ what would help them decide ...then add that content.

          Originally Posted by askloz View Post

          Hi ya,

          Ok, the site looks ok in regards to the information you have on there.

          However, you have excessively used a lot of links pointing to the same affiliate link and this is classed as a bridge page.

          You have nothing of value on the site, just text that anyone can get from any site, this does not increase user experience when they can get the same information from other sites like wikipedia, etc.

          Your articles are all duplicate, I ran a search and your articles are all over the place

          Google result - for your article

          Google don't like this... try making your site more unique, then in google's eyes it will make you come across more of an authority...

          Now I'm not saying if this is the cause other than the affiliate links in plane view with no php redirect attached to them, but from a visitors point of view, I'd rather see different type of content...

          One could say, well how does the average person know if it's dup content if they know nothing about search engines and the way they work... well, that's not the point I'm making.

          If the visitor you're trying to get around that niche to your site, has more than likely done their research before and chances are, they've read that article before somewhere, more so since your articles are spread all over the place...

          Im not sure if you posted those articles to those other places or if they're from a PLR package you got. If you do use PLR articles, you're better off going to Mass Article Control, or Article Apps and rewriting that article so they all come off as unique, or at least 80%+ unique.

          ==============
          now this page

          H Miracle - The 100% All Natural Hemorrhoid Cure Presented By Natural-HemorrhoidCure.net - Conventional Hemorrhoid Treatments

          when you click on the home page link again, it doens't take you to the right place, a 404 error, so work on ensuring your links are working before uploading them...

          and don't use capital letters in any of your page names, Google punishes people on bad site structure that's not following the conventional methods of site design and structure. It makes you come across as an amateur .

          =================

          Your title text it says "home page" remove that, it's not needed.
          Also remove your domain name from the title as well and use your main keyword and related SLI keywords in there as well

          ===================

          this is your code

          Code:
          <title>H Miracle - The 100% All Natural Hemorrhoid Cure Presented By Natural-HemorrhoidCure.net - Home Page</title>
          <meta NAME="Keywords" Content="hemorrhoid cure, hemorrhoid, hemorrhoids, hemorrhoid relief, hemorrhoid treatment">
          <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="xsp_styles.css">
          
          <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="LEFT_MENU.css">
          <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="FOOTER_MENU.css">
          <script type="text/javascript" src="milonic_src.js"></script>
          you have no description tag, so therefore, no call to action is being made in these tags, and theres no keywords in there, or any related keywords in there.

          and when you use adwords, make use of the meta keyword and add up to 8 keywords that are highly related to your page and the keywords you're bidding on.

          and also when you're creating your adverts, try to use the same wording, sentences, in your ads as well.

          I see you're using X Site Pro, dude, learn how to use Dreamweaver, X-Site Pro is a load of crap and isn't SE friendly at all.

          it puts so much junk in those pages that is not needed that hogs up loading times that google hates.
          make the loading page more streamlined with CSS and you'll also rank higher in the SE's.

          ===============

          Any ways, make sure you fix those affiliate links and the broken links, as broken links decrease user experience.


          <script type="text/javascript" src="mmenudom.js"></script>
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1454225].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
          Originally Posted by askloz View Post

          Hi ya,

          Ok, the site looks ok in regards to the information you have on there.

          However, you have excessively used a lot of links pointing to the same affiliate link and this is classed as a bridge page.

          You have nothing of value on the site, just text that anyone can get from any site, this does not increase user experience when they can get the same information from other sites like wikipedia, etc.

          Your articles are all duplicate, I ran a search and your articles are all over the place

          Google result - for your article

          Google don't like this... try making your site more unique, then in google's eyes it will make you come across more of an authority...

          Now I'm not saying if this is the cause other than the affiliate links in plane view with no php redirect attached to them, but from a visitors point of view, I'd rather see different type of content...

          One could say, well how does the average person know if it's dup content if they know nothing about search engines and the way they work... well, that's not the point I'm making.

          If the visitor you're trying to get around that niche to your site, has more than likely done their research before and chances are, they've read that article before somewhere, more so since your articles are spread all over the place...

          Im not sure if you posted those articles to those other places or if they're from a PLR package you got. If you do use PLR articles, you're better off going to Mass Article Control, or Article Apps and rewriting that article so they all come off as unique, or at least 80%+ unique.

          ==============
          now this page

          H Miracle - The 100% All Natural Hemorrhoid Cure Presented By Natural-HemorrhoidCure.net - Conventional Hemorrhoid Treatments

          when you click on the home page link again, it doens't take you to the right place, a 404 error, so work on ensuring your links are working before uploading them...

          and don't use capital letters in any of your page names, Google punishes people on bad site structure that's not following the conventional methods of site design and structure. It makes you come across as an amateur .

          =================

          Your title text it says "home page" remove that, it's not needed.
          Also remove your domain name from the title as well and use your main keyword and related SLI keywords in there as well

          ===================

          this is your code

          Code:
          <title>H Miracle - The 100% All Natural Hemorrhoid Cure Presented By Natural-HemorrhoidCure.net - Home Page</title>
          <meta NAME="Keywords" Content="hemorrhoid cure, hemorrhoid, hemorrhoids, hemorrhoid relief, hemorrhoid treatment">
          <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="xsp_styles.css">
          
          <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="LEFT_MENU.css">
          <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="FOOTER_MENU.css">
          <script type="text/javascript" src="milonic_src.js"></script>
          you have no description tag, so therefore, no call to action is being made in these tags, and theres no keywords in there, or any related keywords in there.

          and when you use adwords, make use of the meta keyword and add up to 8 keywords that are highly related to your page and the keywords you're bidding on.

          and also when you're creating your adverts, try to use the same wording, sentences, in your ads as well.

          I see you're using X Site Pro, dude, learn how to use Dreamweaver, X-Site Pro is a load of crap and isn't SE friendly at all.

          it puts so much junk in those pages that is not needed that hogs up loading times that google hates.
          make the loading page more streamlined with CSS and you'll also rank higher in the SE's.

          ===============

          Any ways, make sure you fix those affiliate links and the broken links, as broken links decrease user experience.


          <script type="text/javascript" src="mmenudom.js"></script>
          Very, very good information. Thank you for the suggestions and will try to improve. This was my first attempt at the whole thing.

          Yeah, I was in the process of learning Dreamweaver and finding it quite difficult to get through and came across XSitePro.
          Thanks for your honest opinion of XSitePro! I may go back to trying to learn Dreamweaver and making a better effort at it. It would certainly help me understand more of the working parts of a website that's for sure.

          I had an initial site up with all working links, etc before suspending the campaign and I assume that is what Google dinged me on. I was in the process of completely re-doing the site and had a few things left to work on which is what you came across.

          I do appreciate your suggestions as they are very helpful.
          Signature

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        • Profile picture of the author WareTime
          Originally Posted by askloz View Post

          I see you're using X Site Pro, dude, learn how to use Dreamweaver, X-Site Pro is a load of crap and isn't SE friendly at all.
          I have seen in another forum wherein a person made two campaigns for slightly different products. Both toys for Christmas. Google didn't approve of one and had no problem with the other. In the browser they looked almost identical. The ONLY difference was that one was in X-Site and one in Dreamweaver.

          Me thinks Google throws the baby out with the bathwater in respect to X-Sitepro. They've seen so many low quality affiliate and mfa sites built with it, you start out with marks against you and have to earn your rankings back to what you would have started with with a site built with other technologies.
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          • Profile picture of the author Rudy Dhondt
            I don't think it has anything to do with the kind of site-builder you use.

            They want relevance from the ad to the landing page, where the visitor must recognize the keyword phrase he used to get there.

            The first thing a visitor must experience is that he says: 'I finally found what I was looking for'

            Google wants to offer the visitor a good search-experience to help him find the right solution to his query. Also, they are not satisfied with 1 single landing-page. You have to use mini-sites with Privacy Policy, Contact, Disclaimer, Home page, all linking to each other.

            Further they want the landing page to display the main keyword in H1 tags + a keyword density between 3% and 5 %. So , repeat the keyword in the head, middle and bottom of the page.

            It really does not depend on the HTML-editor.

            I advertize as a merchant, optimizing my pages for relevance, with additional pages as described above. Ever tweaking, and tweaking to get a high CTR and QS and still I got this terrible message from Google Adwords this morning.

            Regards,
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          • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
            I take a 3 hour plane flight home and come here to find out Google was putting the smackdown on a BUNCH of affiliates for unknown reasons. Get the slap email, disabled me for life and it's happening to many others with perfect Quality Scores and making $10K per month.

            I've emailed Google twice and haven't heard the first response yet from them!
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    • Profile picture of the author WareTime
      Originally Posted by askloz View Post

      they may look at your site as acting as a "Bridge Page" which is against the TOS. A bridge page is where you send traffic to your site in the hopes to make commission from a 3rd party site.
      Isn't that 100% the point of affiliate marketing. Almost every affiliate site built is built in the hopes that the user will end up at the affiliate.

      The percentage that exist to inform someone about the product and that are just monetized on the off chance the user wants the product must be less than 1% of all affiliate sites on the net.

      The message to the customer at an affiliate site really is "hi welcome to my store, now get the hell out via that door over there - the one marked affiliate."
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  • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
    was the campaign / quality score poor when you suspended it ? and by suspend i am guessing paused ?

    if so that may be a factor as i did read pausing was similar to an active account in a sense,

    with your account suspension the new policy if i am correct should have a right of reply email attached, if so you will need to use that email to open up a communication channel with google to resolve the issue.
    Signature
    | > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |
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    • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
      Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

      was the campaign / quality score poor when you suspended it ? and by suspend i am guessing paused ?

      if so that may be a factor as i did read pausing was similar to an active account in a sense,

      with your account suspension the new policy if i am correct should have a right of reply email attached, if so you will need to use that email to open up a communication channel with google to resolve the issue.
      The quality score was Very Good when I suspended the campaign. Score was 7/10. It appears the ad met all of the Google requirements based on the Quality Score criteria.
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  • Profile picture of the author Preciseim
    Very informative, lots to learn for everyone there
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  • Profile picture of the author sherry_d
    you guys all point the fact that his page doesnt give an value and has too many links BUT thats what quality score is for and he would have simply got a low quality score and maybe his ads wouldnt show NOT a complete suspension of his account. I have heard this sort of thing happen if your try and advertise those google money tree related stuff

    Honestly I dont know why but may could it be the new FTC rules that maybe google doesnt like any sort of testiminial that promise a miracle cure. Saying that I am still seeing loads of these, it maybe if your acccount was new then a human editor could have checked it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
    If my account is really disabled what can I do to start a new account and advertise or can I?
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