How does Google decide if a site is a "made for Adsense site"?

Unfortunately, there's no specific and universal definition. However, what's agreed upon is this:

There's something out there called "scraper sites". Using web scraping, these spam websites copies content from other websites.

Well, there's some scraper websites that are made ONLY to make money using advertising programs such as Google Adsense. They're called (yup) "Made for AdSense" sites (or an "MFA" site).

The ONE THING GOOGLE DECIDES IS THIS: if a website has absolutely NO REDEEMING value other than to lure visitors to it for the purpose of clicking ads, then it's a no-no.

It's a pretty loose definition I know. But it's Google that makes the final call as to if your website qualifies for this status.

Honestly, it's pretty easy for a lay person to see through a site's purpose and KNOW it's only there to make money.

These sites usually have 1) no content, just ads, 2) copied content and ads, or 3) a tiny bit of original content and the rest ads, ads, ads!

Your situation is you've got a website with AdSense code. And you're using an AdWords campaign to bring visitors to your website.

Is that okay? On the face of it, it is.

However, you've got to go back and look at your site: you better make sure the content is original, copious, and serves a purpose: in other words, will Google see your situation as you using AdWords just to get clicks to your ads?

If not, then you're good to go. If you think there is room for Google to view your activities with suspicion, then you should stop and fix your issues and then resume.

I hope that helps a tad or at the very least gives you a few facts that you weren't aware of before!

thank you. My content is original and informative. It is a 6 page website, with just one block of adsense on the top of each page.

I cannot find anything in Adsense Terms and Conditions that says you are in violation of anything. The prohibited use section does not say you can't buy traffic. I would not rely on this method to get traffic to my adsense sites though...

it is arbitrage... they may ban u

I have made arbitrage with reasonable success for 2 years. At least here in Brazil google allows this. But only for sites that have content, sites that are not indexed in good positions and good keywords are banned on the same day in adwords.

I will not do it again, I only did it for 4 days, before thought hmmm, "I wonder if its ok to do this?" Then I stopped the campaign. Does anyone know the answerto my other question. Thanks again everyone.

you need test, test and test hahaha

If you are not PRO will hardly be able to even the money invested in adwords.
I use more as a way to attract new visitors in the long run end up yielding more authority and commitment to the site and ultimately more profits.

My personal rule is always re-invest 20% of earnings in adsense in adwords, and other physical products in 30% (improving computers, notebook, chair, office furniture, energy bills and internet). The remainder goes for coffee and beer.

they can caught you if something absurd occurs. like 100$ in 2 days of using adwords. otherwise its ok i think.
but i think adword is better for promoting any offers or products rather than a website with adsense.

Don't carry on with that, it's not worth the risk. Arbitrage was a big scheme about 5 years back until Google put a stop to it, and even though it is not specifically forbidden to send Adwords traffic to pages with Adsense on, anything that remotely smacks of arbitrage is just asking for the ban-hammer. I wouldn't bother.

As to the comparison between number of Adwords clicks and if your site was on page one, well, no, you can't really compare that because it really depends on where your ads are showing and a ton of other stuff. I guess if your ad is showing in first or second place above the search results then you COULD loosely compare that to a number one ranking, but only in terms of ballpark traffic.

For example I have a site that was at no. 1 for its search term - it got knocked down to no. 2 in the October Panda, and there was NO change in traffic for that keyword. Won't always work out like that though.

There is absolutely nothing in Google's TOS that says you can't run a Google ad that directs traffic to a site with adsense on it. If Google forbids this then why isn't it in their TOS? In fact, there is a statement in their TOS I read a few months ago that seemed to encourage the practice. These threads pop up all the time with people saying you can't do it and they never back up their claim with a quote from Google's TOS. Just make sure you provide a lot of good original content and don't overdo the adsense ads and you will be fine.

I would say unless you offer another service on your site and Adsense is your secondary monetization its a no no.

Even then I personally wouldn't bother its just not worth losing your account over just concentrate on getting good organic traffic through SEO

I did the same thing for my first website with a free coupon I got from my hosting. It's good, but it seems if you have less than 1000 words and more than 1 ad on the linked page, it will be considered arbitrage. Those numbers aren't specific. If there are just a lot of ad units without that much content on the page then it's not a good idea.

My account wasn't banned, but a Google representative emailed me that any campaigns to that URL will be disabled until Io take down some of the ad units or add more content. I added more content and only had 2 ad units, but they still said no. I just stopped the campaign and the URL was disabled from adwords.

Google Ads can do help to your site, but I think SEO is best to promote your products and cost little.