Editor’s note: John Brown, the Head of Publisher Policy Communications, is explaining what to do if you receive a policy warning message.
In this post, I’d like to talk about policy warning messages and what steps you should take if you receive one. I’ll also answer some of the most common questions around warning messages.
What is a warning message?
We send out warning messages to our publishers if their site, or a page of their site, violates our AdSense policies. For minor policy violations that can be fixed fairly easily, our first step is to issue a warning.
Where can I see my warning message?
Warning messages are sent to the email address associated with your AdSense account. You can manage your
contact email address under Personal Settings in your account. You can also check out outstanding policy violations by visiting
the Status page in your AdSense account.
What do I do if I get a warning?
If you receive a warning message, follow these steps to fix the violation as quickly as possible:
- Read the instructions in the warning message very carefully to understand how the flagged policy violation corresponds to the particular page of your site.
- Optimally, we would recommend simply removing Google AdSense code from the violating pages. You do not need to remove Google AdSense code from your whole website, just the violating pages.
- If you are unable to or unsure of how to remove the ads from these pages, or would like to continue monetizing the page with Google ads, please modify or remove the violating content to meet our AdSense policies.
- Multiple pages of your site might be violating the policies. Check all your pages of all of your sites to make sure they’re compliant.
- When adding new content to your site on pages with Google ads, ensure that these pages comply with Google policies. Our warning emails include a URL from your website of a violating page, but it is possible that other pages on your site have violations as well. Review all your sites and pages to make sure they are policy compliant.
What is the timeline to fix the violation?
After receiving a warning, you should immediately take time to review your pages where Google AdSense code is implemented and ensure that it complies with our policies. If you fix the violation or remove the ad code from violating pages, you don’t need to contact us.
How do we determine how to send warning messages?
It is a common misconception that AdSense disables websites and sends warning messages randomly. We rely upon a detailed set of guidelines when looking at policy violations, which you can find in the
AdSense Help Center.
Do we ever disable ad serving to a site without first sending a warning?
There are some situations when we would need to disable ad serving to a site without first sending a warning. We usually take this action for extreme violations like
adult content and
copyright infringement, as well as cases of
violent content. We may also disable ads to a site when we find a violation that we’ve already contacted a publisher about in the past.
How can I appeal a disabling and get ad serving reinstated?
If ad serving on your site is disabled due to a policy violation, there are steps you must take in order to have ads reinstated. First, the page(s) of your site that is in violation of Google policies must be reviewed. As mentioned in my previous
blog post, our obligations to advertisers drive many of our policies and enforcement of our policies. Therefore, we simply ask that you remove our ad code from the violating page(s), ensuring our advertisements do not appear alongside content that violates Google policies. Once the ad code has been removed, you can then file an appeal after reviewing our
policy appeals Help Center article. Sometimes users delete all their Google AdSense code; you don't need to remove the ad code from non-violating pages before sending the appeal.
To make sure that the appeal is a strong one, please tell us exactly what action you've taken on your site to resolve the violations and also tell us how you'll prevent similar occurrences in the future. I recommend that you include some other example URLs that you've taken action on proactively. We want to work with our publishers to help them grow their businesses while remaining policy-compliant.
You can find more information about policy appeals
here.
Is there a point at which an account can get shut down completely?
The final and most severe action that our teams can take is to close down an account completely. This normally only happens when we find egregious policy violations, if a large portion of a publisher’s network consists of violating sites, or for repeat policy offenders.
I hope this helps you to deal with policy violations. For more information about policy warnings,
check out this Help Center article. We’d love to hear your thoughts to improve our processes. Let us know what you think in the comment section below this post.
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Posted by John Brown
Head of Publisher Policy Communications
