I have been running Adsense ads on my sites for a while now. 80% of my online income comes from Adsense (as of writing) but the interesting thing is that I have only visited the Adsense policy page once and that is when I enrolled to the program. I have often come across the new terms and conditions, which would block access to my account unless I agreed to the new changes but have always agreed without even reading through.This was a purely dangerous approach especially because my online business thrives on Adsense. Fortunately for me I have since seen the light and before I continue expanding my niche sites, I have decided to go back to STUDY the terms and conditions.

For your benefit, here are some key things to keep in mind about Google Adsense policies. Some of the precautions I recommend are not necessary detrimental but they are just good practice and I believe it is better to be safe than sorry. Remember, you only have one short with Google Adsense, once you are banned; you are banned and will not be accepted again. So read this carefully and do visit the Adsense policy page every once in a while. My analysis does not consider Adsense for mobile and Adsense for video.

Essentially Google makes it your responsibility to keep up with their regular changes of the Adsense policy and terms and conditions. They retain the power to approve or disapprove any account. They can ban your Adsense account without any explanation. In fact a lot of publishers have been suspended for some unknown reasons some, it is believed, were not even in the wrong. Do not let this despair you, Google is not as evil as they make them out to be.

Google requires you to come up with a privacy policy that you should add to your site. The policy must disclose the fact that 3rd parties may be placing and reading cookies on your visitor’s browsers or using web beacons to collect information, in the ads of being served on your website. Also provide information about user options for cookies management.

Google hates confusing your visitors with ads or even content that looks like Google serves it. Interestingly Google also mentions the search box i.e. should also not be displayed within a “confusing” ad or content. Do not contact the companies that advertise thought Adwords/Adsense for any reason. Google provides a way for you to do this (only through or via them).

I have also noticed that Google does not like it when we try to dig deeper into what they prefer to keep confidential. There are so many tools that enable Adsense publishers to see more than what Google offers in terms of who clicked an ad, where they were coming from etc. I simply choose to avoid these unless I see clear evidence that Google has approved them. On the Webmaster guidelines, Google even specifies that they hate it when you use some tools to check your position on their index.

Should I even mention this one? Never ever click on your own ads. Google is smart, if you do this they will catch up with you. DO NOT even participate in any form of click scam like software, hiring people to click on the ads. I generally avoid telling my friends and colleagues about the niche sites I own. I do this for two reasons, 1) to avoid being sabotaged by someone I have fallen out of favor with and 2) to avoid getting clicks from those who are trying to support my online business. I also avoid repeatedly refreshing my Adsense pages as much as I can.

Avoid leading your visitors to the Adsense ads. Do not add “click here” , add any pictures next to the ads or any tricky business. You are only allowed to use, “Sponsored Links” but not “Favorite Sites”

Make sure that you develop good content. Google loves good content. Do not create stub pages and malicious duplicate content on your site. Note, Google does not hate duplicate content especially because they have a way of dealing with it but if they suspect that you did it to intentionally deceive search engines then you would be in trouble. Do not spam the pages with keywords. Just add them naturally throughout the page.

I never realized that Google does not allow the ads to be displayed on some sites like those about gambling or promotion of prescription drugs or even those that promote products that are a duplication of original brands.

Watch out for public domain content, make sure it is not copy written, I prefer to write my own content for my site and then I outsource for article marketing – it is a lot of work but at least I know my content is original.

One interesting rule pertains to Webmaster guidelines. If Google were to crack the whip on this one, many of us would be left stranded. While these guidelines are more directly related to getting indexed by Google search engine, as an Adsense publisher you are REQUIRED to adhere to them.

I cannot list all requirements here so just visit the Webmaster guidelines

Avoid pop ups as much as you can on your sites. Never temper with the Adsense java script – Just copy and paste period. Google hates it if you do not make money with you ads; in fact they say they may suspend your site.
On a partying note, do not put more than 3 ad units on a page and just jeep the link units and search boxes to two. If you go beyond these figures, you stand a better chance of losing your account.

These are obviously not conclusive but should be enough to test your knowledge and get you reading about these terms even further.