Random Thought on AdSense Invalid Clicks and Bannings

I have seen and heard from countless people that have been disabled by the Google AdSense program under the generic reason of "invalid clicks". So many that I have been waiting for my own disable notification. These users are typically angry because they don't click their own ads, they don't encourage anyone to click them, and have, as far as they know, followed all the rules put forth by Google.

What I find more troubling is the apparent lack of communication and explanation to these users, or, the publishers in general. I understand they can't, or won't, reveal much in order to protect their methods of detection, but it appears they are not even really trying to protect their publishers, only their advertisers.

That being said, it also seems the vast majority of the people being banned, though not all, are not high traffic publishers and are typically low revenue, small traffic sites. This lead me to a few thoughts this morning as I rode the bus to work.

• Small sites, it would seem, are much more likely to be visited more by friends and family of the publisher. They are often small localized information sites, family photo albums, localized news or such things. The overall likelihood of people clicking just to make the publisher a few extra cents much higher. Perhaps Google scrutinizes the smaller sites much more closely.

• On the flip side, high traffic sites are typically not a localized, or at least not a personal, web site. The number of family and friends visiting is likely much lower and therefore, when I site reaches a given number of impressions, perhaps their filters analyze differently.

• Another option, and one that seems very likely in my way of thinking, perhaps sites that target high paying key words are watched much closer. If you are targeting keywords that sell for a dollar or two per click may be watched a little, but the $20 and $30 per click keywords I would suspect are scrutinized with a great deal more detail.

This would possible explain my personal success in not getting banned to date. I don't target high paying keywords, I don't even concentrate on keywords, I concentrate on content. I write content I enjoy and that I know. Whatever keywords Google happens to extract from that content is up to them.

If I was to intentionally target high paying keywords, perhaps I could make more, but then, I would perhaps be more subject to banning for some infraction that has been overlooked on my small-money ads.

Admittedly, this blog contains more questions and answers, but, if considering playing the AdSense game, you may want to consider these thoughts when planning your web site.