Buying a website banned from Adsense

[David S]

I don't think there is much risk to you, other than perhaps wasting the purchase price and whatever effort you expend to build up the content. I had a site that I was using solely to test some design ideas and had thrown up some AdSense ads as part of the test. I basically forgot about the site and eventually got a message much like the one you posted. It had no apparent effect beyond that particular site.

It's the basically the same message that Google sends out if you are showing AdSense ads on a site that has content that violates the Google guidelines (such as adult content or gambling). They will stop showing ads on that site but they don't ban you from being an AdSense publisher simply because you own a site that they deem unsuitable for their ads.

[Clinton]

I have bought, on occasion, sites from Adsense banned accounts, put them on my account with my publisher ID and Google were fine with it (though I did clean the sites up a bit first to remove the most obvious Adsense violations).

I do not approach Google for permission or notify them about changes/clean ups done. 3Six and I bought a few such Adsense banned sites from Digital Point sellers in the early days. That was a good deal while it lasted - cheap sites that started earning well almost immediately after purchase.

I don't know if the fact that both my Adsense accounts at the time were FedEx accounts made any difference.

[crabfoot]

Someone I know had a "legal documents and form letters" site with 9 categories - but he only had docs and letters for two categories, so the remaining 7 categories each linked to a targeted G search, surrounded by his own AdSense units. It had too many links on the front page and too many ads on subsequent pages for the T&C, and no contact page, but it ran for about 15 months quietly making money, until he showed it off on a forum. Even then, it was two weeks or so before someone pointed out that it was breaking T&C - within a day of that public revelation G told him to re-work it.

A site is never truly "banned" - if G objects to a site, there is usually some way to put it in order so that it can be re-instated. If they really don't like a site, for whatever reason, they will de-index the URL so that it will not show up in any searches. They will then offer you the chance to re-work the site and resubmit it for human re-evaluation.

I have heard of a couple of instances where G has objected to AdSense on a site because the site is using too much G content (eg YouTube vids) - strange, they don't de-index those, they just ask the owner not to run AdSense.

[Mikl]

If they really don't like a site, for whatever reason, they will de-index the URL so that it will not show up in any searches. They will then offer you the chance to re-work the site and resubmit it for human re-evaluation.

I have heard of a couple of instances where G has objected to AdSense on a site because the site is using too much G content (eg YouTube vids) - strange, they don't de-index those, they just ask the owner not to run AdSense.

The point is that there are different criteria for Google Search and for AdSense - and different reasons for sites to be demoted / de-indexed / banned. I know that might sound odd, but when you think about, it makes sense. Also, the criteria for AdSense sites are better defined, and form part of the T&Cs, whereas the guidelines for Search are just guidelines - and frequently change.

But it was interesting what you said about the "legal documents and form letters" site. I wonder if someone actually reported it to Google.

Mike

[crabfoot]

I don't think anyone actually reported the site. Around the same time, there were several similar cases of new sites being offered up for critical evaluation,which were nailed up rapidly if any adsense violation was pointed out publicly. Damn spiders ...