15 Common Google AdSense Mistakes to Avoid (2026)
Google AdSense is still one of the easiest ways to earn from a website, but it comes with strict rules. These are the most common AdSense mistakes we have seen publishers make since we first wrote this list in 2005, updated for 2026. Some only cost you money; others can get ads limited on your site or your account closed for good.
Quick answer: The biggest AdSense mistakes are clicking your own ads, asking others to click, buying low-quality traffic, editing the ad code, placing ads on pages that break the policies, disguising ads as content, and ignoring your ads.txt file and policy center alerts. Read the official AdSense Program policies once a year, because they change.
Table of Contents
Mistakes that can get your AdSense account banned
1. Clicking your own ads
It is tempting to click a high paying ad, but Google detects invalid clicks very well. Do not ask friends, colleagues or family to click either, and keep children away from your site while you are logged in.
2. Encouraging clicks
Phrases like “click the ads to support us”, arrows pointing at ads, or rewards for clicking all break the rules.
3. Buying cheap traffic
Traffic exchanges, pop-under networks and bot traffic produce invalid impressions. Since AdSense moved to impression-based payments in 2024, Google watches traffic quality even more closely.
4. Altering the ad code
Never edit the code Google gives you. You can control formats and blocking in your AdSense account, and you can load the AdSense script once per page, but the ad tags themselves must stay unchanged.
5. Placing ads on forbidden content
Adult content, copyright-infringing downloads, hacking tools, violent or shocking material and pages that mislead users are not allowed to show ads. One bad page can trigger ad serving limits for a whole site.
6. Disguising ads as content or navigation
Ads must not look like menus, download buttons or article links. Label them only “Advertisements” or “Sponsored links”.
7. Showing ads on empty or error pages
Thank-you pages, login pages, 404 pages and pages with no real content should not carry ads. AI-written filler is a problem too; see our notes on AI generated content.
Mistakes that cost you money
8. Too many ads
There is no longer a fixed limit of three ad units, but stuffing pages with ads lowers RPM, slows pages and drives readers away.
9. Ignoring mobile
Most visits are on phones. Use responsive units and AdSense Auto ads so ads fit every screen.
10. Poor ad placement
Ads at the very bottom of a page rarely get seen. Learn how to increase AdSense CTR with better placement.
11. Leaving blank ad slots
When there is no ad to show, empty boxes look broken. You can hide unfilled AdSense ad spaces.
12. Missing or wrong ads.txt
Without a correct ads.txt file, advertisers may skip your inventory and earnings fall. AdSense shows a warning in your account until you fix it.
13. Not blocking poor ads
Use Brand safety controls to block sensitive categories and spammy advertisers that hurt trust, and block AdSense ads of affiliate products you already promote.
Account and admin mistakes
14. Ignoring the Policy center
Google posts violations and ad serving restrictions in the Policy center inside AdSense. Check it every week and fix issues quickly.
15. Forgetting payments and tax details
Payments are held until you verify your address with the PIN, add a valid bank account and submit tax information. Many new publishers lose months of earnings this way.
FAQ
Can I get banned for accidentally clicking my own ad?
One accidental click is usually filtered out as invalid. Repeated clicks are a problem. Use the Ad review center inside AdSense, or a separate browser profile where you are not tempted to click, to look at your pages safely.
Can I appeal a disabled AdSense account?
Yes, Google offers an appeal form for invalid traffic closures, but most are rejected. Prevention is far easier than appeal.
How many ads can I put on a page?
Google removed the old three-unit limit. Ads must not outweigh your content, so keep a clear balance.
nice Adsense tips going here. thanks for that tips.
My Adsense account was disabled. I re-applied for that one. yet they did not send any reply. After that can I apply fresh Adsense application for that site? my site : Is it possible?
Thank for the article. I will feature your article on my blog so more will benefit your this great article.. Will credit you :D
Guy from Hyderabad:
Yes it’s very worth it to get your own domain and hosting, so that you don’t have to display their ads. With your own site, you pretty much can call the shots.
If you want to get well-versed in how Google Adsense works, try webmaster forums, keep coming back to this blog here and read every single article that is here. That’s how you learn.
As for hosting, start out with something cheap until you get the hang of it, like GoDaddy, Hostgator, etc. If you are not able to handle a lot of html coding, then you may want to get a host that has an “Easy Site Builder System”.
Start out with this and if you have the passion, you will learn it and most likely succeed.
Don’t BUY anything, until you fully understand the entire process!
Good luck! :-)
MJ
Regarding clickin on own ads on one’s site. When I started using Adsense there was a month that I clicked on two of my ads, but only because I was interested in the websites that were advertised. I was sent a warning email by google. I told why I clicked. They said if I am interested in an ad than I should put their URL in my browser.
I wrote this comment so that others who might be interested in their ads know what they sould do.
I am from Hyderabad and new to Google Adsense and want to start. Recently, I have created a web page in freewebs but THEIR google ads are getting displayed. Now I want to start my own web page just to publish Google Adsense.
Could any one clarify my doubts.
1) Is it worthy to have own site?
2) Is there any one to guide me at Hyderabad for creating adsense and to guide me in web hosting.
Your valuable suggestions are solicited.
Awesome collection of tips, I will surely make a note of them. Thanks so much.
I was wondering about ADBRITE- because it offers the use of Adsense as an alternative ad should Adbrite not have any ads to push to the site.
But now that you said Google actually doesn’t allow that, I’ve taken it off. I don’t remember reading that in the T&C though, might need to go and check again unless you have the number handy.
Because, if Google actually doesn’t allow that, isn’t that anti-free enterprise?
http://www.entrepreneur.com.sg
I think google have more than 15 criteria to delete your Adsense account.
Thats a good list of donts.
update:Now we can place more referral ad units on our pages than before.
Hi i’m a beginner. thanks for the tips can anyone check for my site is there any problem…
i have one doubt can we see our own blog daily after updating it but without any clicks in adsense ads
Thanks for the Info..
I switched to Yahoo Publishers.. It pays much better than Google Adsense..
But there is more to it. Google strategically is shifting ad revenue back to its search results. Advertising on Google search result page is quite high so advertiser will end up paying multifold as compared to what he is paying now.
Also there method of detecting invalid click is also very funny, some of them I have listed on
Hey Vic, it all depends on your site. You must have ‘earned’ that $1.41 from your own clicks.
If Google hasn’t banned you for that, then earning $0 has nothing to do with it.
If you didn’t read it all enough to know not to click your own ads, perhaps you should try reading all/most the info that Google provides for this.
There’s implementation, colors blending, channels for testing, etc.
You also need a good amount of TRAFFIC.
Good luck! :-)
learning by mistakes… :)
Hi, I am new with google adsense, first time when i implement the code. I didn’t read much and so curious that i click on my own ad. I earn $1.41 on the day.
Since then, it earn $0. I know that i did mistakes in the past, but my account is not banned as yet as I have stop doing so.
How do I recover from having $0?
Thanks.
Can someone please explain about not having Google ads next to video? What does this mean? What kind of video?
What about underneath a youtube video embedded on a page with content?
Thank you!
I also interested in this. And additionally for the three ads per page. Google counts other ads too? For example if I sell banner places on my site, and for example i’m putting 5+banners on the site… Does Google have problem with this?
thx ;)
To Tinter: No, Google count only Adsense ads. You can have more ads from another program.
hi,
very useful article indeed… We have faced a problem, where someone (from other country) intentionally kept clicking the ads and our adsense account was closed for fraud clicks !!!!!
what can be done for this??? who is responsible???
Great post. Great guideline for new publishers. They will be benefited most.
I recommend you all to check Program policy+TOS+Adsense Blog regularly.
that is interesting article you post here.
i am curently using adsense and adbrite, can anyone tell me is it ok to put adbrite together with google adsense?
thanks in advance.
Fortunately I have not done any of these mistakes (yet)!
Troubled > I wouldn’t recommend doing that as it violates Google’s TOS. If you’re looking for an AdSense alternative, I highly recommend Chitika.
thanks for the tips. now i know that i’am wrong, and i will improve my blogs. thanks again. ^^
Hi everyone!
A couple of years ago my Adsense account was banned in my site htt://site.com then I created another site for my sister who has her own Adsense account. Her site though is hosted in a sub-directory of server, i.e
My question is: Will b there any problem if I place her Adsense codes on my main site?
I most appreciate any help. Thanks!
Very helpful. Inadvertently I had broken 1. Minor infraction but I’m glad to be able to fix it before I get into trouble.
I am with Adsense from about 2 years now
They are really helpful.I like their program
Do you know about any other such program
My Adsense account was disabled today and I’m mad as hell. As soon as my site started making money they canceled it without so much of a reason. Are there any other ad companies I could use? Thanks keepup the good work.
Very helpful. However i have a comment on the last point. If anyone is familiar with the Adsense Beautifier for WordPress, is that illegal too? I have removed it from my blog. I dare not reinstate it again if this is true. Its just some patterns next to the ad. However, i dont know whether its against the TOS.. Please assist. Thank you!
In response to Stas Bekman’s comment #16, virtually exactly the same thing happened to our business – Google mistakenly closed our AdSense account.
After nearly 3 years of steady page impression growth, with Adsense earnings consistent around $4-7 a day, one day our page impressions trebled, resulting in earnings of $31 in one day. Two days later our account was closed for ‘fraudulent clicks’ with no further details.
In hindight, there was a perfectly rational explanation for the spike in page impressions – our site is soccer news related and it was a really big soccer news day. Confident we had done nothing wrong, we pled our case and launched an appeal.
The language we used was virtually the same as your own. We too had the same theories about competitors clicking on ads. Three months later we still do not have a Google AdSense account and we have given up writing to them.
We are now consulting a law firm since it has had a pretty serious impact on our business. We were right in the middle of closing an important round of financing, and it nearly cost us our investment.
We are left with more questions than answers…
We had 8 other sites which had run Google ads at various times over the past 3 years with the same Google AdSense account. Are all of them now tainted, or just the ones with active Google ads?
Is it just the one site we think (but aren’t 100% sure) had the spike in impressions and thus the increased earnings? Google won’t tell us.
What happens if we sell our sites to an outside buyer or transfer them to a new division? Will they be banned from Adsense too? If so, that DRASTICALLY affects the price we can seek. If we don’t know which ones are tainted, it affects the price of all of them, and it would be unethical not to disclose it to an outside buyer.
How about sites from a sister business which had / has the same Google Analytics code running as the problem site? Are those sites tainted too?
In summary, our experience has mean’t we have had to disclose a pretty troublesome sounding fact to outside investors right in the middle of a crucial financing. It has been very problematic for us and extremely uncomfortable.
I’d be very interested to hear from other people who have had similar experiences or could shed light on these questions. I can be reached through the website above…
Clearly it’s not an isolated problem…
as u said in the 7 point that never launch a new page for ad. i have a question that if someone copy adsense ad link and open in text mode internet and open the ad link is it make any problem
very good please me the details of how to make revenue from adsense and how to get hits thanks
srikanth
Now adsense supports more languages – that includes Indic – Hindi, Gujarati etc.
Regarding:Do not add it on web pages with MP3, Video, News Groups, and Image Results.
what do you mean by this?can sites with video from youtube for example be banned?
IMHO, rule <i>#7</i> is because Google wants to retrieve the <b>REFERER</b>. This way they know whom to pay commission for the clicked a*ds :) A browser like Opera can disable referer-logging, but Google uses JavaScript to find out the referer information. If JavaScript isn’t available, the a*ds simply not shown, right? So, the point is, if you want to get pai*d for what you deserve, don’t open the a*ds in a new window/tab. Thanks for the tip.
Sound advice, but i cant get an adsense account and no one over at google will tell me why my appilcation was not approved. They just dont respond to emails. :(
Never promote your AdSense using traffic exchange program.
Do you think adsense will deteriorate soon? because other people can just throw you out of the program by clickin on your ads repetitively.
And there’s the Flahs Ads now which sometimes you can’t identify if it’s from Google Adsense or not.
That’s a nice resource, however unfortunately there are other ways that you account can be closed down, and there is nothing you can do about it – since it’s other people who do it for you. For more details see the story about how my account got closed:
“How to Bring Google AdSense Down” Or “You are Guilty but We will not Tell You Why”.
I’ve seen plenty sites and blogs that say: click on my links coz i need to pay for my hosting :)) How naive…
yeah, I realized a lot about how important it is to see the terms of service. I hope you write a similar article on google analytics sometime.
i want to know if i have clicked on my adds when google will block my account? at the same time or after a month on sending checks??
Hi! if an acc was disable let say xyz.com site, does this means that this site is ban forever? thanks
The biggest mistake I see on sites is rule number six. I used to break that rule on some of my sites unintentionally…I didn’t know that rule existed until I happened upon it in a blog somewhere.
I was a newbie to Google adsense when i tried clicking on my own ads to get bucks, though i was very young to e-business and e-development, i didn’t have sense of business. I clicked daily, I got my first check i was happy, but on my way to 2nd check, I got banned by google.
Now i miss this program a lot. Why was I so stupid :[
Google allow you to put max 3 adsense on one page, if you not able to do this, try to implement it with different custom channel or perhaps you dont have enough content, check your keywords density.
That is not correct.
Currently, AdSense publishers may place up to three AdSense for content units on one webpage. You may also place a maximum of three link units and two search boxes on each webpage.
If you place more than one ad unit on a page, our system will display unique ads to each ad unit. Because the system automatically displays an optimal number of highly targeted Google ads on each page, in some cases, the maximum number of ads may not always appear. In this case, the ad unit will show as a transparent box, or will contain any alternate ad or color specified in the ad code.
This is correct as of 2-3-10
3 Content units + 3 link units + 2 search boxes = 8 total elements per page?
Is that correct?
I noticed that you have 2 Adsense Ads on this blog page…one on top and the oher one on the bottom.
How are you able to do this?
When I try to do this one of them disappears while the other remains?
Please explain! Thank you.
FMF, “sponsored links” or “advertisements” only are the only terms officially allowed by google.
How can I label ads only with the terms you give (item #6) when I have four blogs and eight ad spaces. And since I use TypePad and ads are developed using TypeLists, I have to name each of the eight something different since I want different ad units, colors, etc. to be on each blog. I can’t use only these two. Or am I missing something (which could certainly be the case).
You mentioned it in the first item, but you should clarify that you shouldn’t post:
“Please click these ads to help us keep our site alive.”
This is the biggest offender I see on websites.
I am in agreement. However, getting banned is going to happen to some and when it does everyone should know how to get back up and running on google without waiting 1 month or more. i have this information for you all.
These are some really helpful tips. I spent an hour looking for these on google, and could not find them. They make everything very hard to find, when it comes to their rules.
Thanks Brandy
I would like that info on how to get back up should I get terminated for some reason. Thank you.
I am very happy after Reading that article about Adsense. My Website has also some of these mistakes…