Google cited me for a violation for a site I don't own.

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   RonElFranposted 7 years ago

   
   I just received an email from Google AdSense that I never expected to receive:
   
   "In the last 24 hours: New violations were detected. As a result, ad serving has been restricted or disabled on pages where these violations of the AdSense Program Policies were found."
   
   Panic! What made it much worse was that Google's directions for finding out what the violation was are so Byzantine it took a long time to find it.
   
   When I finally found the violation, I was still confused. It was for a site I don't own or know anything about, app[dot]schoology[dot]com. Turns out, that site had copied my AdSense code. Google says that this is not uncommon since AdSense codes are publicly available.
   
   Google's remedy is the use of site authorization, which limits ad payments only to sites you specifically authorize. This doesn’t remove your code from the bogus site; ads will still appear there, but they won't be paid, and you won't get hit with violations for that site.
   
   When I finally figured out how to get to my "Manage Sites" page for my AdSense account, not only did I see that the bogus account was at the top of the list, but also only a few of the HubPages niche sites were listed as verified. I turned on site verification, and turned off verification for the bogus site.
   
   IMPORTANT: Because I am now requiring that only verified sites can be served paid ads, I added the rest of the 27 HP niche sites manually so that they are listed as verified and I'll continue to receive revenue from ads on those sites.
   
   You may want to check your AdSense account report to see if any bogus sites have been added.

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      theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      That's really scary, Ron, thanks for letting us know.  I've heard of this before. I thought it happens when your competition is trying to get you kicked off Adsense. Brandon'll know.
      
      Off to check mine, right now.
      
      Edit: Well I had Authorized sites turned on, but I discovered that two network sites that I have hubs on weren't on there. Argh! Thanks again.

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         sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         That is quite frightening.  So glad you managed to sort that out.  I see that I have a few missing?  Could you please remind me how ( add them.   I know that Glenn wrote how to do it a while back but I can't find that link.  Thank you.

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            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for that mention Sally. I explained it in my hub: Tracking Hubs With AdSense: A Step-By-Step Guide
            
            We also had a discussion about it in the forum a while back where I said we should use authorization to avoid these types of problems. And then I mentioned that we need to authorize all the niche sites where we have hubs or else we don't get paid when using authorization. That was happening to some Hubbers who had authorization enabled but were not diligent with authorizing the niche sites.

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         RonElFranposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I just added all the HP sites, including the ones I don't currently have articles on. That way I won't have to remember to add a site if I do get an article there in the future.

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      Robie Benveposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I got the same warning! In my case though I was very confused because I do log into Schoology sometimes to check my kids school stuff and I was wondering if contemporary logins into Google and Schoology somehow messed it up.
      Since you don't even know the site, it must be unrelated.
      Did you do anything about it? I have not acted on it, besides checking that it was a non-verified site.

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         RonElFranposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         The only thing I did was to set the listing for that site to "unverified." I have not even looked at the site itself. Google verified that after turning off verification for that site, I have no more violation issues.

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   psycheskinnerposted 7 years ago

   It is also a reminder to add your network sites to the authorizations.

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   lobobrandonposted 7 years ago

   Some time ago, I made a suggestion on the forums that the HP team should add a note on to the accepted to niche site email stating that people should make sure that they have the particular niche site as one they approve of on their Adsesne account. This was not a thread of its own and it was a few years ago, it is very likely that this was never seen by anyone from the staff. But there were quite a few threads where Glenn and I and a few others pointed out to people that this should be done.
   
   Ron, this is a problem because you never set it up such that only authorised sites can use your ad code. How that site actually got on your list I am not sure. Maybe Google auto detects websites and adds them to your list if you do not turn on the setting that says you would do it manually.
   
   But to be safe I recommend you change your Adsense password. 99.99% this is not something to worry about and Google added that site to your list. Someone else may be able to pitch in here. I always had this set to manual so I cannot be sure about the issue at hand.
   
   To add sites this is what you do sallybea:
   Login to Adsense (desktop) > On the left Menu find settings > Then go to mysites > Blue plus icon on the page to add new websites.
   
   Also on the page you will see three dots. Click on it and go to Site authorization and make sure you turn this on: Only authorize my verified sites to use my ad code
   
   P.S: Ignore the crooked arrows in the image hehe.
   
    
   
   More info here: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/2781214?hl=en

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      Titiaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, checked mine and some weren't there so I added all niche sites  too and verified them.

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      sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      lobobrandon
      Thank you so much!  All done, very grateful; for your help:)  It is quite annoying when you discover that you may not have been paid for some views.  I do seem to recall that Paul said that it was unnecessary to add the niche sites as this would be done automatically but it does seem that this is not the case..

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         lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         No this is true. The sites are not added automatically but you do still get paid. Because Google pays you for ads with your publisher ID. But if you allow it to do this, people can steal your publisher ID and you could end up getting your account banned, Ron got a notification because of this. If say your publisher ID ended up on a porn website or something of those sorts you would be instantly banned no chance to plead innocent. Therefore it is important that you say that you only want to show ads on certain websites.
         
         Paul was right, just that leaving it the way it was is not safe. You did not lose on any earnings unless you had already done what I suggested here:
         
         Also on the page you will see three dots. Click on it and go to Site authorization and make sure you turn this on: Only authorize my verified sites to use my ad code

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            sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I originally authorized only a couple of sites as I mostly write for FeltMagnet but lately a few of my earlier writings have been moved to different Niche Sites.
            Google and Analytics are not my strong suit and I am so appreciative of how much you help out all of us on this site.  We are so lucky.  Thank you.

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               lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               You're welcome

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         Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         You're right Brandon. Paul did say that back then. He was referring to the fact that most people didn't use authorization. In that case Google automatically adds any site where it finds your AdSense code. So Paul was correct in that sense.
         
         However, we all dropped the issue after that even though you and I mentioned that we should all use authorization to protect ourselves from people copying our code (Some thieves blindly copy the entire code instead of just the text). You were diligent with that too and you also warned everyone as I recall.
         
         I wish I remembered this when I was with Paul last week at the Maven Conference. I spoke with him about a couple of issues but not that one.
         
         In any case, here's the instructions image I made for my tutorial hub. But yours above is just as good. Thanks.
         
         

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            lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Had no patience to put in text bubbles haha. I was in the middle of eating my dinner. Even my arrows aren't straight.
            
            Would have been a nice thing to point out to Paul, I guess.

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               Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Your image was fine Brandon, and you beat me to it too. That's what counts. I made mine way back when I wrote that tutorial and had time to do it.
               
               Oh - you just reminded me, it's time to have my dinner. I still feel a lag of time since Maven (3 hour time difference messed me up when I got home. Flying through the night didn't help much either - ha ha).

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                  lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Haha, but I take it you had a better flying experience than Randy

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                     Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Yeah, my flight was fine and I even had a direct flight. I just was tired since it was an all-night flight, plus the two hour trip to the airport added to it. But it was worth it, having met many wonderful Hubbers and Mavens.
                     
                     I felt bad for Randy. His luggage was lost during his connecting flight in Toronto. Then his flight was delayed and he missed our limo. I told my driver it’s okay to wait for him. We waited an hour but he never showed up. Then Randy told me he had to pay for his own transportation to the hotel since he missed the limo. In addition, his phone was in his luggage and the hotel charged him $80 to call his wife. He had a hard time.
                     
                     Edit: Sorry, just realized this is off topic — just responding to your comment. Thought we were in the Maven thread.

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                        lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Ouch... Yup, I didn't realize either. Sorry for the thread hijack.

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                           Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           I'm sure no one will complain.

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   RonElFranposted 7 years ago

   Brandon, I was like probably the vast majority of hubbers in that I wasn't really aware that something like this could happen. It would be great if HP could automatically set AdSense accounts up for site verification when hubbers sign up for AdSense, giving them the option to opt out. I don't know if that's possible.
   
   What I do wonder about is why several niche sites were already listed in my account, but most were not (I don't think I set it up that way). Is there a way HP can insure that all niche sites are listed?

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      lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It is your account and HP has no control over it. If the other niche sites were listed it is probably my first assumption. Google added sites that showed your ads automatically to your approved list because you did not set it up to only add sites when you personally do it (manually). Were there any niche sites that you are on, that actually receive traffic and show ads that were not on your list?

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         RonElFranposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Oh yes, most of the sites I have articles on were not listed. I'm wondering if the listed sites were added soon after the network sites were set up, when I had articles only on a few of them. As I said, I don't think I did anything to get those sites on the list, at least not anything I'm aware of.

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            lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            The sites were probably not listed automatically because they did not generate clicks on your Adsense ads.
            
            My SEO article for instance does not receive much traffic and it is the only one I have on toughnickel. Till date no adsense ad click (I do make some money off it through the HP ads program for sure, as I do get a handful of views there). But since there were no clicks, it would never have been added automatically (had I allowed websites to be added automatically).

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   psycheskinnerposted 7 years ago

   Ifyou are using active authorization and the account is not authorized by you, you don't get paid for it.  That is why we had the previous thread asking about this and requesting it be added to the help pages.
   
   "What happens to sites that aren't verified?
   
   If a URL displaying your ad code is not on your list of verified sites, ads will still show on that URL, and impressions and clicks will be recorded. However, advertisers will not be charged, and you won't receive any earnings for that site."

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      lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yup, this is if you use active authorisation. This is why Paul said it is okay if you do not add your websites. It is probably an understanding that if you know how this works you would do it yourself, else there is no direct harm and that is why nothing was added to the help pages?

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   Kenna McHughposted 7 years ago

   This is helpful, thanks!

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   Venkatachari Mposted 7 years ago

   Much useful information provided in this thread. Thank you all, my dear Friends.

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   beverley byerposted 7 years ago

   Thank you for the useful info!

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   Stacie Lposted 7 years ago

   I had the same issue a few weeks ago and it scared me. I had to figure out how to unverify(?) a site I never heard of.
   I did check the site out first and it did not have any adsence ads at all.

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    William F. Torpeyposted 7 years ago

    I gave up on Adsense ads a long time ago. When I got near my next payment (my third) the account disappeared (for the second time.) It's so much trouble trying to figure out how to fix it that I just gave up. Now that I think about it I guess I've got to go through all my hubs and take may ads out -- there's no point having them if they're not going to give me the few pennies I might earn.  I'll delete my ads as soon as I have time to go through all my hubs. It's easier that way.

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