How to Protect Adsense Ads from Illegal Clicks

Today, illegal Adsense clicks have been a real headache for many webmasters. Already too many web sites have been banned by Google as a result of click fraud. But, the bitter truth is that some of those webmasters are completely innocent of the charge. So what’s happening? There is a huge competition for adsense ads today. Some websites totally depend on Adsense ads. So when there’s a huge competitor against someone’s website, some bad guys click on his/her innocent competitor’s ads so that Google will ban that site from Adsense. If you have a website with Adsense ads, you had better to take the action right now to prevent your ads from illegal clicks.

One of a most effective way to prevent click fraud is to setup an Adsense tracking software. This software limits the number of ad clicks from a certain visitor or IP address so that they can’t continue to click on your ads. Some software prevents displaying Adsense ads on such visitor’s pages. “Click locker” is just such a software. It finds you at http://www.clicklocker.com. “CommonSense Tracker” is another powerful script which tracks every Adsense click. It allows you to report the clicks easily. Also it is a great tool for AdSense revenue optimization. William Bontrager's script is another great tool. There are number of software you may find for this. It is better to buy one instead of using free software.

click to enlarge

Majority of the webhosts offer access logs for their customers. If you have noticed any suspicious activity, you had better to provide these reports immediately to Google. If you already banned from Google due to such a click fraud, you still may get the ban lifted if you report it immediately. You may use this link for that. http://google.com/support/adsense/bin/request.py

Also study server logs to find any unusual activity. It may seem negligible, but you had better to it keep informed. This is a good way to show your faith to prevent illegal clicks and help Google to solve the problem. If you find any large spikes of traffic there may be something is going on. So keep your eyes open to identify it soon. Act soon, and don’t wait until you actually get banned.

Clicking your own ads is seriously considered by Google. So never click on your own ads. The best way to prevent such costly accidents is to disabling ads for your own IP and local geographic area. If you are an experienced webmaster, you may do this by modifying htaccess file on your website. If you need more information, just get the help of a search engine, and you can the necessary knowledge to do it yourself easily. If you report this to Google, you are almost protected from any possible threat from Google which are related to illegal clicks.

There may be occasions where your Adsense ads are displayed on other websites without your knowledge. If it was subjected to click fraud, you will get banned without giving a hint about what happened. Therefore, another way to prevent illegal clicks is by using the allowed sites feature on Google adsense. Go to Google adsense > Adsense Setup > Allowed sites, and put all of your websites on hich you use Adsense ads. If a click fraud is reported from another site which you haven’t used to display your own Adsense ads, you can report Google that those sites haven’t been used by you to display ads.

Detecting illegal clicks soon before something happens is very important so take action quickly. Always see what’s happening on Adsense reports and your website statistics. Get the help of Adsense tracking software, and build up a good relationship with Google. These early steps will definitely help you to save a long-term asset for your website.