Adwords account suspended for talking about SEO. Why isn't Moz suspended, too?
-
First let me say that we don't care that much about Adwords. We were spending about 20 bucks a month and we never optimized it, tinkered with it, or cared that much. Business is booming for us just with organic search and referrals from happy customers. (We're a blog writing service called BlogMutt. Motto: We work like a dog to fill up your blog.)
But we just got suspended from Adwords. After multiple inquiries and multiple unhelpful responses, we got a note that said: "Please note that your website contains matter which states your site's SEO increases. Anything which relates to SEO is not allowed as per Google Policies. Please make appropriate changes to your website."
Now, we don't say your site's SEO increases with BlogMutt. What we do say is what everyone says, that blogging is a best practice for any modern marketing effort. We certainly are less clear about improving search rankings than, for example, moz.com. Why is it OK for Moz, but not for us?
Don't get me wrong. I think Moz should be able to continue advertising. I'm just wondering how we got into the Adwords crosshairs.
Any thoughts?
-
I wonder if that's it.
I forgot about that text, wrote it like two years ago. I'll scour through the site, see if I find any others like that.
I still wonder how this got on Google's radar. I just did a search for the offending phrase there "SEO improves" and I see a bunch of advertisers who are violating this rule on their home pages AND in the ad itself.
That is, how is it that I'm in trouble for two words on an inside page and another guy can advertise: "Guaranteed Page One SEO" and get the second ad spot?
-
I do see on this page https://www.blogmutt.com/pages/customer there is a How It Works with the following:
- We write a blog post on the suggested topic using the ideal number of keywords.
- You post the content to your blog.
- Your site's SEO improves.
- Through your blog, you will engage new customers.
Could it be that they feel this is a guarantee that you can't back? I'm not saying anything against you or your company here, but just trying to see where Google might find an issue with things. One of the conditions in Advertiser Claims is "All advertising claims must be factually supportable." https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/1331529?hl=en&ref_topic=1310871
-
See images below. And thanks in advance for any insights.
-
OK, here are two images. One is just the notice that's at the top of my adwords screen when I'm logged in. The second is the note I got from Google after I requested an appeal.
It's really mysterious. The part about SEO is the most specific they've gotten with us, and it still doesn't really make sense.
Any ideas are most welcome! I don't belong to any PPC forums because it's such a small part of our overall efforts, so I'd much rather get an answer here.
6a00d8357e4fe369e201a73dd2f8b1970d-pi 6a00d8357e4fe369e201a73dd2f8ac970d-pi
-
OK, since you are the second person to ask, I will get some screen shots and post them here.
I guess that's kind of my question, but it's more like, "Why is it that we got singled out for doing something that lots of great and reputable companies -- such as Moz -- do every day?"
And thanks for looking at our site. I think the only place we mention SEO is in the video, so maybe that's what we need to change, but we make a claim that is much much milder than any of the SEO software providers or consultants.
-
I know! Something doesn't add up!
Yes, I'm 100 percent sure it's legit stuff from Google.
I think they reply to all requests for appeal, no matter the amount. I do think Google does not consider dollar amounts when deciding to suspend, and just goes off the rules.
And I understand that they don't want people gaming the system so they can't give advice that's too specific.
But I still just don't understand what's going on here.
-
I think a screen shot would be most helpful to understand the issue at hand - including who the email came from and the part that you've bolded "your site's seo increases." To me, this doesn't read as a full sentence. And, when I look at your site, your site doesn't actually say anything about SEO on the home page.
When you log into your account what do you see?
If AdWords traffic doesn't matter, then could you explain what type of resolution you are looking for in this Q&A? Is your question "why can other sites advertise on terms like 'SEO'?"
-
Something doesn't add up here. If you do a search for "SEO" the page is littered with ads for SEO companies. Are you sure that this email was from an Adwords representative? If you're spending $20 a month, I would be surprised if you could get a rep to respond.
-
Hmmm, I still don't know why your account would have gotten flagged simply for "being about SEO" so something is definitely up... I would suggest submitting your story to the big SEO/PPC news sites like searchenginewatch.com, searchengineland.com, searchenginejournal.com, etc. because people need to be aware of this and then maybe you will get a more detailed response from Google.
-
The ads were pretty generic. Our most used was: "Customized, weekly blog posts to help you connect with customers."
The violation was for our landing page, which is the same as our home page: https://www.blogmutt.com. There's nothing there about SEO. The video does say that blogging can help you get found by people searching on Google, but that's way less of a claim than Moz or any of the other content providers.
So, that's why I wonder why we got flagged. We've had to kick out some writers because they were rotten writers, and I wonder if one of them was so mad that he reported our ads to Google and that's why we got suspended. We'll probably never know that, but that's about the only theory I can come up with.
-
What did the ads say? And the landing pages? There are tons of AdWords advertisers that bid on SEO-related keywords, so this is the first time I've ever heard of anything like this.
-
That line is the only useful part of that email. The rest is just account details.
It is directly from Google as a response to our request for an appeal of our suspension.
And we do our own, we don't use an agency or third-party for our adwords.
-
hi Scott,
Is it possible to grab a screenshot of that note? Is it from Google? Or some other SEO agency/advertiser you got that message?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adwords Ad disapproved - Banned product on Site (glutamine)?
We are starting to get ads disapproved. One yesterday, one today. The reason - banned supplement 'glutamine'. Neither of these ads were for glutamine so I assume it's because l-glutamine is sold on the site. The actual ad for l-glutamine landing on the l-glutamine page has not been disapproved? In 2012 Google informed us the glutamine was no longer on the banned list so I'm not sure what's going on here? Has anyone had a similar experience? Is there a solution apart from removing the product entirely?
Paid Search Marketing | | jbk3650 -
Google AdWords Class Action Settlement?
Has anyone received and responded to a notice of class action settlement from Google Adwords? The sender (and the website it directs to) is adwordsclassaction.com. I see that there was such a thing, I am just not sure whether that domain is the official one to respond to?
Paid Search Marketing | | Linda-Vassily0 -
Should You Buy Your Name in Adwords?
While I definitely see the pros to buying your name in Adwords, should you still do this if you have a small monthly budget? I get why large companies like Tiffany's would buy their name because they have the excessive funds to do so in addition to buying keywords. Any guidance or strategy on this?
Paid Search Marketing | | SEOhughesm1 -
Impressions - AdWords vs Analytics
Given AdWords is a paid service, you'd hope the figures are accurate. For an example (exact match) keyword last month, AdWords says there were 14,253 impressions on Google search (i.e. not search partners or display network). However, going over to Analytics, for the same month it suggests 4,500 impressions for the same keyword. Google AdWords says the following about impressions: "An impression is counted each time your ad is served on Google's ad networks, such as on Google.com or other publisher websites and apps." "...How often your ad is shown. An impression is counted each time your ad is shown on a search result page or other site on the Google Network." Google Analytics explains impressions as: "The number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results viewed by a user, not including paid AdWords search impressions." Can anyone help clarify what is an accurate way of attaining monthly search figures, i.e. what is my overall potential Google customer base? I've also tried the Keyword Planner - which averages monthly searches - and it gives me 18,100 impressions for the same keyword (almost the two above figures added). Thanks! Rob
Paid Search Marketing | | englebert0 -
Curious about Adwords keyword tool results.
Why the Google Adwords Keywords tool says there are 0 local monthly searches for a keyword or shows a dash, but in spite of this there's competition for those keywords (up to 0.42 in some cases) ? Thanks!!
Paid Search Marketing | | gerardoH0 -
Starting Fresh with a New PPC Account
I've inherited an Adwords account with a few years' worth of history. The account has changed hands a lot though and there's a lot of clutter and confusing account architecture (confusing and redundant campaigns, thousands of inactive long-long-tail keywords for every match type, etc.). I have a new architecture/strategy in mind but I'm unsure if I should start a new account from scratch, pause 90% of things and start some new campaigns, or delete a bunch of stuff permanently and start some new campaigns. My fear with the pausing option is that I'll have to wade through a bunch of clutter in my daily management and reporting - I like to keep things clean. My fear with deleting is losing data - I'd like to be able to always look back at how things were. And my fear with the new account from scratch method is losing whatever account/campaign quality score or historical value the account has built over time and the logistics of having to stop the old account to create a new account. Can you even have 2 accounts with the same domain or would I have to delete the old account before launching the new? For all my past PPC accounts, I started them more or less from scratch so this is new to me. Any advice/insights would be most appreciated. Thanks! Jeff
Paid Search Marketing | | jeff.gibson0 -
Adwords ban
my client has 2 adwords accounts - one banned in 2009 and one where 9 of 11 ads are suspended - the other 2 ads run and he pays 6k per month for traffic - he still has net60 terms with no limit on ad spend b/c his offer converts so well. he wants to clear his name so we can proceed further without risk of being banned - he is paying me a pretty penny to turn his 4/10 qual scores into 9's and 10's - he will get 2x the traffic at 1/2 the price and i am looking to make a major 6 figure bump to his bottom line this year so he can jstify paying my exhorbitant fee. lol. i am not getting much help from the folks over at the Big G - to be expected - they have suspended 9 of his ads for "artificial ad traffic" - at least that is their reason - any way he is legit - in biz for 12 years online - with 60,000 customers on his list and over 1000 testimonials on his site - my question is is there any way GG will connect the dots in 4 months once i have his adwords campaign fully optimized and running smoothly and say "hey arent you the guy who we suspended twice over the past 2 years???" or are we to be judged simply on what we do from here forward with this new account? i am having his designer create 100 new landing pages to match the 100 unique ads for the 100 exactmatch kw's for the 100 unique ad groups - lotta work - but once its done its 10/10 across the board - with no mention of artificially boosting someone's traffic -- although isnt that what everyone is doing when they buy visits to their sites? this goes on all day long and no o ne seems to care - except GG but my client sells real human traffic not bot generated crap. all love, EZ
Paid Search Marketing | | ezubkov0