7 ms·

Google AdWords bans use of hyperlinks

71 points by DougN7 12y ago

ccvannorman 12y ago
>It shakes my faith in Google Only just now?
- hermitcrab 12y ago
  Previously they seemed indifferent, but competent. Now they seem indifferent and incompetent.
  - dsleno 12y ago
    Lol! Too true. At least the kind Indian person on the telephone assures me otherwise. It's too bad that Google doesn't share the sentiment of their Indian employees who are at least feigning helpfulness.
zuck9 12y ago
So according to the employee if Google itself wishes to continue using AdWords (and not get banned) for creating ads linking to its search results, it has to remove all clickable links from google.com
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
ttctciyf 12y ago
So tl;dr is: google employ people who can't distinguish between a hyperlink and a redirect to enforce their adWords policy?
- colinbartlett 12y ago
  So you're saying the title is misleading and Google has not actually banned hyperlinks? Shocking.
- libria 12y ago
  The people red-flagging for domain redirection are the Ads Quality Raters who are contractors not FTEs. They work remotely, rarely collaborate, and follow whatever's written in the rulebook for good/bad ratings. Running ads to a landing page with little content other than a redirect to another domain is forbidden and rightly receives poor ratings. As stated in the article, this was not the case. The rulebook was pretty specific about this, so I don't know how this got so badly interpreted. The AQRs do have a forum they can appeal edge cases on, so I'm surprised this got past a supervisor. I got in so many online arguments with the other AQRs who were not able to interpret the intention behind some of the rules.
qeorge 12y ago
Off topic: OP mentions the AdWords Expert, Aaron Weiner of Software Promotions[1], who was finally able to get it all resolved. If you have an AdWords campaign and its underperforming, HIRE THIS MAN. I had the opportunity to work with Aaron about 5 years ago, through a client, and I could not have possibly been more impressed. He took an absolute dog of a marketing campaign [2], and made it work. Unreal. Anyway - I don't do this often, but he's that good. Hire him / Software Promotions if you need help with AdWords - you will not regret it. [1] http://www.softwarepromotions.com/ http://www.softwarepromotions.com/ [2] previously managed, quite unsuccessfully, by yours truly
- shiftpgdn 12y ago
  Before I waste anyone's time do you know what their budget minimums were/are?
cordite 12y ago
> There was no detail about what I had done wrong. As far as I was aware, I complied with their policies. This seems to be an excessively common trend with Google and sometimes Apple. Most cases that seem to be posted about say that they did not even get human contact and usually will be banned for life because they resubmitted but apparently didn't fix that one magical thing Google or others cared about.
- mikeash 12y ago
  I think the problem is that they're effectively building a customer service system but they don't realize this is what they're doing, so they don't build it well. If you look at good customer service, one thing that's always there is that it's easy to communicate with a real person who is empowered and motivated to help you. They are courteous and understanding and they will try their best to resolve your problem, and if they can't then they will do their best to explain to you why they can't and what you can do to resolve it on your own. I feel like Apple, for app review, attempted to build a system that would be invisible, and because of this they ended up with a completely awful customer service system. I think their goal was to build something where you just submitted good stuff and it went through, and bad stuff that didn't go through was obviously bad and you should feel bad for submitting it. It turned out that there are a lot more gray areas than they thought but their process isn't built for it. The result is that it's like interacting with a badly programmed computer. Sounds like Google is in a similar spot.
- hermitcrab 12y ago
  "Computer says no"
  - hermitcrab 12y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_Ty_72Qds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_Ty_72Qds
sjs382 12y ago
There is no ban on hyperlinks. So while your case may be ridiculous, it's not as ridiculous as you imply. Adwords Policy prohibits something called "low value content", which includes: Landing pages that are solely designed to send users elsewhere Examples: Bridge, doorway, gateway, or other intermediate pages Adwords clearly (but mistakenly, I guess?) interpreted your page as a gateway page, with the sole purpose being to drive users to your Amazon listing page (on a different site, obviously).
- hermitcrab 12y ago
  From the article: The review page isn’t a landing page. It isn’t linked directly from any of any of my Google ads. To get to it the user has to: 1. click on the ad 2. click on ‘customers’ in the navigation bar 3. select ‘review’ 4. click on the Amazon.com hyperlink (there is no automatic redirect) Also I am only linking to that page so they can read independent reviews of my product. I don’t [want] them to buy it from Amazon!
  - sjs382 12y ago
    I'm not saying that I agree with their assessment. Note the last line of my comment. Emphasis added: > Adwords clearly (but mistakenly, I guess?) interpreted your page as a gateway page, with the sole purpose being to drive users to your Amazon listing page (on a different site, obviously). I'm just saying that your headline does a particularly bad job of characterizing the issue.
- dsleno 12y ago
  Adwords banned my site for a page that was not being advertised in Adwords. It appears what you need to do today to be safe is have a landing page on a completely unique site, without hyperlinks going anywhere else. Or maybe, send people to Google Shopping. That's probably what this is all about.
aruggirello 12y ago
I went through a similar adventure last summer, when Google abruptly suspended my Merchant Center feed (BTW we are AdWords customers since 2006). After ~1 month, I eventually succeeded in talking to someone who apologised and immediately restored it. Thousands of clicks forever lost because someone misinterprets a policy!
austerity 12y ago
Google customer support is designed to discourage you from using using customer support. I guess that's true for many companies, but Google is excelling at making it a torture.
empressplay 12y ago
Are you unable to escalate? Seems a bit odd to have no appeal against the decision of a low-level support worker...
- IanDrake 12y ago
  Obviously you've never had an issue with your adwords account. I've spoken to someone who's adword budget was 20K a month and even he couldn't get someone to talk to when they suspended his account.
- davidw 12y ago
  HN is how you escalate Google support problems (see patio11's comment) https://twitter.com/successfulsw/status/570892454339186688 https://twitter.com/successfulsw/status/570892454339186688
  - DanielBMarkham 12y ago
    I've been watching the "How to start a startup" series on YouTube from YC (Highly recommended, BTW). Interesting to compare how those founders talk about treating their customers and industry partners with how Google is treating those same kinds of folks.
compbio 12y ago
These [no malware] requirements apply to software hosted on your site or linked to from your site. Perhaps it started with this? You linked (or let a reviewing user link) to a hacked site. I can understand Adwords taking action in that case (even when it is a simple hyperlink, it is dangerous to users of the ad network). The support was just bad. I can not defend that. Good on you for keeping your cool.
- thefreeman 12y ago
  I believe this was in reference to not having "Uninstall" instructions on his site.
  - compbio 12y ago
    Could be part of it. 1. Add a link to the uninstall instructions on my download page. I told him that my uninstall was completely standard for the platforms I support (Windows and Mac). But he insisted. I looked at point two: 2. Remove some links that were ‘redirections’ from my reviews page. and was wondering what that was originally all about. Could be linking to malware, but I also do know that Google has become stricter in attacking linking practices where money could have exchanged hands. When you run an affiliate program with Amazon for instance, it is a good idea to "nofollow" these links, to make sure you don't run afoul of these rules. Then again, it seems a lot of things just went wrong in this case. Having just received a warning that a 5-year-old 960.gs fixed width site of mine was delisted from Mobile search for being "not friendly to mobile users" I can now better sympathize.
dsleno 12y ago
Wow. This could be my story, right down to being a customer for 10 years. Adwords has been hugely frustrating for me.

71 points by DougN7 12y ago

ccvannorman 12y ago

>It shakes my faith in Google Only just now?

hermitcrab 12y ago
Previously they seemed indifferent, but competent. Now they seem indifferent and incompetent.
- dsleno 12y ago
  Lol! Too true. At least the kind Indian person on the telephone assures me otherwise. It's too bad that Google doesn't share the sentiment of their Indian employees who are at least feigning helpfulness.

zuck9 12y ago

So according to the employee if Google itself wishes to continue using AdWords (and not get banned) for creating ads linking to its search results, it has to remove all clickable links from google.com

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

ttctciyf 12y ago

So tl;dr is: google employ people who can't distinguish between a hyperlink and a redirect to enforce their adWords policy?

colinbartlett 12y ago
So you're saying the title is misleading and Google has not actually banned hyperlinks? Shocking.
libria 12y ago
The people red-flagging for domain redirection are the Ads Quality Raters who are contractors not FTEs. They work remotely, rarely collaborate, and follow whatever's written in the rulebook for good/bad ratings. Running ads to a landing page with little content other than a redirect to another domain is forbidden and rightly receives poor ratings. As stated in the article, this was not the case. The rulebook was pretty specific about this, so I don't know how this got so badly interpreted. The AQRs do have a forum they can appeal edge cases on, so I'm surprised this got past a supervisor. I got in so many online arguments with the other AQRs who were not able to interpret the intention behind some of the rules.

qeorge 12y ago

Off topic: OP mentions the AdWords Expert, Aaron Weiner of Software Promotions[1], who was finally able to get it all resolved. If you have an AdWords campaign and its underperforming, HIRE THIS MAN. I had the opportunity to work with Aaron about 5 years ago, through a client, and I could not have possibly been more impressed. He took an absolute dog of a marketing campaign [2], and made it work. Unreal. Anyway - I don't do this often, but he's that good. Hire him / Software Promotions if you need help with AdWords - you will not regret it. [1] http://www.softwarepromotions.com/ http://www.softwarepromotions.com/ [2] previously managed, quite unsuccessfully, by yours truly

shiftpgdn 12y ago
Before I waste anyone's time do you know what their budget minimums were/are?

cordite 12y ago

> There was no detail about what I had done wrong. As far as I was aware, I complied with their policies. This seems to be an excessively common trend with Google and sometimes Apple. Most cases that seem to be posted about say that they did not even get human contact and usually will be banned for life because they resubmitted but apparently didn't fix that one magical thing Google or others cared about.

mikeash 12y ago
I think the problem is that they're effectively building a customer service system but they don't realize this is what they're doing, so they don't build it well. If you look at good customer service, one thing that's always there is that it's easy to communicate with a real person who is empowered and motivated to help you. They are courteous and understanding and they will try their best to resolve your problem, and if they can't then they will do their best to explain to you why they can't and what you can do to resolve it on your own. I feel like Apple, for app review, attempted to build a system that would be invisible, and because of this they ended up with a completely awful customer service system. I think their goal was to build something where you just submitted good stuff and it went through, and bad stuff that didn't go through was obviously bad and you should feel bad for submitting it. It turned out that there are a lot more gray areas than they thought but their process isn't built for it. The result is that it's like interacting with a badly programmed computer. Sounds like Google is in a similar spot.
hermitcrab 12y ago
"Computer says no"
- hermitcrab 12y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_Ty_72Qds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_Ty_72Qds

sjs382 12y ago

There is no ban on hyperlinks. So while your case may be ridiculous, it's not as ridiculous as you imply. Adwords Policy prohibits something called "low value content", which includes: Landing pages that are solely designed to send users elsewhere Examples: Bridge, doorway, gateway, or other intermediate pages Adwords clearly (but mistakenly, I guess?) interpreted your page as a gateway page, with the sole purpose being to drive users to your Amazon listing page (on a different site, obviously).

hermitcrab 12y ago
From the article: The review page isn’t a landing page. It isn’t linked directly from any of any of my Google ads. To get to it the user has to: 1. click on the ad 2. click on ‘customers’ in the navigation bar 3. select ‘review’ 4. click on the Amazon.com hyperlink (there is no automatic redirect) Also I am only linking to that page so they can read independent reviews of my product. I don’t [want] them to buy it from Amazon!
- sjs382 12y ago
  I'm not saying that I agree with their assessment. Note the last line of my comment. Emphasis added: > Adwords clearly (but mistakenly, I guess?) interpreted your page as a gateway page, with the sole purpose being to drive users to your Amazon listing page (on a different site, obviously). I'm just saying that your headline does a particularly bad job of characterizing the issue.
dsleno 12y ago
Adwords banned my site for a page that was not being advertised in Adwords. It appears what you need to do today to be safe is have a landing page on a completely unique site, without hyperlinks going anywhere else. Or maybe, send people to Google Shopping. That's probably what this is all about.

aruggirello 12y ago

I went through a similar adventure last summer, when Google abruptly suspended my Merchant Center feed (BTW we are AdWords customers since 2006). After ~1 month, I eventually succeeded in talking to someone who apologised and immediately restored it. Thousands of clicks forever lost because someone misinterprets a policy!

austerity 12y ago

Google customer support is designed to discourage you from using using customer support. I guess that's true for many companies, but Google is excelling at making it a torture.

empressplay 12y ago

Are you unable to escalate? Seems a bit odd to have no appeal against the decision of a low-level support worker...

IanDrake 12y ago
Obviously you've never had an issue with your adwords account. I've spoken to someone who's adword budget was 20K a month and even he couldn't get someone to talk to when they suspended his account.
davidw 12y ago
HN is how you escalate Google support problems (see patio11's comment) https://twitter.com/successfulsw/status/570892454339186688 https://twitter.com/successfulsw/status/570892454339186688
- DanielBMarkham 12y ago
  I've been watching the "How to start a startup" series on YouTube from YC (Highly recommended, BTW). Interesting to compare how those founders talk about treating their customers and industry partners with how Google is treating those same kinds of folks.

compbio 12y ago

These [no malware] requirements apply to software hosted on your site or linked to from your site. Perhaps it started with this? You linked (or let a reviewing user link) to a hacked site. I can understand Adwords taking action in that case (even when it is a simple hyperlink, it is dangerous to users of the ad network). The support was just bad. I can not defend that. Good on you for keeping your cool.

thefreeman 12y ago
I believe this was in reference to not having "Uninstall" instructions on his site.
- compbio 12y ago
  Could be part of it. 1. Add a link to the uninstall instructions on my download page. I told him that my uninstall was completely standard for the platforms I support (Windows and Mac). But he insisted. I looked at point two: 2. Remove some links that were ‘redirections’ from my reviews page. and was wondering what that was originally all about. Could be linking to malware, but I also do know that Google has become stricter in attacking linking practices where money could have exchanged hands. When you run an affiliate program with Amazon for instance, it is a good idea to "nofollow" these links, to make sure you don't run afoul of these rules. Then again, it seems a lot of things just went wrong in this case. Having just received a warning that a 5-year-old 960.gs fixed width site of mine was delisted from Mobile search for being "not friendly to mobile users" I can now better sympathize.

dsleno 12y ago

Wow. This could be my story, right down to being a customer for 10 years. Adwords has been hugely frustrating for me.