A recent post on the Inside AdSense blog highlighted the possible value of using the Google AdSense Allowed Sites feature to enable publishers to identify malicious activity and click fraud. The post was in response to feedback Google had received when they asked for AdSense Product Ideas.
One of the suggestions received by Google was this:
Show a list of sites displaying ads from a specific publisher ID to prevent malicious activity.
The response from Google was to try the Allowed Sites feature. So I did.
Set up is straight forward – login to AdSense > AdSense Set Up > Allowed Sites > (and highlight) Only allow certain sites to show ads for my account
If you have never used the feature before, the box that appears when you tick the radio button will be empty.
Add all of the domains you have authorised your AdSense code to appear on.
This should obviously include your own sites, but there could be others that have requested access that you may have forgotten about. Hubpages, Squidoo, article sites and revenue sharing forums for example.
Save the update and your’re done.
What happens next?
Google will now look to see if your ad code is being used on any other sites. And if it is you will be informed through the AdSense interface. If the use is legitimate you can add the domain to the allowed list. If it is not legitimate the ad impressions and earnings will no longer be recorded in your AdSense account data.
What can go wrong?
- If your pages are being translated by Google you may lose out on some income as the address being translated is the Google translate page and not your own, therefore it is not an Allowed Site. SP Blogger wrote about the experience in this post blog post. AdSense earnings went down until the Allowed Sites feature was switched off.
- If somebody has scraped one of your sites and has never changed the original AdSense code, you could be losing out if the ads on that site are being clicked and you disallow it.
- You might forget to add all of your sites to the allowed list or you might forget to add any new sites you add your code too.
This is the first time I have used the Allowed Sites feature so it will be interesting to see what kind of information comes back and whether my earning increase or decrease.
Have you used the Google AdSense Allowed Sites feature? How was it for you? Please share your experiences in the comments section below.
UPDATE
In the four weeks since I wrote this post I have implemented a list of Allowed Sites – it may be a coincidence, but my earnings through the Google AdSense program has dropped over the same timeframe – by roughly 30%.
Most of the sites that appeared in the blacklist were country specific Google search engines and country specific image searches. Today I have switched off the Allowed Sites feature and opted to allow any site show my AdSense ads.
UPDATE 2
It is now a couple of months since the start of this experiment, and just like SP Blogger, it has had a very negative impact on my earnings. Since I switched it off my earnings through AdSense have gone back to normal.
I wouldn’t recommend using this feature for a prolonged period of time, but you might find out something interesting if you try it out for a day or two.
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