If you use Google you might have come across ads in the sidebar that are highly relevant to the search query you typed in. That being said, it is natural that Google Adwords has become so popular that some people unfortunately use it for malicious purposes – Adwords scams. Google takes great pride in maintaining a high quality user experience for its users even after they leave their website. This is true because their search algorithms are designed keeping in mind millions of users who search everyday. Google Adwords scams have come in the way of the user experience and often contain ads that violate policies or mislead users into divulging personal information that become part of identity thefts. Google has worked extremely hard to prevent these Adwords scams and it is interesting to note the efforts of the engineering team (see video below) in protecting the user from even seeing these ads let alone clicking on them.
How Google prevents Adwords Scams
- As David Baker, head of ads policy engineering in Google points out in the video below, Google works very hard on protecting the user and their experience while searching on Google.
- In “2011, Google shut down 800,000 advertisers and more than 130 million ads that violated policies.” That is just a drop in the bucket for the billion dollar search juggernaut.
- Google uses various methods the first being Automated Systems - Google scans the website of advertisers and makes sure the content is not promoting any malware, or violating landing page policies.
- The second involves manual work. If the system flags a website or advertiser, a Google employee will personally Review the ads to make sure they are in compliance and if not ban the advertiser permanently
- Google also crowd sources this realizing that Feedback from actual users who are searching for products, etc. have the best opinion of what Adwords scams and legitimate websites are. Google offers different forms users or advertisers can fill out to alert Google on potential Google Adwords scams.
How to report Adwords Scams
- When you search for something on Google and click on an ad in the side or at the top, be sure to look at the landing page you are taken to. Remember, don’t give away personal information, etc. Also be wary of schemes or other lead-capture pages. Some Adwords scams might trick you into visiting download pages, etc. which can be legitimate, but in some cases the Google Ad and the landing page might be completely unreated which provides for a bad user experience.
- Fill out the form here to talk about any specific ads you have come across that violate their landing page policies. Google won’t reply to you individually, but they will consider your report in their internal processes to remove Google Adwords scams or any ads that might be misleading users.
Here is a short video from Google Engineering explaining how they tackle Adwords scams and how they protect users given how many million people use Google Search everyday. It is no wonder that Google has such amazing engineering talent.
Google Adwords Scams – Has Google Done a Great Job in maintaining quality ads?
If you use Google to search all the time, have you come across misleading ads? Have you reported any of them to Google. Will you report ads now that you know there is a form to report adwords scams and misleading ads. Share your thoughts with our readers.
Image Credit: Google
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