How to Prevent Invalid AdSense Clicks in WordPress

March 25. 2021

Using AdSense to create revenue through your website can be a good idea. When implemented properly, AdSense can be a decent add-on to your website that will give you a clear way to earn from your popularity. But, in order to actually make money, you need to prevent invalid AdSense clicks in WordPress. Without doing so, AdSense can easily ban your website.

Understanding AdSense clicks

Before we go through the necessary steps of preventing invalid AdSense clicks, we need to elaborate a bit on the basic functionality of AdSense. To put it simply, invalid AdSense clicks are any clicks that come via invalid traffic. What does and does not constitute invalid traffic is determined by Google. After all, AdSense is their program. The most notable types of invalid traffic are:

• Clicks from website owners.
• Repeated clicks from the same user.
• Website manipulation from owners to make users accidentally click on the ad.
• Automated clicks from bots.

In essence, if real people are clicking on ads out of their own free will, that is valid traffic. Anything else is either invalid or in some grey area.

How Google detects invalid clicks

As you might have guessed, finding and handling invalid AdSense clicks is one of Google’s top priorities. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how invalid clicks can be misused, and the damage they can cause. Therefore, Google has developed automated procedures to detect invalid clicks. Accounts that don’t pass Google’s checks can have their AdSense disabled. Luckily, Google is fairly reasonable when it comes to checking.

Knowing that you cannot have 100% control of your AdSense, they will allow a small number of invalid clicks. Know that if you get a substantial number, your account will be permanently linked with bad behavior. So, it is in your best interest to do what is necessary to prevent invalid clicks. Google programs not only check but also work towards preventing invalid clicks on their own. So, luckily, you will not be alone in trying to stop them.

Prevent invalid AdSense clicks in WordPress

In order to protect your website from invalid AdSense clicks there are three things you need to tackle:

• Closely monitor your traffic in order to identify invalid sources.
• Ensure you closely follow the AdSense guidelines for ad placement.
• Block invalid traffic with AdSense protection plugin.

Monitoring traffic

The core problem of invalid clicks in AdSense is poor quality traffic. Since you are the owner of your website, it is important to understand the thought process that leads people to your website. Knowing this not only ensures that you can set up a good online experience for them. But, it also tremendously helps with identifying good traffic, and knowing when to be suspicious. Monitoring your traffic is a long-term process that may involve multiple plugins and even help from experienced professionals. Therefore, we won’t cover it in-depth now.

For preventing invalid AdSense clicks in WordPress, all you need is Google Analytics. This is a tool that you will use for pretty much all online management. So, the sooner you install it, the better. Once you install it, you need to compare its reports, with the reports that you have from Google AdSense. To see your Google Analytics report, simply head on to the WordPress dashboard and go Insights -> Reports. If you see a large amount of traffic coming from a website unrelated to yours, you can be pretty sure that something is wrong.

Avoiding accidental clicks

To get revenue from AdSense your visitors need to willingly click on ads. We’ve all experienced websites where creators try to get ad clicks by camouflaging their ads with the rest of their content. Or, by placing their ads, so that misclicking them is fairly easy. While this could have flown a couple of years ago, now AdSense has clear guidelines on how ads should be presented. Every ad needs to stand out from your content. Furthermore, you need to place it so that there are little-to-no risks of misclicks. If you fail to properly incorporate ads, AdSense will automatically assume that you are trying to get invalid clicks. So, do your best to adhere to the AdSense guidelines.

Block invalid traffic

Even with careful monitoring and proper ad placement, you might still get invalid traffic. Bots, for instance, can attack your website and quickly rack up ludicrous numbers of invalid clicks. Unfortunately, even if you prove that you had nothing to do with those clicks, Google will still disable your AdSense account. So, it is paramount that you keep your website safe from unwanted clicks. Luckily, this protection comes in form of a simple plugin called AdSense Invalid Click Protector. This powerful plugin comes with a set of highly customizable tools. Therefore, you can properly apply it to your website, no matter what traffic you are dealing with. By using it, you can set a max number of clicks per user, block IP addresses, block visitors when they reach an ad limit or outright block entire countries. But, to do so, you will first need to install it.

To install AdSense Invalid Click Protector you simply need to find it in the WP plugin store and follow the instructions. Once you’ve installed it, head on to the WordPress dashboard. There you should see a new option called AdSense Invalid Click Protector. Click on it, and head on to the General Settings. There you can set up the parameters for the behavior on your website, regarding ads. Once you’ve selected your preferences, make sure to “Save Changes” before leaving the screen. Once you’ve done this you’ll need to add the plugin code to your current AdSense ad units to prevent invalid AdSense clicks in WordPress.