What Is Click Fraud In Google Adsense?

There is no such thing as an incorruptible system and Google is learning that AdSense is no exception. The program, which is an excellent way for webmasters to make a little extra money, is falling victim to something that is commonly called click fraud.

Google Adsense

How AdSense Works?

When Google first developed AdSense, everyone thought that they were nuts. Google had the last laugh by turning AdSense into a program that works for everyone. In exchange for allowing Google to place a link on their website, the webmasters make a small amount of money every time someone clicks on the link. The advertiser who pays the webmaster each time a link to their website is clicked are happy because they are attracting customers without having to spend a fortune on an advertising campaign. The surfer’s like AdSense because they are finding websites that they never would have discovered without the links.

What is Click Fraud?

One of the reasons that advertisers are happy to pay the webmasters every time their advertisement is clicked is because they assume that the person who is doing the clicking is genuinely interested in whatever is being advertised. Recently though the advertisers have noticed that they are paying large amounts of money to one particular webmaster. When they contact Google and Google investigates they find that someone one the website is simply clicking the links. Since it was normally the webmaster who was committing the click fraud, Google handled it the best way they could, they disabled the webmasters account.

The real problems started when competing webmasters realized that they could benefit from Google’s policy of canceling an account when click fraud was being committed. Since many webmasters rely on the income they generate from the AdSense program, when their account is disabled they are no longer able to maintain their website. That meant that all the competing webmaster had to do was go to their competitors website and start clicking on the links. After awhile Google stepped in and the website was no longer able to function.

The problem Google is running into is that it is very hard to determine who is committing the click fraud. They can tell what website is involved but they have a much harder time determining who is doing the actual clicking. There are people in third world countries who are actually paid to hit links all day. There are automated programs called HitBots that are extremely hard to detect. Some programs have been set up so that several people can commit click fraud on a website while making it look like all the clicks came from one spot.

The Solution

Although there is room for a great deal of improvement, Google is doing everything it can think of to discourage click fraud. The most minor repercussion is the closing of an AdSense account but if the fraud is severe enough Google will file a lawsuit. Until they come up with a better solution many advertisers are staying away from Google.