During the last year, Google slashed and burned tens of thousands of AdWords accounts. Without remorse, apology, or explanation.

The majority of these were some flavor of “get rich quick” (Google’s definition, not yours) or sites that make strong health claims, miracle diets, etc.

And there was definitely a good deal of collateral damage. Like www.coffee.org – they sold coffee, for crying out loud, and $80K/month spend was not enough to get Google to return their phone calls.

The pendulum does swing both directions. In the last 2 weeks I’ve had a number of people call me and tell me their account got re-considered, then re-activated.

One gal got shut down Monday, and re-opened Tuesday after a manual review.

The one that got shut down, was shut down because 2 years ago she sent 5 visitors to The Rich Jerk.

OK, so here’s what’s going on:

• If you’re in a “get rich” category (again, Google’s definition, not yours), forget it. Google’s done with all that.
• If you make strong health or diet claims, forget it. Or pretty much any category that Google considers high-risk.

If you’re not working in those categories and if you can prove your website doesn’t sell Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, call 866-2GOOGLE and you might get a 2nd review. The person who’d promoted the get rich website repented and received forgiveness.

I have a strong suspicion that this is not only driven by Google’s preferences, but the Feds as well. Hey, if Google is profiting from someone the FTC doesn’t like, maybe they’re considered guilty too. This is especially plausible given the current “Uncle Sam’s Gonna Take Care Of You” social climate.

In Austin, Rob Sieracki of Rocket Clicks and Shelley Ellis are going to unveil the latest results of their Google lab experiments. Seminar is FREE to Mastermind Club members:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/mastermind

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.