Article spinning and autoposts violate AdSense ToS

[djbaxter]

AdSense Facts & Fiction Part V: Unoriginal content
Google AdSense Blog
Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Fiction: Publishers can put ads on auto-generated pages or other copied content that was not created by them.

Fact: We don?t allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program. This is to ensure that our users are benefiting from a unique online experience and that our advertisers are partnering with useful and relevant sites.

In the past, we?ve talked about tips for maintaining an AdSense-friendly site with user-generated content (UGC). Today's topic is not only applicable to UGC sites, but also to all websites affiliated with AdSense for content.

Sometimes we come across sites that are using software to generate automated content. These sites might look like normal news sites, but the information is completely plagiarized. Scraping content and passing it off as one?s own is not only wrong, but it also happens to be a serious violation of our policies. AdSense depends on maintaining a balance between user, publisher, and advertiser experience. We strive to protect that ecosystem as much as possible by encouraging and protecting unique and relevant content.

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See also: Google AdSense Does Not Allow Unoriginal Content

I spotted discussion around this post at DigitalPoint Forums where some publishers were shocked to hear this. One said, "I think content generated with article spinner softwares is also not allowed." Really, you think? Do you live under a rock?

But honestly, they have a reason not to know this. There are plenty of sites out there scraping and auto-generating content with AdSense on them. Google doesn't always do a great job preventing this from happening. Yes, it might be against their guidelines, but it still happens.

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