Inadvertently hitting an AdSense ad with a mouse click doesn’t mean the end of the world for a site publisher.
Accidental Clicks Not Always Fatal
Various reasons like site navigation layout may lead a webmaster to click on an ad instead of a link on their site. Apparently there are quite a few honest people in the world, as these accidental clickers tend to drop Google a note and offer a mea culpa for their transgression.
Chill, people. This isn’t 1970’s era East Germany, and the Stasi aren’t going to grab you in the Kroger parking lot and whisk you off for a round of interrogation in a poorly lit basement somewhere.
Google’s Mike Deeringer writes on the AdSense blog that Google is a little more forgiving when it comes to accidental clicks. “There’s no need to contact us each instance this occurs,” he said.
It’s likely Google figured out that your once in a while click was accidental, and isn’t going to charge the advertiser for it. They also have a good idea when clicks don’t happen by accident. Clicking for dollars can get you tossed out of AdSense.
Some webmasters expressed curiosity about where ads appearing on their sites will lead a visitor. Instead of clicking, Deeringer recommended the AdSense Preview tool as an alternative solution.
