What is GSB alert?
Google Safe Browsing (GSB) is Google’s mechanism to protect users from harmful or malicious files throughout the internet, by showing them warnings when they attempt to navigate to dangerous sites or download dangerous files. Safe Browsing also notifies webmasters when their websites are compromised by malicious actors and helps them diagnose and resolve the problem so that their visitors stay safer. Safe Browsing protections work across Google products and power safer browsing experiences across the Internet. More details
How can I detect unsafe domains before sending my campaign for approval?
There are two tools you can use:
Open your landing page URL with the Chrome browser.
Google transparency report- This tool checks a URL’s status according to Google’s technology.
Virus Total- This tool analyze suspicious URLs to detect different types of malware.
Why did my campaign get rejected?
The GSB alert has a domino effect. If one domain is marked suspicious, then all associated domains will be marked as well. At SelfAdvertiser.com
we protect our publishers and advertisers. We have an automatic GSB scanner that scans landing pages and rejects them if found to be unsafe.
How can I prevent GSB from marking my site as suspicious/harmful?
Buy traffic only from traffic sources that enforce Google’s rules.
Don’t use the following:
Misleading brand references
Aggressive pages
Deceptive wording/content
How can I reactivate my campaign?
First you have to “clean” your domain. You can do this by using one of the following methods:
Use Google Webmaster Tool to examine the information from Google on any harmful content that may have caused the alert, fix or remove it, and request that Google review the site again. If the site is has been properly cleaned, it usually takes a few hours for Google to remove the alert (they commit to remove the alert within 3 days).
Change your domain (Note: Doing so does not ensure that GSB will not mark your site again. It is recommended that the site is properly cleaned whether or not the domain is changed).
Once you have made sure your landing page is consistent with Google’s rules, you can resend your campaign for approval through the SelfAdvertiser.com platform.
You can read more about GSB on the Charles NGO blog.