How We Fixed a Circumventing Systems (Cloaking) Suspension for a California Casino

A casino in California had its Google Ads account suspended for Circumventing Systems, specifically the cloaking subcategory.

Casino ads usually make people think of Google’s gambling policies, but those had nothing to do with this suspension. Google allows advertising for physical, brick-and-mortar casinos.

Cloaking usually means Google found something on the website that looks like different content shown to Google’s bots than to regular visitors, or content that doesn’t match the ads. When we fix cloaking suspensions, we focus on two things: the links in the ad account and the website.

Desafíos

The ad account audit turned up a number of URLs that were a problem. Some went to the client’s main website, but others sent people straight to ticketing platforms.

Sending traffic to a shared domain you don’t control, like a booking or ticketing platform, often causes trouble. Links stop working, redirect somewhere unexpected, or look suspicious to Google. We try to send traffic to our clients’ main domains whenever we can.

Some of the URLs also had redirects, and others were structured in a way that seemed to stop Google’s bots from fully crawling them, which can create a cloaking issue by itself.

The website had similar problems. Firewalls were too sensitive and looked like they were blocking some Googlebot traffic, and some URLs redirected in ways that could look odd to Google.

Acérquese a

We had the client clean up the problem URLs and the website issues behind them, along with other fixes that would show Google the business was legitimate.

That included signing up on review platforms and fully updating and claiming their Better Business Bureau listing. The listing wasn’t in bad standing, but it needed to be current. The point was to show Google a real business that takes its reputation seriously and was putting in real work to fix the problems.

Resultados

This case went differently than most. Normally we fix the problems, submit an appeal, and Google accepts or denies it. Here, Google reinstated the account before we got to the point of submitting an appeal.

Google appears to recrawl websites regularly. Once it saw the issues were fixed, an automatic email arrived saying the account was no longer suspended.

The process took a couple of weeks, mostly spent getting the website changes made.

Lo esencial

When Google flags cloaking, the ad URLs and the website are where to look first. Shared third-party domains, redirects, and firewalls that block Google’s bots are common culprits.

Automatic reinstatement is rare, but it happens when Google was flagging specific problems and they get fixed.

If you’re dealing with a suspension of any kind, cloaking, Circumventing Systems, or something else, reach out to StubGroup. This is an area of expertise for us.