What to do when AdSense is down

Alright, so AdSense has been down for a few hours. These things happen, even to large companies like Google. What to do? Here are the steps I recommend:

1. Don't panic. If it's a problem at Google, be assured that Google is working on it.
2. Determine the extent of the problem. Does the AdSense login screen come up at all? Can you login to your AdSense account? Are any of the Google sites up? What about Google's competitors? What about big e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay? Are AdSense ads still showing on your sites? On other sites?
3. Don't panic. You're not alone.
4. Login to your account if you can. If the AdSense login screen is up, login to your account. If it's not, try a different entry point, described in my AdSense tip #8, of entering the AdSense management system via an alternate domain. For example, as I write this I can't enter AdSense via the standard https://www.google.com/adsense address but I can do it (after ignoring a warning about a mismatched domain name for a security certificate) via https://www.google.ca/adsense (the Canadian address).
5. Don't panic. It'll come back.
6. Wait it out. Whether you can login or not, there's really not much you can do other than wait for Google to sort things out!

In fact, you should look at this as opportunity to work on your site/blog. If Google isn't serving any ads, what's happening to your site? Are the pages loading? Do you get nothing but PSAs and/or blank spots? Now would be a good time to fix things by using the alternate URL capabilities of AdSense (if you can login to the console, of course). Your site should still look OK if there are no ads, so work on that.

Assuming everything looks fine, go and write some content. Or fix up your sitemap. (You have a sitemap, right?) Catch up on your email. Stop obsessing about your AdSense account. Turn off the AdSense Notifier if you have to. (I've actually set it not to display anything anymore, it was too damn distracting… I just use it as a quick entry to the AdSense console now.) Go get some sleep. Go read a book. AdSense will come back, and everything will be fine. Trust me.

Eric Giguere is the author of Make Easy Money with Google, a real (printed!) introductory AdSense book for non-technical people, available at all fine bookstores. Be sure to download the free sample chapter for more information about the book.

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