[Solved] How to fix “Number of ads you can show has been limited” error in 4 steps?

Anytime you can get a good new from Google that they have updated their policy and keeping track of your blog traffic quality. And you never know when your account gets ban or suspended which can incur a heavy loss of your hard-earned dollars. Like many of us including me got the message “Number of ads you can show has been limited” and suddenly ads stop showing on the blog. I know this is not good news for anyone & obviously not all Google updates are good news for bloggers. 🙂

For more information, you can check the policy center link provided with the message. As per Google AdSense, the main reason for the temporary serving limit placed on your AdSense account might be

1. Your site traffic is not organic
2. You are clicking on your own ads
3. You are using untrusted or low-quality service to increase your traffic.

Fig 1. “Number of ads you can show has been limited” message

Although many bloggers reported that their traffic is organic, and they don’t use untrusted service or do any unwanted activity on their ads. Obviously genuine people won’t do. But there is no reply from the AdSense team since they have mentioned in the message, “Continue to build your content and audience while we assess your site traffic. Also, make sure you’re complying with AdSense Program Policies”. So, we just need to wait till Google AdSense analysis our blog traffic and resolve the issue from their end.

Before moving to my solution, I would suggest you refer below points to abide with Google policy:

1. What is Google Adsense program policy?
2. How Google defines invalid traffic?
3. How Google prevent invalid traffic on blogs/websites?
4. How you can prevent invalid traffic on your blog/website?

Let’s get back to the solution I have used which is 100% working. You just need to do 4 simple steps which I would be disclosing soon here.

Error: Number of ads you can show has been limited

I have received the same message in my AdSense account saying “Number of ads you can show has been limited” though my traffic was 100% organic and I make sure to follow Google policy for my blog. I was shocked to see this message as I can’t see any ads on my blog, and they have not specified any timeline about the resolution. Also, you can see the balance in my AdSense account, which is the most important concern for me. Then I decided to perform a test and it worked perfectly (Wow!). I just followed below 4 simple steps and would suggest you do the same if you are facing the same issue.

Fig 2. Temporary ads limit error message

You can see how my adsense earning came to $0 due to the latest update.

 Fig 3. Ads not appearing on my blog (Please excuse me for shrink image, as I have zoom out to cover ads section)

4 Steps to fix error message “Number of ads you can show has been limited”

1. Remove ads.txt from the root folder of your blog’s hosting server.
2. Remove ads code from header.php, widget or on any other page of your blog.
3. Disable ads inserter plugin if you are using it on your blog.
4. Turn off auto ads and archive ads unit from Google AdSense account

Remove ads.txt from your root folder of the hosting server.

While setting AdSense on your blog, Google AdSense recommends adding ads.txt(downloaded from Google AdSense) in your host server’s root folder. This text file helps AdSense to track your traffic source and activity on your blog.

When you will remove this ads.txt file from the root folder, you will receive one more error message as “Earnings at risk – You need to fix some ads.txt file issues to avoid severe impact to your revenue.” You don’t need to worry about this message as this can be fixed later by just adding ads.txt file in your root folder.

Remove ads code from header.php, widget or on any other page of your blog.

A place to show ads on the blog are header, footer, side widget or blog post. To show these ads you have to put AdSense code in respective file or location. You should be able to identify those places and remove the code from that section. 

Disable ads inserter plugin if you are using it on your blog.

WordPress plugin always comes handy. If you are using any ads inserter plugin to auto insert ads in post, page, header, etc then immediately deactivate that plugin.

Turn off auto ads and archive ads unit from Google AdSense account

Now the last step is to turn off auto ads from AdSense dashboard and archive ads units which you would have created manually to get AdSense code for the different sections of your blog.

Fig 4. Turn off auto ads from AdSense Ads dashboard

 Fig 5. Archive manually created ads unit in Ads dashboard

That’s it!

You would be thinking, we have done all the above 4 steps, now when & how will this message get fixed and ads will show on your blog. Right?

Now you don’t have to do anything, just wait for 10-12days. In the first few days, the page view on your Adsense account will reduce to Zero. Then in other few days Adsense team will withdraw this error message from your Google Adsense account as your Adsense account is no longer in use.

At the end

Once the error message i.e. “Number of ads you can show has been limited” gets disappear from your AdSense account, you just need to changes below setting.

1. Add ads.txt file in your blog’s root folder
2. Activate the auto ads option in Adsense ads dashboard

Within 24hr your blog will start showing ads using your Google Adsense account. Hurray!

Note: Only enable auto ads, don’t add manually created ads unit atleast for a month, otherwise you will have to repeat the above process again if Google Adsense team put your account under review.