Welcome to the AdSense Site Approvals series. My name is Aurora, and I work in Policy Education for Publishers at Google. This series takes a closer look at the different criteria required by Google AdSense to help you get your content ready for approval.
In this video, I’ll talk about what happens when your application is rejected, how you're informed, how to identify problems, and how to troubleshoot your way to approval. In fact, my friend Andy here just had his site finally approved. What’s that?
Oh hello Aurora, yes I suppose I did get it all approved, but then it was very easy really, I could have done it all blindfolded. That’s not to say, of course, that the guidelines, documentation, videos, and information I received from Google didn’t make a difference! Of course, you know, you’ve been great, Aurora.
That’s right, so let’s start with… Oh dear, I’m so sorry about this. Andy, this isn’t you is it? I very much hope not.
Hello, yes. My name’s Adam and I’m in a bit of a pickle. I’ve spent a lot of time getting my new content in order for this website but I’ve been rejected for monetization and I don’t really know what to do next.
Ah yes, you see friend, I was once like you, drowning in a sea of my own discontent. With a little expertise and knowledge, you might, like me, find yourself ready to fulfill your AdSense ambitions. It’s great to see you so passionate about AdSense, Andy.
First of all Adam, let me say we appreciate your frustration. we know you want to expand your presence on AdSense. So you’ll have received a message explaining that your site has been reviewed and disapproved due to one or multiple reasons.
Sir, you won’t believe how very straightforward it can be. Of course not everyone can nail it first time like your pal Andrew here. But listen up and we’ll get you right in order.
First time…? Okay, let’s go through the top reasons why sites are disapproved. Number one… I think therefore I am, dear boy.
Or better yet, I think, therefore I AdSense. Your true identity must be confirmed by the HTML code we give you, by verifying your ownership in Search Console or by adding your ads. txt file.
Number two. . .
Your site has bad traffic. Auto-refresh, hidden ads, a bot, a crawler masquerading as a legitimate user, clickjacking, adware, malware, cookie-stuffing, browser pre-rendering. You want to make sure your site only hosts good traffic, meaning real users who click through to something genuinely of interest.
Number three. . .
The mind is only as rich as your cheapest content. Is your site hosting low-quality content? The hanging gardens of copy/paste.
Or—I dread to think—perhaps your site has no content! You need some content— a work-in-progress page, a coming soon page, an under construction page— nobody wants to see this, and nobody wants to advertise on it. Make sure your content is compliant with Google Publisher Content Policies.
Number four. Replicated or. .
. Duplicate content. AdSense won’t ever appear on pages which have scraped other websites and sources for their information, without adding any value at all.
You need to make sure you meet the minimum site requirements, and make sure your site is easy to navigate with good-quality content. We might have used our crawler to explore your site and found there was some issue. You can check there are no typos, navigational errors, or anything else which might prevent your site from being operational.
You can resubmit and we’d be pleased to take another look. Number five. .
. They say honesty is the best policy, and I have learnt that the hard way. AdSense adheres to a strict limit of one account per publisher I channelled my efforts into one splendid account and look at me now.
The publisher might even have another account that has been previously disabled due to violations of AdSense policies. Number six. .
. Your site isn’t ready to show ads. We couldn’t find any ad code, or the code is incomplete or malformed.
You’ll be rejected. And finally, number seven. .
. Templated pages. The ad code appears on pages which have little to no value.
They might also be rejected on the grounds that there is excessive advertising. You might be using a templated page which mirrors or frames content from other sources without adding value of your own. So there.
There’s really nothing to it, champ. Absorb the knowledge and you shall expel success! Actually, that’s a really helpful list to go through, along with the other episodes in this series I can really check over what needs to be done step by step.
I can probably get this done by the end of the day. That’s great! I’m so glad we could be helpful.
Remember, AdSense wants to approve you, but we need to have strict guidelines on what is approved to ensure a healthy digital advertising ecosystem. It exists to protect users, publishers and advertisers alike. Aurora, we’ve said enough.
Time is a healer, space is a teacher, and the inner workings of AdSense are now like a perfectly formed but very tiny gymnasium for my publishing mind to exercise within each and every day, and my brain is burning after another excellent session of troubleshooting. That wraps up our series on Google AdSense Site Approvals. Please like, share, and subscribe to our Google AdSense YouTube channel so that we can help you better understand our program policies.
If you’re still troubleshooting at the end of this series, feel free to re-watch it to remind yourself of our best practices. Ciao! Lovely to tea you!