Getting approved for AdSense: why sites get rejected

AdSense is the network almost every website starts with, because it has no traffic minimum. That doesn't mean everyone gets in. Rejections are common, and the messages are vague. "Low value content" doesn't tell you which pages Google means, or what's wrong with them.

Google publishes what it looks for, though. The two pages worth reading are the eligibility requirements and "Your AdSense account wasn't approved". Nearly every rejection traces back to something on one of them.

First, the basics

You have to be at least 18. If you're younger, a parent or guardian can apply with their own Google account, and payments go to them.

You need to be able to edit your site's HTML, because verification works by adding code or a file to it. If your site is on Blogger or another host partner, you apply through that host instead of directly in AdSense.

And most of your content has to be in a language AdSense supports. A site written mainly in an unsupported language can't be approved, however good it is.

Applying before the site is finished

This is the one people regret most. Google says sites that are under construction, or that are still just a template, won't be approved. Neither will ad code sitting on an empty test page. Placeholder posts, "coming soon" pages and lorem ipsum all count against you.

Wait until the site looks like something a stranger would want to read. Every page in the menu should lead somewhere real.

Pages without enough words

Google wants pages with real text: full sentences and paragraphs, not just headlines. Sites that are mostly images or video often get rejected. That catches a lot of photography blogs, wallpaper sites, video embed sites and recipe sites that are mostly photos.

If your site is visual, add the writing around it: what the photo shows, how you made it, what someone should know. That writing is the content AdSense reviews.

Copied, generated or mostly affiliate content

Google asks for "high-quality, original" content that gives people a reason to come back, and tells publishers not to put ads on auto-generated pages or pages with little original content. Rewriting other sites' articles, publishing scraped product descriptions or mass-producing pages from a template all run into this.

Affiliate content is allowed, but Google says it should be a small share of the site unless it adds real value. A site that's mostly "best X" lists linking to Amazon, with nothing original added, is a common rejection.

Navigation that gets in the way

The reviewer needs to move around your site the way a visitor would. Google lists redirects, pages behind a login, broken links, too many pop-ups and unfinished pages as problems. A big newsletter pop-up the moment the page opens, a menu full of dead links, or a "members only" section where your best content lives can all count against you.

Click through your own site on a phone, logged out. Anything that annoys you there will annoy the reviewer too.

The crawler can't see your changes

When verification fails, Google's site setup page says your changes have to be "published and accessible by the AdSense ads crawler". If you added the code to a staging copy, forgot to clear your cache, or have a security plugin or robots.txt rule blocking Google's ad crawlers (Mediapartners-Google and Google-Display-Ads-Bot), the check can't see the code and verification fails.

Open your live site in a private window and view the page source. If you can't find the AdSense code there, Google can't either.

Where your traffic comes from

Google won't approve ads on pages that get traffic from paid-to-click schemes, spam emails, or software that triggers ad views. If you've bought cheap traffic to make the site look busy before applying, it can work against you. Low but real traffic is much better.

Content that breaks the policies

Reviewers may look at every page, not just the one you submitted. The AdSense Program policies say all publishers must follow the Google Publisher Policies, which set out the content ads can't appear next to. Read them once, then check your older posts as well as your new ones.

Then wait

Google says the review "usually takes a few days, but in some cases can take 2-4 weeks". Use the time to keep publishing. If you're rejected, fix what the message points to, give it a few weeks of improvements rather than a few hours, and apply again.

Before you apply

• You're 18+, you can edit the site's HTML, and the content is in a supported language.
• No under-construction pages, placeholder posts or empty categories.
• Every page has real paragraphs of your own writing.
• Affiliate links are a small part of the site, not the whole point of it.
• The menu works, nothing important is behind a login, and there's no pop-up on page load.
• The AdSense code is in the live page source and nothing blocks Google's ad crawlers.
• No bought traffic, and nothing on the site breaks the program policies.

Once you're in, AdSense is the starting point. When the site grows, this guide covers when to move to Ezoic, Mediavine or Raptive.