AdSense application checklist and tips to get AdSense approval
Posted Date: 11 Jun 2013 |Updated: 20-Dec-2014 |Category: Google AdSense|Author: Tony John|Member Level: Gold|Points: 100|
Read some tips to get your AdSense application approved. If your AdSense application is rejected, read this checklist and make sure your blog follows all requirements mentioned here before you resubmit your AdSense application.
I have seen a lot of people complaining that Google rejected their AdSense applications with no valid reason. When Google rejects an AdSense application, it gives reasons like Site does not comply with Google policies. While the applicant thinks his site complies with all Google policies, Google thinks otherwise. Most of the times, the applicant is not aware of various requirements and that is why the AdSense applications get rejected.
If you are applying for Google AdSense or if your application is disapproved, use the following checklist and make sure your site complies with all the requirements before you submit the AdSense application.
Tips to improve your chances of getting your AdSense application approved
Some of the suggestions mentioned below are mandatory requirements from Google and some others are just suggestions to improve your chances of getting your AdSense application approved. Go through the list and make sure your blog adheres to the requirements and follows the guidelines.
English content: Does your blog/site have majority of the content in English? AdSense ads can be served only on a limited number of languages and Google may reject your application unless your blog content is on one of the supported languages.
Privacy policy: Does your site have a privacy policy? Make sure you have a well written privacy policy and your site links to it from the bottom of all pages. If you are using it on the sidebar or somewhere else, Google may not notice it.
Mandatory statements: Does your privacy policy include the mandatory content, required by Google? It is important to include some information about the DoubleClick cookie; otherwise, Google will not approve your AdSense application. Find the required information to be included in your privacy policy.
6 months requirement: In case of applicants from countries like India, China etc, Google requires that you should have owned the site for 6 months and that the site should be active and running for 6 months before they can apply for AdSense. Does your site meet the 6 months requirement? Has it been fully active for the last few months?
Age requirement: Are you at least 18 years old? The minimum age requirement to apply for Google AdSense is 18 years.
Adult content: Even though adult content is not bad always, Google does not allow AdSense Ads to be placed in sites that contain adult content, even if you claim they are meant for educational purpose. Read more about adult content guidelines.
Copyright violations: What kind of content you have? Have you reproduced articles from other sources like blogs, books, newspapers etc? You cannot use AdSense on sites that violate copyrights of others.
Unique content: This is something most bloggers fail to understand. Google likes blogs and websites with unique content. The word "unique" means "only one of its kind". You must have articles on topics that are not covered in many other sites. Just writing articles in your words is not enough. Rather, you must write on topics that are not covered in any other sites. This is not a strict rule but the more unique content you have, the higher the chances you have to your AdSense application approved.
Original vs reproduced images: Many bloggers think that searching in Google for images and using them in their posts are allowed. That is not true. Taking images from other websites and using in blogs are not a good practice. Even if a website does not explicitly mention it, the images are copyrighted to the person who produced the image. The only exception is the images distributed as part of press releases and media kit. For example, cell phone manufacturers distribute images of their products and also allow using certain images in other websites.
About Us page: Does your website has an About Us page? Google does not like to work with anonymous partners. If you are running a website, your readers have the rights to know who you are. Include information about the person/team behind the website in the page and link to it from the bottom of all pages in your site. It will be a good idea to include the photo of the owner(s) in the About Us page to make it more authentic. Make sure the name of the AdSense applicant matches one of the team members listed in the About Us page.
Contact Us page: Does your site have a contact us page? There should be some ways to contact the owners of a website. Even though this requirement is not mentioned by Google, it's always a good idea to add a "Contact Us" page and link to it from the bottom of all pages.
Advertisements: Are you using a lot of other ads in the site now? A clean site will look more impressive to Google. It may be a good idea to remove all other ads or reduce the number of ads before you apply for AdSense. I would recommend you to have no other ads if your application is rejected once.
Popups and sliders: Do you have any popups or sliding layers, which are considered intrusive to the users? Remove them before you apply for AdSense. Popups are always a bad idea. Even the sliding layers are not so intuitive to many users. Many bloggers use Facebook 'Like' boxes, which popups in a layer, which may not look appealing to a Google reviewer.
Hacking and related content: Hacking related content is a big No-No for Google AdSense. However, many people write articles on ethical hacking, which is generally considered as acceptable content. However, the same content can be used for ethical and non-ethical hacking, so, Google may disapprove your application in such cases. It will be a good idea to stay away from any kind of hacking related content in your website.
Gambling content: Google has placed some restrictions on gambling related content. Gambling is legal in some countries and you may have readers from those countries. But Google will allow you to use AdSense on your gambling related pages only if you are from a country where Gambling is legal. As of now, only the applicants from the these countries are allowed to apply for AdSense on gambling related sites: Austria, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Ireland, Romania, Canada, Italy, Serbia, Denmark, Israel, Spain, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France, Peru, United Kingdom
Images vs Text: Do you have more images and videos than text? AdSense For Content works best with text and not on pages filled with images. If you have a lot of images and too little text, AdSense may fail to deliver contextual ads. Even if your website is an image hosting site, there should be sufficient text in each page, describing the image.
Number of articles: Even though Google has no specific requirements on the number of articles required to apply for AdSense, it is a good idea to wait until you have about 50 original, unique articles. If you have a good number of articles, you have higher chances of approval.
Length of articles: How long are your articles? Are they all too short? Try writing long articles that contain good amount of information. AdSense Ads will be relevant only if there is significant amount of content in the pages.
Misleading taglines: Does your blog has misleading tag lines or wrong claims like "Fastest growing blog in India" Don't claim you being the best, unless you really are.
Traffic sources: What are your traffic sources? Are they all coming from non-organic sources like Facebook promotions, paid advertisements, unnatural link building etc? If majority of your traffic is from non-search, they may be considered as low quality traffic and may not get approved easily. Before you apply for AdSense, reduce your promotions and focus more on quality traffic from organic search.
Does your domain contain any offensive word or words that suggest some AdSense violation topics? For example, if you have domains like HackingTips.com, BestExplosives.com etc, Google may do very strict review of your site since the names suggest of offensive topics. In such cases, you may want to double check yourself and make sure you don't have any content that violate Google policies.
Does your domain name contain any trademark words/names? Google does not support trademark violations. It may not be a violation in many cases to have trademarks of others in the domain name but Google may not be convinced since there is no opportunity for you to discuss with Google and convince them that you are not violating any trademarks by using such domain names. It is better to go for a 'brandable' domain name rather than using a name that contains a popular trademark. Read more about trademarks and domain name policies.
Article by Tony John Tony John is a professional blogger from India, who started his first Weblog in 1998 at Tripod.com. Tony switched to blogging as a passion blended business in the year 2000 and currently operates several popular web properties including IndiaStudyChannel.com, Techulator.com, dotnetspider.com and many more.
Hi Tony sir, very nice and informative article you have written. I'm all these guidelines except 2 doubts. It will be your kindness if you can clear my those doubts.
1. I just have 10+ articles (even time period of 6-7 months) because all are research articles and needs a time of weeks for completing them.
2. Is it allowed to use google images and then posting them after modification?
10 is just a small number for a blog to get AdSense approval, even though Google has not mentioned any specific requirements regarding the number of posts. Honestly, I think you may not get approval easily unless you have a good number of articles. With just 10 articles, you revenue potential will be too low, may be less than $5 per month. WHy not wait until you have 30-40 articles atleast, even though I recommend minimum 50 posts before you apply again.
Regarding your question #2, what you mean by Google images? Is it images taken from Google search? If that is the case, the answer is NO. You are not allowed take (steal) images from other sites, even if it is shown in Google search. Your chances of getting approval is low if your site has too many such images.
Guest Author: Gladson13 Jun 2013
Hi Tony Sir, this is a very informative article that you have written. I have a blog in blogger which is quite old but I have about 48 posts in it. But I have not contributed regularly. Now, it's a long time since I posted the last post. Can I still apply if I post some 10 to 20 articles regularly after a long gap? I had applied for Adsense but could not get approved.
I want to ask you that is it easy for blogger blogs to get accepted easily? Or should I go for a paid hosting?
If I should go for a paid hosting, then is Speedhost.in a good one to choose? Because I saw the website and it has some good hosting plans.
Yes, you can reapply for AdSense again after you start posting again. Wait until you have 10-20 new posts. Since your current posts are too old, it may have got outdated in the eyes of the reviewer. So, it is better to post more articles and then apply.
There is nothing wrong in using Blogger. But if you are taking blogging as a serious work, then it is better to go for a custom domain name. When a Blogger blog is approved for AdSense, it will be called Hosted AdSense, which will come with many restrictions. It is better to go for a custom domain and get a non-hosted AdSense account.
I don't have any experience with Speedhost.in, so I can't really give review of it. I have seen many people recommending Bluehost, Hostgator and GoDaddy for hosting. I am personally using Brinkster.com, which may not be suitable for small blogs.
Guest Author: Vinesh27 Jun 2013
A very useful article. I have been struggling to get AdSense approval for my blog which was more than 6 months old. This article helped me find all problems. After I followed the checklist, I approved and got the AdSense approval. Thank you very much.
Guest Author: Risu06 Jul 2013
My website got rejected when I applied for the AdSense. I have 6 months old domain and I followed all the policies. I got reply form the AdSense that I have unacceptable content. I even don't copy from any websites. my website is http://www.job-in-bank.com please just have a look on my website and tell me the solution so that I can get adsense approval.
Guest Author: Rehana Shaikh21 Jul 2013
Hi Tony,
Sorry for disturb you, I'm requesting first time for my blog review. Please review it and tell me why google says site doesn't comply with their policy.
Thanks for the useful information. I just want to know about traffic sources. 50% of my traffic is coming from other websites like google forums, .net forums by my backlinks. And about 30% of my traffic is coming from search engines. So, will I get approved if I apply for AdSense? I have applied 2 months back and I got rejected. Since then I have written 10 more articles in my blog. So, I think I can apply again now. Please suggest me.
There is no hard and fast rule on how much traffic should be organic and search traffic. If most of your traffic is organic traffic from ,a href="/articles/Search-Engines.aspx">search engines, that will give a good impression to the reviewers and increase your chances of AdSense approval. If the reviewer finds out that you are getting most of the traffic from forums and backlinks, there is a chance that the reviewer will conclude you are manipulating the ranking by link building and hence it may negatively affect your chances of AdSense approval.
Do not bother too much about the traffic sources from now. Slow down on link building and pay more attention on to on-page SEO and optimize your content to get more search traffic. If you are already rejected once, it is better you spend a good amount of time cleaning up your site and make sure your site meets all terms and conditions as expected by Google.
You may consider our professional site review services for AdSense compliance as well, if you are not sure what to do to improve your chances of getting AdSense approved.
Guest Author: tinkushaji26 Jul 2013
Hello Tony,
This article was very useful. I applied for AdSense and got rejected saying the site is following webmaster guidelines. Can you please review my blog and give me a suggestion as in where I am wrong??
My website: http://dailychoresrecorded.blogspot.in/
I looked at http://dailychoresrecorded.blogspot.in/. Do you own the images you are using in the site? There are lot of large sized images used but they look like they are taken from other sites. They are good images but the doubt that would arise in the mind of anyone is, if you are capable of making such images, can't you afford to get a custom domain name? You can't blame the reviewer if he/she conclude that you may have taken the images from elsewhere.
Also, how old is your blog? Google expect your blog to be atleast 6 months old and have reasonable amount of content before you can be an AdSense partner. I don't see more than a few pages in your blog, which could be another reason.
Take your time and add lot of valuable content. Reapply after a few months.
Guest Author: akasha01 Aug 2013
I am not at all agreed with you. I got my site approved within 1 month with no about us or privacy page and less than 15 articles of only 100 words each but the only thing was there is original content. That's it
Consider this analogy. If someone ask me what is the best way to cross a busy highway, or, if I am training my kids to cross the highway, I will suggest to take all necessary precautions. That includes, but not limited, stop and look both the sides a few times, walk fast to the other side when there are no vehicles approaching etc. The suggestions would also include tips like choose a spot that doesn't have any hindrances, avoid crossing when an emergency vehicle is spotted with emergency lights on and so on.
However, in the real world, I myself do not follow all these guidelines. There are millions of people crossing the highways every day without following all these guidelines and they all are not dying.
Same is true in the case of AdSense approval. The suggestions given are meant to increase your chances of approval and to be on the safe side. When you cross the road, you have the choices to be careful or careless. Both will lead you to the other side. The only difference is, careless approach increases the chances of risk.
Following all the guidelines will significantly increase your chances of AdSense approval.
Guest Author: Anand13 Aug 2013
Hi, Please can you check my site issue, since Adsense got rejected even 1. After 6 months 2. 70+ posts 3. Contact us Available 4. Privacy Policy available 5. About Us page available
Only thing which i have done is couple of times i have applied for adsense in past before change from blogspot to domain name. So I have applied with my another gmail id and its got rejected.
my site : www.javadiscover.com
Please can you let me know issues ?
Guest Author: Saurabh Chawla26 Sep 2013
Hi,
I have applied many times but they still reject it. Can you tell me the reason?
My site: www.saurabhchawla.com Domain age: 8 months Also, do let me know if anything I need to change or I need to include anything.
Guest Author: Saurabh Chawla26 Sep 2013
It gives an error that site is not compliant with Google policies. Can you let me know the reason.
Site: www.saurabhchawla.com/
I posted a comment earlier but sorry for forgetting to mention the reason.
How frequently should I post in my blog to get approved?? Once a day or may be 3-4 posts a week??? Or can I post 8-9 post a single day and post nothing for the rest of the month?
Guest Author: Rohan13 Nov 2013
Hello Tony Sir,
Thanks for sharing your vital experience with us.
I have one website which is 5 months old with 35 posts and getting about 1000 pageviews / day out of which 80% is from Google organic.
1. Would you please give some feedback about site analytics? 2. With your articles help I am planing to apply for Adsense now. I owned domain on my name, I write content myself however I wish to get AdSense account on my wife name or her gmail is it possible?
5 months old site with 1000 page views per day should be able to get AdSense, provided the articles have unique content and they are good quality. Using your wife's Gmail address is not a problem. Good luck with it.
Guest Author: Tuhin Subhra Bera05 Jan 2014
I applied on 2nd Jan 2014 for new adsense and then I saw a message in my dashboard.
"Your AdSense for content application is still under review. You will only see blank ads until your account has been fully approved or disapproved. Learn more."
Till now ads are not displayed on my blog? So, I request please check and help me regarding this.
My blog URL: http://basic-guidance.blogspot.in/
Guest Author: Bikramjit Singh29 May 2014
Nice checklist John. Although I was aware about most of them already, even then it happened to be quite useful as I was not aware of the importance of 'About' page on a blog. After reading this article I could get that and now I am going to edit my 'About' page. Thanks for sharing.
Google will accept image blogs provided you own the copyrights of those images and you have sufficient descriptive content in the pages. Read this article to learn more about using AdSense on blogs with videos and images.
Guest Author: Rajkumar Markam12 Sep 2014
Please check my site, Google Adsense rejected my site every time. My site http://www.xyloor.com have 600+ posts, Contact us, Privacy Policy and About Us pages.
Guest Author: Shilpa Verma03 Feb 2015
Great Explanation, Thanks For the Awesome Information :)
Guest Author: Jaya13 Apr 2015
Hi Tony,
I having video website www.makeuslive.com around 1 year old I applied for AdSense several time but got rejected in second face after placement of Google blank ads on my website. I have around 400+ posts.
Having: About Us Page Privacy Policy Copy Right Policy Around 8 Articles DMCA Form in every post Good Navigation Interface Around 400-500 User Per day. (Facebook & Organic Search)
I am unable to understand what violation I am doing on my site. Can you please take a look and suggest me what goes wrong which resulted in my AdSense application being rejected?
Guest Author: Assam 2564 Police Co10 Dec 2015
Many thanks for providing valuable information about getting AdSense approval.
Guest Author: Swaran30 Jan 2016
This is a nice post. I too applied for AdSense recently but it was not approved. I know that it takes time and it doesn't happen at one go, but if you can check my site (www.HomiesHacks.com) and let me know what is lacking then I can correct it before re-applying. I would appreciate your help.
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Hi Tony sir, very nice and informative article you have written. I'm all these guidelines except 2 doubts. It will be your kindness if you can clear my those doubts.
1. I just have 10+ articles (even time period of 6-7 months) because all are research articles and needs a time of weeks for completing them.
2. Is it allowed to use google images and then posting them after modification?