Google Adsense is the leader in online contextual advertising. Thanks to its good ad revenue payouts, wide reach, massive ad inventory and ease of use, it is the preferred advertising network for bloggers and website publishers.
If you are a blogger or web publisher, you can apply for a Google Adsense account to monetize your websites through ads.
Getting an Adsense account isn’t very difficult. If you have a good website, there should be no problem having your Google Adsense account approved.
It is a common complaint from many bloggers that Adsense rejected their website. However, you must know what Google Adsense expects from websites willing to join the popular advertising network.
Adsense gets thousands of applications from website owners, but a lot of them get rejected for not complying with its requirements.
If you are planning to apply for an Adsense account or have failed to get accepted earlier, here are a few things that you need to take care of before going ahead.
Google now grants a provisional approval to Adsense applicants. Once your account has been running ads to satisfaction of Google, your Adsense account get the final approval.
1. Apply for top-level domain names only
Adsense accepts only the websites that are hosted on the top-level domains such as www.speckygeek.com. Applications with URLs of folders such as ww.speckygeek.com/blog are not approved.
However, you can apply for sub-domains such as http://blog.speckygeek.com. If you have a blog hosted on free blogging platform Blogger, you account will not be rejected due to this reason as it will have a URL such as http://speckygeek.blogspot.com.
2. Established websites only
To reduce spammy websites and frauds, Google approves Adsense accounts for websites that have been up and running for at least a few months.
So wait until your websites crosses that age bar.
Don’t apply for an Adsense account for new websites without content. If your website has little content or poor-quality content, you application will most likely be rejected.
You should first add lots of high-quality articles, videos and podcasts before applying for a Google Adsense account.
3. Verifiable website/domain ownership
Google needs to make sure that the applicant is the owner of the website and/or entitled to get an Adsense account for it. For this purpose, it will check the domain ownership records. You may have to satisfy Google with its verification requirements.
Make sure that you provide correct and verifiable information in your application.
Also, your domain name records should reflect the details provided in your application. Don’t try to get an account by providing wrong website or other details.
If the ownership of website is not evident from domain name records, Google may ask you to verify ownership by creating a webpage with a particular content and reapply with the URL address of that page.
4. No prohibited content
Adsense does not approve websites that have adult or mature content, gambling, weapons, drugs, hacking, liquor, tobacco, spam or any illegal content.
If your website has content copied from other websites without necessary permissions, your application will be rejected for copyright violation.
5. Substantial quality content
If your website is full of content copied from other websites such as Wikipedia or Ezine, don’t bother to apply for an Adsense account.
Google wants you to have original and informative content that visitors find useful. Make sure that there are plenty of original, informative articles on your website before going ahead.
6. Proper website behaviour
Websites with Google ads should be easily navigable. It should not change user preferences or hijack browser buttons, redirect users to unwanted websites, force downloads, contain spyware, viruses or other malware.
Website can also not contain pop-ups or pop-unders that obstruct website navigation.
7. No black-hat SEO tricks
Google encourages webmasters to use search engine optimization such as webpages with accurate title and description meta tags. But trying to use black SEO tricks such as stuffing webpages with keywords, or including hidden text or links to improve search engine ranking is not allowed.
8. Create a privacy policy page for your website
Google requires you to disclose to your website visitors that third party advertisers such as Adsense use cookies to serve ads on this website.
If your website uses cookies to save user information (if you are not aware of it, chances are your website or blog is not using cookies), make sure to disclose that in the privacy policy. Add the link to the website’s privacy policy page in the footer.
Common stuff for privacy policy of all websites:
- When you visit this website, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends. These server logs may include information such as your Web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language and the date and time of your request, which are not personally identifiable.
If your website uses cookies, add this sentence:
- This website uses cookies to save information about users’ visits and preferences for serving you better.
If your website doesn’t use cookies, add this sentence:
- This website does not use cookies.
Here’s what your privacy policy should have if it’s only Google ads:
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website.
- Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to this website and/or other sites on the Internet.
- Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the advertising opt-out page at http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html (Alternatively, users may opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp)
If your website also serves ads from other ad networks, make sure to include information about them as well. Inform your users that these networks may use cookies and web beacons to serve ads to visitors. Provide links to privacy policies of those networks. Here’s how to disclose other third party ad network.
- Third-party ad networks serve ads on this website by directly sending them to visitors browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs, and may also be using other technologies such as cookies and Web Beacons to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and/or to personalize the advertisements.
- This website has no access to or control over the cookies used by third-party advertisers.
- Users should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad networks for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. This website’s privacy policy does not apply to, and it cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or websites.
Also include information on how to disable cookies.
- If users wish to disable cookies, they may do so through their individual browser options. Detailed information about cookie management with specific Web browsers can be found at their respective websites.
If you comply with all the above requirements, Google should accept your Adsense application. If, however, it does get rejected, review the email sent by Google team and try to solve the problem mentioned in it. Wait for some time before applying again. And, don’t let someone convince you that they can get your Adsense account approved for a fee. You website has to fulfil Adsense policies for being admitted to the ad network. Just concentrate on improving your website.
How to Apply for Google Adsense Advertising for Web Publishers?
When your website is ready with lots of high-quality, original content and it has been around for a few months, you can head over to Google Adsense and sign up for an account.
You can use your existing Google account to sign up or create a new Google account for website management. Please note that an individual can have only one Google account. So, take care of it.
You can always move your Adsense account to another Google account or add others Google accounts for managing your existing Adsense account.
Provide the details required and use your primary website that meets the quality standards of Google Adsense. Now, you got to wait for your application to be reviewed. Depending on the review outcome, you will receive an email. Best of luck!