5 Reasons Why Your Google AdSense Application was Rejected (and How to Fix Them)
Did you recently apply to Google AdSense and get rejected? Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us! Here are five reasons why your AdSense application was rejected, and how you can improve your chances next time around.
1) The account isn’t active
Google AdSense is designed for websites that get regular traffic and generate ongoing revenue, so if your website is brand new or you’re only publishing occasionally, it may be more of a hobby than a business.
If you want to earn money from your site, update your content regularly and include ads on each page. We recommend creating a minimum of 20-30 pages with original content and including advertisements on each page.
As a general rule of thumb, you should have an average of four unique visitors per day before applying for an account. Another common reason applications are rejected is that there isn’t enough original content on your site. If readers come to your website expecting fresh information or entertainment, they should find it! Ensure that all of your content—from images to articles—is unique and relevant.
You can also use our free webmaster tools to check how much unique content you have on your site. Finally, ensure that you own all of the rights to any images or videos used in your ad units. For example, don't use copyrighted photos in banner ads without permission from their owners.
The image needs to meet program policies: Before you apply, make sure your image meets our ad policies .
This includes making sure your image doesn’t contain prohibited products or services , nudity, profanity , hate speech , violence , illegal activity , dangerous behavior , inappropriate gestures and/or sexually suggestive content .
All of these factors could lead to your application being denied.
The landing page has no context: Don’t just place an AdSense unit anywhere on your site; make sure it has some context for why it's there. This means having a link directly below it that goes back to a related section of your site .
Otherwise, users might click on an ad but not understand why it's there or where they've landed after clicking through. They won't return to your site because they didn't understand what they were looking at.
Make sure your landing page matches what people would expect based on where you placed your ad. In addition, avoid using pop-ups or interstitials (like welcome mats) as part of your monetization strategy .
These types of ads are often blocked by users who install third party software like ad blockers and script blockers to protect themselves against unwanted intrusions like these. The application hasn’t been reviewed yet: Please allow up to two weeks for us to review your application and respond via email.
Be patient; we receive many applications every day and we do our best to process them as quickly as possible while maintaining high standards for quality control.
If you haven’t heard from us within two weeks, please feel free to follow up. To submit a request for an expedited review, please contact your account manager or fill out this form. Thanks again for your interest in the AdSense program.
We wish you the best of luck with your site and hope that you will continue to pursue monetization strategies that help you succeed online. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team
We’ve carefully considered your application and determined that your site does not meet our program criteria. Therefore, we’re unable to accept you into our program. We’d like to thank you for your interest in the AdSense program and wish you the best of luck with your site. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team
2) The site isn’t relevant
Before you apply for a program, check out its guidelines. Some programs have stricter requirements than others. If your site violates a requirement, it’s not eligible for that program.
For example, if you create an app and submit it to an app developer program, it won’t qualify unless you also have a website that is relevant to that app. Also keep in mind that using modified or trusted publishers code on your site can make it ineligible for some publisher programs.
You should use verified third-party code instead of trusted publisher code if possible—but be aware that trusted publisher code may make your site ineligible for some otherother programs too. For more information about what makes a site eligible for specific programs, visit our help center.
Google wants ads where people are looking: Remember that most sites will only display ads on pages with content related to their industry. When you apply for an ad program, Google looks at your site and determines whether it matches with any of our ad categories based on what's already running across our network.
We want to avoid showing unrelated ads when we can, so we focus on placing ads next to content that fits with those categories. In addition, each page must provide original content; repurposed or scraped content doesn't qualify as original content according to our policies. For more information about how we determine eligibility, visit our help center.
Google wants ads where they’re relevant: To make sure users find relevant products and services, all websites in our network must have a primary purpose other than serving ads.
For example, if your website is a news website but you’re primarily using it to promote a specific product or service—such as weight loss supplements—it won’t be eligible for advertising programs because its primary purpose is not providing news content. Additionally, we don't allow sites that host malware or phishing scams.
We also don't allow sites that contain deceptive ad formats such as under-the-table affiliate links and misleading ad copy. For more information about what makes a site ineligible for specific programs, visit our help center.
Google wants high-quality ads: Ads are how we fund many of our free products and services, so we take quality very seriously when placing them on publisher sites. We don’t allow all types of ads in all programs because some types aren’t as useful for users or may be confusing or misleading.
For example, we don't allow video ads on mobile devices because they can drain your battery quickly and cause data usage issues. We also don't allow pop-up ads because they can interfere with site navigation. For more information about what makes an ad unacceptable according to our policies, visit our help center.
We hope you understand why your application wasn’t accepted and that you find a program that better fits your needs in the future!
If you have any questions about applying for AdSense or other advertising programs, please visit our help center for more information about applying for Google advertising programs . To learn more about how we review sites, visit our site quality guidelines.
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3) Tracking code issues
A big issue with AdSense is that you’ll have to update your tracking code on a regular basis, and if you forget, you won’t get paid. The last thing you want is for your account to go into arrears—that means it has less than $100 in it. To prevent that from happening, make sure your tracking code stays up-to-date at all times.
If you’re using WordPress as a CMS, there are plugins available that will remind you to keep everything fresh. You can also use an online service like Yoast to track your changes.
This is especially important when you start making more money and don’t want to lose any of it because of something silly like forgetting to change your tracking code.
The second most common reason why people get rejected by AdSense is because they don't meet quality guidelines. Google wants its ads displayed alongside high-quality content, so make sure yours meets those standards or else risk getting banned from their program entirely.
Use a content management system like WordPress or Drupal that automatically formats text so it's easy to read, add images where appropriate, include links back to original sources whenever possible, etc., and always remember that quality over quantity when creating new posts or pages.
If you're not sure whether your content will pass muster with Google, try running it through an online tool like Grammarly before submitting it for review. And if you ever have any questions about what constitutes high-quality content on your site, just ask yourself: Would I be happy if my mom saw something I wrote?
If not, then fix it! We're sorry, but we've decided to reject your application. What does that mean? A lot of people think reject means deny, but in fact, it doesn't necessarily mean anything at all.
Sometimes AdSense simply rejects applications for reasons that aren't immediately clear—it might be due to a technical issue, or maybe there's some sort of problem with your account settings. That's why one of our top tips is to reach out to Google directly if you receive such an email.
Yes, it can take several days (or even weeks) for them to respond—but contacting them directly is often worth it because they'll usually tell you exactly what needs fixing in order for them to accept your application.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Google doesn't want you to lose money as a result of making changes based on their feedback. They'll never tell you to change something without telling you how much revenue could be lost as a result. So if they say change X, assume it will cost $Y dollars per month until you fix it. In other words, do everything within your power to avoid losing money unnecessarily.
It may seem obvious, but many publishers fail to take advantage of all available features within AdSense once they're accepted into the program—either because they don't know about them or because they forget how important these options are.
Here are the ones you should definitely enable right away: Ad serving country targeting - You can target different countries separately, which allows you to optimize ad delivery depending on the demographics of each country.
For example, if 90% of your visitors come from Canada and Germany, you'd probably want to show Canadian advertisers only to Canadians and German advertisers only to Germans.
To learn more about setting up multiple ad serving countries , check out the official help center article . Content exclusions - You can exclude certain parts of your website from displaying ads altogether.
5) Other reasons
Some of my work colleagues have recently found that their AdSense applications have been rejected. Some from not being specific enough about what they were advertising, and others for not meeting their ad-viewability criteria.
Although it can be incredibly frustrating when you put time and effort into something only to be met with rejection, do not despair!
There are several reasons why your application may have been rejected, but there are also ways in which you can remedy these issues. I’ve listed five reasons why I think your application may have been rejected below, as well as how you can fix themthem .
It is important to note that Google constantly changes its requirements, so make sure you read through all the points before submitting your application again.
Here are 5 reasons why your AdSense application may have been rejected: You didn't specify a start date or had no idea when you would begin monetizing - This is a big one; if you're just starting out on a new website or haven't started writing/creating content yet then having no start date is going to cause problems for your AdSense account later down the line.
Many applicants tend to leave out any mention of monetization until later on, thinking it's too early in development stages and doesn't matter yet - don't make that mistake!
If you want to apply for an AdSense account, make sure you include a start date and an estimated monthly revenue. If you don't know exactly how much money you'll be making at first, estimate as best as possible based off your previous experience. What will set your site apart? What makes it unique? -
Another common issue among many unsuccessful applicants is simply not knowing what sets their site apart from others in their niche.
Having a unique selling point will help distinguish yourself from other similar sites and create more interesting ads that attract people who actually want to click on them instead of those who accidentally see them because they've already scrolled past everything else on your page!
4) Site quality issues
Poor site quality can reflect poorly on you as a publisher and our specialists look at many factors when reviewing applications. Two of these factors are page quality and site traffic.
If your pages have low-quality content, have too many broken links or lack social media integration, we may not be able to accept you into our program.
The same goes for low-traffic sites—if your site does not generate enough traffic, it will be difficult for us to verify your performance in an efficient manner. Improving these two elements is a good way to address all of our specialists' concerns about your site and increase your chances of being accepted into our program.
Account status issues: Our specialists also review whether or not your account meets our eligibility requirements. For example, if you already have an active AdSense account with another website but apply with a new one, we'll need to check that there aren't any conflicts between accounts before accepting you into our program.
Some examples of conflicts include: multiple accounts from one IP address; multiple accounts from one bank account; or duplicate accounts with similar names. In addition, if you're applying with a personal account but your business generates most of its revenue through AdSense, we might ask you to transfer your existing business account to a personal one.
You can learn more about transferring accounts here . Technical problems: To ensure that only high-quality publishers are accepted into our program, our specialists carefully review each application and manually run tests on each website listed.
If technical problems occur during testing—such as network errors or missing pages—we won't be able to accept you into our program until they're resolved. This doesn't mean that your application has been rejected, though! We just need some time to fix these problems so we can test your site again.
Once everything's working properly, you should receive an email update letting you know that we've re-reviewed your application and are now ready to move forward with it. Low CTRs: Clickthrough rate (CTR) is a metric used by our specialists to measure how often users click on ads compared to how often they visit other parts of your website.
This information helps us determine how relevant ads are to users visiting your site and ensures that visitors don’t feel like ads are obtrusive or disruptive.