Google AdSense is really particular about the quality of pages their ads appear on. So, it is really very important to have good quality pages. By good quality pages what I mean is a good quality content, a good navigation, good design and a good look and feel of the web pages.
Before applying for Google Adsense, it is important to know few things that will increase the chances of approval.
Things you should know before applying to avoid rejection
Insufficient/unacceptable content: Google Adsense is one of the oldest ad networks and almost every website that exists out there is running Google Adsense ads. Hence Google has made the approval process really very strict. You should have a good quality and quantity of content before applying. If you don’t have content, Google Adsense application will be straightaway rejected. Google lays a lot of weight on grammar and spelling of the content. Since AdSense is one of the major sources of income for Google, no compromise on the quality of websites being approved for AdSense program. At least 30 good quality posts are must for a better chance of getting the application approved.
Page style and design of it: Imagine if Facebook had a yellow background with pink buttons and fluorescent text, would you even sign up, if not visit regularly? No right? That’s the importance of design. Have a design with a clear and easy navigation. Google focuses a lot on adding value to the user, your design should be in line with this too.
Have information about the website: If you want to get your Google Adsense application approved, you must have certain pages. The about, privacy policy and contact page is must have. These pages tell users more about your website and hence establish trust. Not having these pages will make you suspicious in eyes of Google. Privacy page is a ‘requirement’ for Google Adsense approval.
Google Adsense policies violation: While building content before applying for Google Adsense you should keep in mind that the content you build should not be stuffed by keywords and should be grammatically correct. Also, the traffic should be organic and not illegal sources. No plagiarism allowed and citation is a must.
Things to do before applying for Google Adsense
Write high-quality content: Content is the king. It is the content that brings traffic to your site and hence the revenue. So having a really very good quality content is really important for any applicant to get the approval. As mentioned earlier, Google loves websites that add value to users. Forget the revenue, if your website doesn’t add value to users your website won’t even rank in the google search. Even if you somehow manage to get the approval, the quality of content will not rank and hence will not bring revenue.
Pro tip: Build longer content so that you can use more keywords and hence get higher chances to rank well in search engine.
Verify your name and email: This is where the about page and contact page will come handy. It is important to include your name and email in easily visible space on your website (about and contact page) so that Google Adsense will trust you as a verified applicant and not some bot.
Have a good number of posts: There is no definite number of how many posts should be there on your website before applying. Some get approval with less than 10 posts and some get rejected with hundreds of posts. In my view, a good quality 30 posts should do. Make sure the content is well written and structured. Do not compromise on the quality of the posts. Not before approval, not after.
Have a website performance: Speed of your blog, design, and overall performance should be up to the mark. What if the ad loads and your text is still loading, who’s going to wait for the website to load. If no one waits, where will the revenue come from? If the content is king, the design is the queen. Have a beautiful queen. Ideal design that is ‘Good’ for users has
- Easy navigation
- Simple yet beautiful
- Well structured menus
- No useless widgets
- Search engine optimized
- Speedy
Check your content type: Google does not serve ads for certain niche. So having a multi-niche website, it is important to exclude the content of the following niche.
- Adult content
- Pirated content
- Hacking content
- Drugs or illegal material based content
Check your domain age: Domain age is an important factor in getting the application approved. Your website must be at least 6 months old. There’s a logic behind this. A 6 months old will have a handful of posts and steady traffic. If the application is approved there are chances that you’d earn better.
Remove other ad networks: While applying for Google Adsense, make sure your website doesn’t have ads from any other ad network. Google is little possessive for being the first mean of monetization so it’s better if you make the google the first source of income for your website. Even if you have ads from other sources, don’t run them until you get a reply from Google Adsense team.
Have permittable traffic sources: Chances are that you might have traffic from paid sources, it will not be hidden from Google. Instead of getting approved, you might get penalized. Also, traffic from illegal sources will also do no good. Illegal sources can be anything, an adult website or any such website that are not socially good.
How to not get your Google AdSense account banned?
So your account is approved. What next? To keep your application ban free, there are certain best practices as follows.
Do not click on your own ads: This trick is old now, Google will know it in a fraction of a second that the click on ads are organic or not. Clicking on ads from different IP is also traceable.
Do not link to illegal content: If illegal content is not acceptable, how can linking to it will be. There are cases of ads being disabled for linking to illegal content like pirate sites, torrent sites, and adult content sites. Refrain from linking to less trustworthy sources, as this will not only get your account banned but also fall in ranking in SERPs.
Sending ads in emails: Sending adverts in emails was a trend for quite a while. Google has banned all such accounts as it is against their policies.
Illegal Alt text: Many publishers used to embed ad pages in links with the label as Click here for more. Many even used push ads in pop-ups, to get rid of it the users had to click on it. Which is again a violation of policy.
Altering Google Adsense code: Even if your capable of, do not alter the Google Adsense code.
Do not make your ads look like part of content: You are free to customize the ad so as to match your website ambiance. But making it look like a part of the content to get more clicks is totally not acceptable.
Pro Tip: Do not place ads in 404 pages, exit pages, login or thank you pages.
Strategies to improve AdSense revenue
Size/location: Placing your ads above the fold is most fruitful. Try link based ads at prime locations. Both link based and banner-based are same and do not decrease the CTR, it’s just that the location of ads makes the difference in revenue.
Ideal sizes that work the best:
- 336×280
- 300×250 (the best)
- 728×90(best for headers
- 160×160
Organic traffic from the US: Irrespective of your location, you can target specific countries for organic traffic. In spite of having millions of impressions, your website might not have a good revenue. CPC is the reason behind this. The country where you get the most ad impressions from matters a lot. For the best results in terms of revenue, target countries like USA & UK. These two countries have the best CPC that will bring more revenue to your website.
Adsense for search: Adsense provides various methods to monetize your website, one of which is AdSense for Search. With AdSense for search, you can create a custom search engine where you can reduce bounce rate by showing your own content in search results and also earn side by side. Here’s how you can configure Adsense for search
Use ads between the posts: While the user is scrolling through the posts on your website, you can bring ads in between posts. Since these are the contextual ads, the ads will be highly relevant to the content around it. There are chances that users might click on it and you get paid for it.
Block risky URLs: If you don’t want unnecessary ads from specific advertisers, you can block those to increase revenue. There are certain advertisers who pay a very less CPC, you can block them by specifying their URLs, so that ads with higher CPC can occupy those space.
Experiment: Once you have an approved Google Adsense account, you are free to experiment with ads. Which location/page/post/section gets highest traffic can have better ads. Color combinations are yet another factor that induces a spike in revenue by Google Adsense. Do experiments with sizes, look and feel of the ads so that you can know which ads perform the best.
Apart from these detailed best practices, here’s the official Adsense guide from Google that can come handy to your website.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly Google Adsense has been the favorite among the bloggers. The increase in craze has led to making the approval process stricter with time. The bottom line of a successful approval is the quality of content. If you can provide value to users by your content, Google Adsense is going to make you rich. The preferred niche by Google Adsense is already making a whole living out of Google Adsense. The game has just begun, there’s a lot more to the internet.
Over to you. What are your experiences of applying for Google Adsense? How well are you earning? While you’re earning from Google Adsense, share tips that have worked for you. Let me know in the comment section below.
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