Yes, many people say that applying for Google Adsense is easy online, and the installation and application process are indeed so simple that I don’t know how to write an article about it. However, as the saying goes, the simpler it is, the more effort it takes. I decided to use this as a record until I successfully apply for Google Adsense. Let’s go!
Preface
As someone who has been in the marketing field for many years, I originally thought that with so many websites under my belt, it would be easy to apply for Google Adsense. But I didn’t expect that I had been standing on the shoulders of giants before, and now that I’m starting from scratch, I truly appreciate the fact that even if I want to profit through Google, it takes some effort (respect to the many successful predecessors).
Applying for Google Adsense
First of all, you must first apply for an Adsense account, which is easy to do by going to the Google Adsense homepage and opening it through your Google account. However, there are a few things to note here.
- Each person can only have one Google Adsense account (verified by address).
- Google Adsense allows you to add multiple websites, but they must go through the review process.
- If malicious clicks are used, the Adsense account will be permanently closed (if you have a YouTube account, it will be closed as well) and cannot be restored.
Since the review process is now relatively strict, Google always has a way to determine whether you have multiple accounts, so it’s really not recommended to operate your website using malicious clicks (our company’s pursuit of SEO rankings led to the closure of two websites and one YouTube account).
Adding Website to Google Adsense
This step is also very simple. In your Google Adsense account, find the “Website” section and add the websites you want to include. Since I also manage a site on Pixnet, I added two websites. It’s worth noting that if you use Pixnet to apply for Adsense, as the developer, Pixnet will take 20% of your revenue for platform maintenance.
After completing this step, it should look like this:
Google Adsense Review Time
Although there is no clear indication of how long the review process will take, it typically takes at least 14 days for a website with low traffic. However, for the website I previously managed for my company, which had a daily traffic of up to 3,000, the review process was completed within about 7 days.
Google Adsense Review Qualifications
As expected, after submitting my application for review, I received a notification about the processing of my Pixnet site 18 days later.
In short, my website is too new and lacks sufficient content, so I searched for the standards used to judge websites. I then summarized the versions circulating in the industry.
Google Adsense Review Standards
Before looking at the unofficial standards, let’s first take a look at the official rules provided in the email.
Google’s review criteria use a combination of manual and AI-based systems, which is why it takes at least two weeks to complete the review process. The following are the essential rules based on the content of the website:
- Ensure the content is original and useful to the user.
- Ensure there is no duplicate content on different pages of the website, and each page is unique.
- The website should be easy to navigate, and there should be proper categorization and menu options.
It seems straightforward, and you might already know these rules (they say it’s common sense!). However, I found a series of official Adsense videos on YouTube, and watching them made me wonder if Google employees need to have acting skills during the interview process.
Google Adsense Approval Standards Underground Edition
- Website has been established for over 6 months (some say it needs to be a year)
- All website content is original and regularly updated
- Applicant must be over 18 years old
- At least 50 articles
- Each article must have at least 500 words
Currently, I have written 35 articles, of which 19 have been indexed by Google. I believe that being indexed means that Google recognizes them as high-quality content. However, some of the original content has not been indexed by Google for some reason. Additionally, I have written a few episodic stories for fun, and I’m not sure if they were considered duplicate content.
Reasons for Google Adsense rejection:
- Unconfirmed website ownership
- Bad traffic to the website
- Poor or no content on the website
- Duplicate or copied content from other websites
- Other accounts have been suspended for violating policies
- Ads.txt file not found
- The website is of low value or has no value
Summary of May 11, 2022
In fact, at the end of the day, Google wants website owners to produce high-quality content, rather than creating a lot of junk content like content farms (I wonder how they were approved in the first place). Among the points mentioned above, I am most concerned about point 5, as there have been cases of policy violations by other companies, and I am worried that this will affect my account approval. However, regardless of the outcome, I will continue to monitor the progress of my website application.
Update on May 16, 2022
Google Adsense sent me an email informing me that the review process has been completed and requesting that I modify any low-value content. I searched for information on what constitutes low-value content and found several minimum content-related guidelines, as well as quality guidelines for webmasters. I did add some affiliate marketing content and wrote about my experiences with dramas while trying to increase traffic in the early stages. From the inclusion status in Google console, I can see that these types of articles are not what Google likes. Moreover, the website has been established for less than two months, so I will make further revisions in the upcoming articles and reapply after a month.
Improvement methods for Google Adsense’s content lacking in value
Those interested can watch the following video, which actually explains it quite well.
Update on June 1st, 2022: I passed the application!
While I was persistently pursuing and courting POPcash, and after more than a month of studying Google’s content judgments, I finally received good news from Google that my application was approved.
What does this mean? After researching related information, there are two possible situations:
Account under review:
During the traffic quality evaluation period, the advertising volume of your account will be temporarily restricted. We will voluntarily conduct reviews and continue to monitor traffic, and then adjust or lift this restriction based on the evaluation results, but we cannot give you an exact time frame for how long the evaluation process will take. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Invalid traffic concerns:
This means that there are concerns about invalid traffic in your account, which has resulted in a restriction on advertising volume. We will voluntarily conduct reviews and continue to monitor traffic, and then adjust or lift this restriction based on the evaluation results.
In my personal judgment, it is because when I applied for this website’s Adsense account, I still used the address of my previous company, which was the billing address for the account that was banned due to invalid traffic. Therefore, when the new website was established, Google seemed to anticipate this and did not approve my new account when I later re-applied for a new account because I still did not understand that the invalid traffic resulted in my Adsense account being suspended.
With a stain, there naturally needs to be a period of observation, even though my new website does not use any illegal methods. This advertising traffic restriction usually lasts less than 30 days, but sometimes it may be longer.
This incident tells us that in the era of big data, everything leaves a trace. Do not think that everything in the past is just a cloud on the internet. In the face of the internet giant Google, we are like being naked and being watched clearly.
