Google AdSense Application Approval Process

Earlier, AdSense application approval was a simple one-step process, you apply for AdSense, your application is reviewed and if your application is accepted you are welcomed to AdSense. But now Google AdSense has changed its selection process. The current process has become a two-step process.

Sign up for AdSense> application reviewed> application accepted> placement of ad unit> account reviewed again> application fully accepted  

Which means from now on you have to first apply for an AdSense account, Google will through your site and then will decide if your site is eligible to hold an AdSense account or not. The next step is to apply the AdSense ad code on your site, if your site is found eligible to hold an AdSense account. Google will again go through your site and decide whether your site is now eligible to show Google Ads or not. If your site is, then congratulations you can now make money from AdSense ads.

So, let’s go deeper into the selection process. Since, it’s a two-step process I have categorized the selection process into two stages.

1.   Google Account Approval Process (GAAP)

2.   AdSense Advertisement Approval Process (AAAP)

Google Account Approval Process (GAAP):

In this process, when you sign up for an AdSense account. Your application is reviewed and if you qualify, you’ll pass the first stage. This is the most difficult stage to clear.

First off, Google checks whether your site complies with their Content Policies or not and filters all those sites which violate their Content Policies. All publishers must adhere to their Content Policies to successfully clear the first screening process. Google rejects sites based on the following:

1.   Prohibited Website/Blog Niche:

1.1       Adult content

1.2       Advocating against a Person or an Organization

1.3       Copyrighted Material

1.4       Drug, alcohol, tobacco related content

1.5       Hacking and Cracking content

1.6       Coupons Site (“pay-to” sites)

1.7       Site using Google Brand Features

1.8       Violent content

            1.9       Weapon related content

1.10     Promoting fraudulent activity

1.11     Selling counterfeited goods

1.12     Promoting illegal, underage sex acts

Your site moves to the next stage if it complies with the above mentioned policies. The next step is where Google specialists manually review your site.

In GAAP Google reviews your entire site manually, that is specialists at Google manually go through your entire site. When I say entire it means each and every thing present on your site. 

By each and every thing I mean:

1.1       Your site design

1.2       Colours used in your site

1.3       Font style

1.4       Site layout

1.5       Your site’s HTML and CSS codes

1.6       Site Navigation

1.7       Content Value

1.8       Niche

1.9       Your site’s Policies

1.10     Site Mass (total site matter )

1.11     Domain

1.12     Traffic

1.13     Mobile friendliness

1.14     Page load speed

1.15     Language and Grammar

1.16     User Experience

The above mentioned points is what I think, is Google’s check list. With this check list Google determines how professional your site is and a professional site is all what Google wants. I will discuss about these points later in detail.

To sum up, Google is looking for a website/blog which has a professional design, uses easy-on-the-eyes colours and font styles, a basic site layout, how professionally your site’s codes are compiled, how easily can a reader navigate to any article on your site, how valuable your content is, what is your site’s niche, does contains important policies like privacy and copyright, how diverse is your site, uses custom domain, how much and from where readers arrive at your site, your site is mobile friendly or not, site load speed, is grammatically correct and the most important point, your site offers a good user experience or not.

 

 AdSense Advertisement Approval Process (AAAP):

When you pass the GAAP you place an ad code (blank test ads) on your site. In AAAP Google reviews your entire site again, but this time with test ads units on them. In this process Google’s main priority is to test how professionally you place your ad codes without depreciating user experience.

This process tests:

1.   Your ad placement strategy

2.   Your article reach

3.   Traffic source

4.   Site re-review

5.   Site management

6.   Post frequency

From the above list you can easily see that this process is not as difficult as GAAP and deals only with how you are planning to make money through AdSense and how well your site is able to reach different audiences.

To sum up, in this step Google is looking for a site that uses a good ad placement strategy, is able to reach different types of audience, from where your readers are coming, how well you manage/run your site, how frequently you post articles and finally a basic re-GAAP test to ensure everything has been checked.

GAAP Vs AAAP:

From the above, you can easily make out that GAAP is much more strict and detailed than AAAP, but still both should be given equal importance for getting AdSense approved. 

For more info on why your AdSense application got rejected read : Why Google AdSense rejects your application?

 For more info on Google AdSense Approval Process, buy our E-Book, exclusively available on Amazon