Before you sign up your website for Google Adsense always ensure to read their terms and conditions criteria properly and thoroughly.
This is a step what most publishers skip and do not take it seriously.
The mistake of not taking these conditions seriously is made by many people who do not bother going through the content altogether.
The reason why going through these terms and conditions is essential because you can then design and plan your website as per these terms to get the approval by Google Adsense.
If your website does not get approved by Adsense, then it will leave you wondering the errors that have taken place in this. These are the things which will influence the effective functioning of your website and will pave the path for higher revenue generation for you.
The entire terms and condition document is huge, but we will try to cover some essential terms that should not be missed out at any given point in time.
Important Google Adsense Terms and Conditions:
1. Website or blog design:
Simple website criteria like a good and clean layout, with readable fonts, are important steps for Adsense to approve your website to become a publisher.
It allows easy user interaction with your website, making it important criteria for Adsense to consider it.
Before proceeding ahead, ensure that your website has a good and pleasing layout which is user-friendly. There are many sources like wix.com that offers ready-made templates for you to start with or you can hire someone to design a website for you.
2. You need to be above 18 years:
Many underage bloggers mention the incorrect age on Adsense and keep on getting disapproved.
Therefore, it is advisable to use the correct age while getting your website approved. Adsense is meant for people who are 18 or above.
3. Use high-level domain:
Having a high-quality domain name is an essential criterion for Adsense to approve your website.
You can purchase these domain names on sites like Godaddy or Bigrock, which will show you the availability of the name too.
The best domain names are with .com, also while naming a domain to keep in mind, use short and easy to remember the name.
4. Avoid using paid traffic:
Buying the traffic to bring in more traffic to your website is not allowed by Adsense.
There are set rules to achieve a good quality landing page set by Google Adsense guidelines which will give you an idea and consideration for your website.
Though if you are promoting your website on social media platforms or building links from other valid sites, these measures are allowed by Adsense.
5. Linking to websites with unauthorized or illegal content:
Adsense will immediately block your website if you have link backs from unauthorized websites or which distributes illegal content.
Even if your site is partnering with websites, providing keygens will lead to suspension of your account.
Below are a few types of content which are strictly prohibited by Adsense:
- Adult content
- Website promoting violence
- Content with racism
- Gambling
- Hacking
- Drug selling sites
- Websites promoting arms and ammunition
6. Follow webmaster quality guidelines:
Google always ensures that the user should have an overall good experience while visiting a website.
Therefore, ensure that your website adheres to the rules of webmaster quality guidelines that includes the information explaining indexing, site ranking on Google search, etc
7. Add privacy policy, about us and contact us page:
To be accepted by Google Adsense, your website should have a basic structure and pages on it.
These pages are Add privacy policy, about us and contact us which are required to be added to your website, to begin with.
Including these pages on your website gives an impression of you as a professional who is serious to use Adsense.
8. Lack of content:
Content is the essential ingredient to keep your website or blog up and running.
If you have just started your blog and lack sufficient content or posts on it, then Adsense will disapprove your site immediately.
The content that you mention on your website is required to be fresh, free of any grammatical language and it communicates easily to the visitors. Poorly written content on your website will be disapproved by Adsense.
9. Don’t use copyright content:
Adsense does allow ads to be placed on a website if it is using copyright content on it.
For example, movies or songs come under these criteria, and this will lead to an instant ban from Adsense.
10. Ad placement under a false heading:
Adsense does not appreciate the ad placement under misleading or false headings.
The visitor on your website needs to be aware and distinguish the website content from the sponsored ads. Google ads can be labeled as “Advertisements” or “Sponsored Links” by the publishers.
There are few languages or words which publishers are not allowed to use on their website, as given below:
- “Click this ad”
- Click this ad to contribute to a cause”
- “Sponsor our website to keep us running”
- “Support us”
Common Mistakes that Violate Google Adsense TOS:
Google Adsense is a wonderful way to generate good revenue from your blog if used wisely. There are many publishers who make various mistakes which can lead to their blog being banned by Google Adsense.
Google Adsense has come up with various stringent policies which a website or a blog is required to adhere to before they get approved by Adsense
Before you begin using Adsense, it is good to go through the terms and conditions for easy approval.
Despite doing everything right, one might end up making small mistakes which lead to the violation of Google Adsense TOS.
Below we will discuss the common mistakes that can be avoided by you.
1. Alter the codes which are allowed:
There are various steps and coding to be done to make your website or blog look attractive and effective for crawlers to index them
You can easily play around with the layouts, colors, look and feel of the website; optimize the content as per your need.
You can work on the codes to make your site responsive and attractive.
But avoid fiddling with the codes which are strictly prohibited by Adsense, as it may lead your website to be banned.
2. Prevent from clicking your own Adsense ads:
Clicking your own ads or asking your friends and family to click them so that you can earn some money, is a sure way to be blocked by Adsense.
Prevent paying others to click on your ads or using automated tools which you can use, to get your ads clicked frequently.
These measures might seem harmless initially to go ahead with, but Adsense algorithm is so sensitive that it will easily find out the tricks that are being tried on.
If needed then, use the Google Preview tool to check your ads to see how do they look.
3. A limited number of ad units to be placed on the site:
Adsense has certain regulations which restrict you to place the number of ads on the website.
Don’t go beyond placing 3 ad units, 3 ad links or 2 search box on the page as it will lead to blocking to your site.
Even if you try placing more ads in this segment, it won’t show due to the restriction limit set by Adsense.
You can only place a larger unit ad like 300×600 ad units only once, trying to put up more than one ad, won’t work in your favor.
4. Keep your information confidential:
The bifurcation of your earnings from the Adsense is meant to be kept confidential; it is advisable not to share such information which includes CTR, CPM of your website for people to see.
You can share the information about the total money earned through Adsense, but further details are meant to be private.
5. Prevent from using competitive contextual text ad:
Many people make the mistake of creating fake and similar looking Adsense ads and using them on the alternative or competitive services of Adsense.
People do this to confuse the visitors so that they click on these ads too.
Adsense does allow affiliate system from other websites to get more website traffic but using their similar looking ads for this purpose is not a good idea.
6. Have one account for multiple websites:
If you are using multiple websites for earning revenue, then instead of creating multiple Adsense accounts, it is better to manage them from one account.
It is a convenient and effective way to manage all the websites.
Meanwhile, if you are worried about your account being suspended and block, then the chances of other accounts getting blocked are equally high once Adsense detects this step.
7. Ads to be placed only on content pages:
Many people think that placing ads on 404 error pages, registration or thank you page, login screen or pop up pages will increase their earnings.
One might think this to be a fair step to go ahead with, but this will lead your website getting banned from Adsense.
Therefore, rather than taking any risks it is advisable to always place your ads on a content page, where the user gets to see the information on the website.
8. Avoid masking ad elements:
Having a good, clean website is what makes your visitor stay on it for a longer period of time.
Use the right colors of your website which blends beautifully with the content of the website.
There are many websites which make common design mistakes which can hide the relevant information on the page.
Don’t forget to prevent your ads to be blocked by overlapping images or multiple ads as this reduces the visibility of the ads. These minute errors may lead your website being blocked by Adsense.
9. Prevent sending emails for your ads:
Adsense does not allow nor appreciates you sending emails to your audience to get the ads clicked.
The best way to do this is through, organic searches made by the user.
The Adsense algorithm is so sensitive that you may think they might not be tracking you, sending emails but you will end up being wrong since they will easily find out this trick of yours.
10. Prevent from altering the ad results once the ads are clicked: Once the user has reached your website after clicking the ad, prevent from making any alterations on the website, like minimizing, removing or redirecting the link.
11. Prevent keyword stuffing and excess advertising:
Crawlers can easily find out the keyword stuffing of your website which leads to the poor ranking on the search engine.
The quality content with simple language, use of right grammar makes it appealing to Adsense.
Excessive advertising of your website to get more ad clicks is not a healthy way and results in Adsense blocking or suspending the account for time being.
12. Track your content:
It is important that your content is available on legal websites or sites which are free from adult content or topics spreading violence.
Adsense does not allow pages which are non-content like MP3, video pages, Newsgroups, etc. Therefore, prevent putting up your content on such sites too.
Though the list for Adsense rules and regulation is huge, it is good to have a thorough study of these rules since they will be helpful for you to design an effective website design and strategy to go ahead with.
Google Adsense has stringent policies and uses complex algorithms to find out if you are trying to play with the rules. Therefore, it is advisable to be on the safer side and prevent your website from getting blocked by Adsense.
If you have any doubts regarding the complex policies, you can always contact Google Adsense support team or ask a question on their forums. Both these ways will help you find the relevant and suitable answer to your queries.