Guides
Everything Google looks at before it approves a site for AdSense.
Written for people who have just been rejected, or who want to avoid it. Each guide covers one part of the decision in full — what the requirement really is, how sites fail it, and what to change.
- 01
Why AdSense rejects sites for "low value content"
It is the most common AdSense refusal, and the most misunderstood. "Low value content" is not a comment on your writing style — it is a statement about whether your site gives a visitor a reason to be there.
7 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 02
The AdSense approval checklist (2026)
Everything a reviewer looks at, grouped into the order you should work through it. Nothing here guarantees approval — but every item on this list has been the sole reason somebody's application failed.
8 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 03
How much content do you need before applying to AdSense?
Every forum quotes a different number: 30 posts, 20 pages, 10,000 words. None of them come from Google. Here is how to think about volume without chasing an invented threshold.
6 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 04
Writing original, Google-friendly content: topics, length, keywords and meta tags
Google does not reward writing that exists to fill a page. It rewards writing that answers a question better than the alternatives — and there is a repeatable method for producing it.
12 min read · Updated 6 September 2026
- 05
The four policy pages every AdSense site needs
Everyone knows they need these four pages. Far fewer know that empty, generated versions of them are treated much the same as missing ones.
7 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 06
ads.txt explained: what it is, how to create it, how to verify it
ads.txt is a one-line text file that stops other people selling ad space on your domain. It is trivial to create and surprisingly easy to get subtly wrong.
6 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 07
robots.txt and Googlebot: how a blocked crawl kills your application
A reviewer cannot approve a site they cannot read. Most crawl blocks are accidents left over from a staging build or copied from someone else's file.
6 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 08
XML sitemaps for AdSense applicants: create, submit, verify
A sitemap does not get you approved. It gets your pages discovered, which is the precondition for anyone — reviewer or reader — finding the work you did.
6 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 09
Google Search Console, end to end: verify your domain and get indexed
Search Console is the only place Google tells you what it thinks of your site. Setting it up takes twenty minutes; reading it correctly is what actually gets pages indexed.
11 min read · Updated 6 September 2026
- 10
Mobile usability and the viewport tag
Most of your visitors, and Google's primary crawler, are on a phone. A single missing line in the head is enough to make a good site unusable for both.
6 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 11
Page speed and Core Web Vitals, explained plainly
Speed rarely decides an AdSense application on its own, but it shapes everything else — how much of your content gets read, how well ads perform, and how a reviewer experiences the site.
8 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
- 12
Rejected by AdSense: how to read the email and what to do next
The email tells you less than you want and more than you think. Each stock phrase maps to a recognisable set of problems — once you know which, the work is obvious.
7 min read · Updated 28 August 2026
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