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Get started with AdSense (1)

AdSense for beginners (1): AdSense requirements

Before you start applying for AdSense, you should first consider whether your website fits AdSense. Of the English-language websites that apply, only about 10% are approved. The percentage is probably higher for German-language websites, but many sites are also rejected in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Although there are many references to the topics of quality and guidelines in the help documentation, AdSense often remains vague when naming the reasons for rejection. This may be due to the fact that the checks are also automated to a high degree. Another reason is that AdSense does not want to be shown its cards. Thirdly, the criteria are always changing and have become much stricter over the years.

Made for AdSense (MfA)?

Websites that are only made to earn money with AdSense usually do not meet the quality criteria. The content of the pages must be unique. It is also not enough to simply rewrite other texts, possibly even automatically. The content must be relevant for the users and also for the advertisers who should place their ads on your site and pay money for it. And the website should show that you know what you are talking about, that you are an expert on the topics of your site.

Business sites and shops

Business sites and shops are usually not suitable for AdSense. These sites are advertising for yourself or for your products and therefore not interesting for other advertisers. Quite apart from the fact that most of the time the traffic is not sufficient to really generate significant advertising revenue, this is also not target-oriented for you. You direct visitors away from your offer, possibly even to your competitors.

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Content

AdSense is designed for websites with content, i.e. especially for textual content. Therefore, pages that, for example, only have great photos, a game or even just a good calculation tool are not suitable for AdSense. Since such sites were approved in the past, the question always arises: "But it's the same on site xyz, why not on mine?" As already explained, the criteria have become stricter and without textual content it is not possible. Google has its own monetisation solutions for games and apps.

If you now want to monetise a great currency calculator on your website, you could consider adding a blog on the topic of currency and thereby offer a content page.

Now the question often comes up: "How much content do I need?" Let me put it this way: a lot of content. It is not enough to post a few articles to meet the requirements. There is no exact number, but I would recommend applying only when you have more than forty different, interesting, unique pages.

Traffic from search engines

To earn money with websites, you need a lot of traffic from search engines. Only when you have a lot of traffic is advertising worthwhile for you and also for AdSense, which is why pages with only a little traffic are usually not approved. And important: organic traffic from search engines. Traffic from socials is not so suitable for AdSense, because the search intention is often missing. This often leads to invalid clicks. You should therefore have a lot of traffic on your website, mainly from search engines!

Time

Creating the content of a website takes time and work. And the search engines also need time to place a new page at the top of the search results. Here, too, good content is needed. That's why my recommendation here would be to wait until after six months before applying for a new site. Use the time to develop good content, then the ranking positions and the traffic will come.

Technology and usability

Your website should be state of the art and have good usability. And it should not be a construction site. To put it positively: It should be finished to the extent that it makes a rounded impression on the site's visitors. Some technical errors can also prevent the site from being approved:

SSL Encryption

SSL encryption is a minimum requirement today. Besides disadvantages in ranking, SSL encryption is also an important security feature. In addition, the pages are not called up by all browsers. There are hosters who offer encryption free of charge with their web hosting.



SSL encryption can be recognised by the https and the closed lock symbol.

Mobile friendliness

There are still websites that do not offer an optimised version for mobile devices. Often these are older sites that have not been technically developed further. However, this is an important criterion both for the ranking of a page and for AdSense.

As a rule, far more than 50% of the hits on websites today are mobile. If ads are displayed on a website that is not optimised, it may not be possible to read the ads and there may be invalid clicks. Before applying for AdSense, you should relaunch your site for mobile optimisation. It does not matter whether you offer a special mobile version of your website (e.g. m.example.de) or the generally recommended way of a responsive website.


In the Search Console and with thistest toolyou can test the 'mobile friendliness'.

Pagespeed

The Google guidelines for user-friendly websites also apply to AdSense. The third element besides SSL encryption and mobile-friendliness are the so-called Core Web Vitals and especially the (mobile) speed of the website. The Core Web Vitals are evaluated in the Search Console using a traffic light status:

• red: Poor
• yellow: Need improvement
• green: Good

In particular, good pagespeed is important for a good user experience. Since the display of AdSense ads slows down the website even more, you should also optimise here by improving the loading times. Very bad times can also lead to the website being rejected by AdSense.


Chart: Core Web Vitals

Access of the Google Crawler

The error message is: 'Site down or unavailable' and occurs in the testing phase when the Google crawler is excluded from accessing the page. Background: The website must be accessible for Google crawlers:

1. The site must be able to be checked for compliance.
2. The content of the website is analysed so that suitable ads can be displayed.

There is usually one of the following reasons that the Google Mobile Crawler or Google Mediapartners Crawler is excluded:

• The website is not accessible at all
• The robots.txt excludes the crawlers
• A code line in the .htaccess prevents access
• The server settings prevent access

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Legal framework

If you want to earn money with your website via AdSense, you are not moving in a legal vacuum. As a rule, the income must be taxed and registration with the tax office is necessary. Therefore, there are legal and AdSense requirements that must be taken into account.

Legal age

This is a simple and clear announcement: You have to be 18 years old. Younger Youtubers in particular 'forget' this sometimes or 'make a mistake' with their date of birth. They then later have difficulty verifying their identity and often don't have a second chance at an AdSense account, as Google is very strict about such things.

If you are not yet 18, your parents may be able to apply for an AdSense account. But even this is not always practical: on the one hand, the parents then have to pay the taxes for it, and on the other hand, the account cannot be transferred later, after the 18th birthday. Then the parents have to close the account and the son or daughter has to apply for a new account. Sometimes it is better to wait until the age of majority.

Imprint

You need an imprint on your website (not only) for AdSense. Without an imprint, the website may not be approved. It is relatively easy to create an imprint. You should have the following minimum information:

• Name, first name
• Address
• If applicable, legal form
• Contact details such as e-mail and telephone

The imprint must be well marked and accessible, preferably linked from the homepage with one click.

Privacy policy

The data protection statement is more complex, but also necessary. On the Internet, there are corresponding information pages and generators that support you in this. A corresponding search will show you a large selection.

GDPR Consent Management Platform

Compliance with data protection regulations is also a complex and difficult matter. Since advertising with AdSense does not simply collect personal data without the knowledge and/or consent of the visitors to your site, the users must be informed accordingly and, if necessary, give their consent. Only then can the advertising be played.

Everyone knows about the sometimes annoying pop-ups, but if you want to use AdSense, you have to go this way too. AdSense offers its own, free tool for this purpose.

There are many other tools that also do this. Depending on the size and number of websites, there are also monthly costs. It is also important to note that the tool must be certified by Google from January 2024.

Do I need a website and my own domain to use AdSense?

As a rule: yes! But no rule without exceptions. Some platforms also offer the possibility to use AdSense. In particular, the Google platforms Blogger and YouTube (for videos) can be monetised with AdSense. But you can also connect your website with AdSense via the Wix platform. But here, too, a separate domain must be connected. You can find an overview of AdSense platform partners here:

AdSense Partner Platforms

It is important that you then start the monetisation process from the corresponding platform. If you first create the AdSense account and want to connect the website with AdSense, this will not work.

With most free hosting platforms that offer the website as a subdomain of the hoster, it is not possible to use AdSense.

What are the requirements for YouTuber?

Here is a small digression: YouTube AdSense requirements. Since the video platform can also be monetised via AdSense, there are often overlapping issues that affect both AdSense and YouTube. The requirements (as of 2024) for monetisation and inclusion in the partner programme are:

• 1000 subscribers for your channel
• More than 4000 hours of watch time in the last 12 months or 10 million valid shorts calls in the last 90 days
• The YouTube guidelines must be complied with
• You must be at least 18 years of age
• Linking the YouTube channel with an AdSense account

Important here too:You start the monetisation process and the creation of the AdSense account from YouTube! Before you start, I recommend reading the YouTube FAQs on monetisation.

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Checklist: Requirements for Adsense

Here you have a summary of the topics that you can check before registering. If you can tick all the boxes, you have the best chance that your site will be approved by AdSense:

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   If you have any suggestions, comments or proposals for the blog post, please contact me bye-mail.I am happy to receive feedback!