Despite the mess we are, Google gave us approval for Adsense somewhat easily, and we get to serve ads to the occasional visitor such as yourself. So hey, at least we did something right, and that’s what is this post is about.
Getting approved for Google AdSense was the biggest success for beyond nothing .com. It was all downhill from there. It really didn’t matter in the end since beyond nothing. com was struggling the whole time with poor planning, lame content, having no niche, poor website performance, and consequently low traffic.
How to get AdSense approved with google
Apart from the process involved with signing up (read about that here), Google does not ask for much. Just that your website is at least 6 months old and has ‘enough‘ content.
Can I get AdSense approval with 10 posts?
Google does not specify how much content is enough, as there are many ways to interpret this. When we applied for Google AdSense the first time, beyond nothing .com was over 6 months old and had like 6 or 7 articles published on our tiny 20 page website. We got turned down a few days later with this email citing “Insufficient Content”. See screenshot below:
The good news is that google gave suggestions on how to resolve this lack of content issue. It also sent a follow up email with a link to resubmit when we were ready to do so.
So then we just started writing article after article (recall our lack of planning) trying to get to satisfy that “sufficient content” condition. When we hit the 30+ articles mark, we were brave enough to apply again. It worked.
So is 30 articles or pages of content that golden number to get AdSense approved? Maybe. According to google, sufficient content could mean either:
- Lots of pages with meaningful headings, sub headings, words, sentences, and paragraphs; or
- Few pages with high quality detailed text content that the internet is hungry for.
In both cases, text-based content is the focus. The more the merrier.
Can a website full of images and videos only get AdSense approved?
Apparently not. Google has stressed on text based content and clearly stated that a website containing just text or images (without descriptions) wont be approved. This makes sense as text is relied on by googles crawlers for understanding what the content is about and showing it to people who search with related keywords. This might change soon in this age of AI.
Other AdSense Approval requirements (navigation)
The last point in google’s suggestions was about having a navigation system for your website. This means having a good header and footer menus that provide links to access each and every page of your website. You really do not want any ‘orphaned’ pages that have no way of getting to them unless someone has the URL to it.
This helps the content sufficiency criteria as it means it easier for not just a user but a google crawler to find its way around your website and discover all your pages and content. An even more effective method of content discovery is by making a sitemap and adding it to the google search console.
How long does it take to get AdSense approved
If you did everything right in terms of the set up and have enough content to satisfy google, you can receive that approval email within a few days of submitting that request. In fact you receive the rejection email just as quickly as well.
If you get rejected from google AdSense, can you apply again?
Yes, you can apply for Google’s AdSense program as many times as you like with the same website. Now that you know what to do, hopefully your next application will be your last.