Google AdSense is one of the most popular ways for website owners to monetize their content by displaying targeted Google ads. However, being approved for AdSense is not always a quick or straightforward process. A key factor determining how long AdSense approval takes is whether your website meets all of Google’s publisher policies and quality guidelines.
If your website is well-optimized and provides a good user experience, you may be approved in just a few days. However, many publishers experience delays ranging from a few weeks to a few months before gaining approval. Understanding the key factors Google considers can help you speed up the process.
What is Google AdSense?
Google AdSense is an ad network that allows publishers to display text, image, and video ads on their website pages. These ads are targeted to your site’s content and audience. Whenever visitors click on the ads, the publisher earns a share of the ad revenue.
AdSense is appealing to website owners because it provides an easy way to monetize content without requiring in-depth advertising knowledge. Google handles all the ad sales, targeting, reporting, and payments. Currently, over 2 million publishers worldwide use AdSense to earn revenue from their websites.
Why Getting AdSense Approval is Important?
Before you can start earning from AdSense ads, your account and website need to be reviewed and approved by Google. This approval process ensures publishers meet the program policies and provides a good user experience.
Once approved, Google will provide you with ad code to add to your web pages. This tells their system where to place targeted ads. You will also gain access to detailed performance reports and earnings tracking.
Without approval, you cannot:
- Display Google ads or earn revenue
- Access performance reports
- Receive payments
Therefore, getting approved is essential to monetizing your website with AdSense. While it requires patience and effort, the rewards can be well worth it.
What Factors Determine How Long Approval Takes?
Google does not provide a specific timeline for when publishers can expect to get approved. Approval times vary widely based on factors like:
- Website content and quality
- How well you meet the AdSense program policies
- Verification of your account and site
- Webpage speed and performance
- Ad placement on pages
- Site traffic and audience
- Overall demand and resources at Google
Sites that are optimized for AdSense stand the best chance of earning a faster approval. Those with issues to correct will usually wait weeks or months before getting accepted.
Let’s look at some of the key approval factors Google evaluates in more detail:
Website Content and Quality
The content, design, and functionality of your website are major factors determining if and when you will get approved. Google wants to protect users by only allowing sites with original, high-quality content to display AdSense ads.
Your content should be mostly unique and created for your audience. It should avoid copyright violations, scraping, and thin or low-value content. Having engaging, useful information structured in a logical way also helps.
Ensuring your website has positive user engagement signals like time on site, low bounce rates, and repeat visitors goes a long way. A clean, user-friendly design and easy navigation improve the experience.
Meeting the AdSense Program Policies
Google outlines their publisher policies and quality standards in the AdSense program policies. Review these policies carefully, as violating any of them can lead to non-approval or later banning.
Some of the key policies to understand include:
- Prohibited content – Google prohibits certain types of sites from AdSense like adult content, illegal activity, violence, hate speech, copyright infringement, and more. Carefully check what content is not allowed.
- Page content quality – As mentioned above, you need to offer good value to visitors with mostly unique content and a positive user experience. Thin, low-quality content won’t be accepted.
- Site behavior – Any misleading or deceptive behavior like clickbait titles, ads disguised as content, pop-ups, or interstitials can lead to non-approval.
- Ad placement – Google has rules on where and how many ads you can place without disrupting the user experience. Follow their ad placement policies closely.
Pay very close attention to all the program policies when building your website. The further you stray from them, the longer approval will take.
Account and Site Verification
Part of the approval process involves providing verification to Google that you own the website and are authorized to run ads on it. There are a few ways to confirm site ownership:
- Add a Google Analytics tracking code – Connecting Analytics provides verification.
- Upload an HTML file to your site – Google gives you a file to upload.
- Add a meta tag to the home page – Copy the meta tag they provide.
- Change your website DNS settings – For subdomains and directories.
- Insert a Google AdSense code snippet – Small code addition that confirms control.
Verification can take a few days to a week in most cases. Be sure to follow the specific verification instructions for your situation.
Page Speed and Performance
Your website should load quickly for visitors. Pages that take too long to load provide a poor user experience and may not get approved.
Test your site speed with Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix. Faster page load speeds improve approval chances. Some ways to optimize speed include:
- Compress images
- Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
- Use a caching plugin
- Reduce redirects
- Upgrade hosting plan
- Defer non-critical JS
- Remove unused code
Aiming for a page load time under 2 seconds helps significantly. The quicker your pages load, the better the experience.
Ad Placement on Pages
Where and how often you place ads matters. Poor ad placement that disrupts the user experience is grounds for non-approval. Stick to these guidelines:
- Don’t overload pages with too many ads. Google recommends no more than 3 ad units per page.
- Keep ad units reasonably spaced out, not crammed together.
- Use a variety of ad sizes and types – don’t just use rectangles.
- Don’t place ads above the primary content fold. Keep them within or below main content.
- Avoid ads that interrupt or hamper site use like pop-ups.
Carefully test different ad placements to find what works best for engagement and earnings, without going overboard.
Traffic Volume and Audience
Higher traffic sites tend to get AdSense approval faster, especially if they already show strong audience signals. Google wants to see enough potential ad clicks and conversions to monetize your content.
While there is no firm traffic requirement, sites with at least 50-100 visits per day often get approved quicker. Building consistent, organic traffic from your target audience helps show Google you can generate clicks and revenue.
Demand and Available Resources
Google has an entire team dedicated just to evaluating AdSense applications and websites. But with over 2 million publishers already using AdSense, they receive a very high volume of applications to review.
During periods of exceptionally high demand, Google’s available resources for approvals may become limited, causing longer wait times even for qualified sites.
Additionally, if issues come up requiring manual review by Google’s team, it adds to the approval queue, slowing down the process further. There is little you can do about resource constraints, but being patient helps.
How to Speed Up AdSense Approval?
While you can’t control how much demand Google is experiencing, you can optimize your website to speed up approval. Here are some proactive steps to help get accepted faster:
Audit your content against the program policies – Read through all the policies in detail and check for any violations you need to correct. Pay particular attention to quality guidelines.
Improve page speed and user experience – Test your site speed and optimize where needed. Ensure easy navigation, compelling content, and overall positive engagement.
Sign up for Google Search Console – This connects your site with Google for indexing and performance insights.
Add more content – Having an extensive site with fresh, high-quality content shows Google you are invested in creating value for your audience.
Diversify content types – Don’t just focus on text articles. Also include images, videos, audios, infographics, etc. Varied multimedia content engages visitors.
Promote your website – Build links through guest posting, earn press mentions, and promote your content on social media. Increased visibility and referral traffic make you look more attractive for AdSense. Just avoid spammy or manipulative tactics.
Use Google Optimize to test improvements – This free A/B testing tool helps you identify what content and design performs best. You can test headlines, layouts, ad placements, and more.
Sign up for other ad networks too – Joining other networks like Media.net, Ezoic, Infolinks, and more provides additional monetization as you await AdSense approval.
Check status periodically – Log in to your Google AdSense account every few weeks to see if there are any notifications requiring action from you. Don’t just sign up and abandon it.
By being proactive with these optimization tips, you can build a stronger, faster website that signals quality to Google. This will maximize your chances for a quick AdSense approval.
What is a Typical AdSense Approval Timeline?
Every website situation is different, so approval times can vary widely. Here is an overview of the typical general phases and timeframes:
- Application – 2 minutes to complete initial application
- Initial automated review – 24-48 hours for bots to scan your site
- Verification – 1-7 days to confirm your site ownership
- Manual review – 2-8 weeks for in-depth human review
- Fixing issues – 1 week to 2 months if you need to correct violations or optimize further
- Approval – Sites that pass quickly may be approved in 1-2 weeks total. More issues means 1-3 months is more common. High quality sites with strong traffic can sometimes get approved in just a few days.
- Ad code setup – Once approved, placing your ad code takes just minutes.
So in ideal situations where your website already meets the policies, approval can potentially take under two weeks. But for sites needing improvements, 3-4 months is a more realistic expectation.
Just remember approval time also depends heavily on Google’s demand volume at that point. Remaining patient while continuing to improve your site is key.
What If My Application is Rejected?
If your AdSense application gets rejected, don’t panic. Here are some next steps to take:
- Carefully review the reason for rejection provided by Google. Determine what AdSense policies you violated or need to improve.
- If needed, request clarification from Google through their appeal process about why you were rejected.
- Make changes to your site based on the violations cited. Document these changes and how they resolve the issues.
- Consider starting over with a brand new AdSense application and website if violations were extensive.
- Test your site with Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console to ensure all best practices are met.
- Build more traffic, content, backlinks, and engagement before reapplying.
With some work to optimize and build your audience, you can reapply with better chances of getting accepted. Most sites do eventually get approved if they continue improving.
Can You Get Banned After Approval?
Yes, publishers can get banned from AdSense even after getting approved if Google discovers policy violations. Reasons for banning include:
- Sudden drops in site quality to create low-value content
- Using ads to mislead visitors or as site content
- Artificially increasing clicks or impressions on ads
- Having ads appear on pages with prohibited content types
- Redirecting users away from pages with clicked ads
- Hiding ads for some users to improve click-through-rate
- Implementing pop-ups, pop-unders, or deceptive site behavior
Continually monitor your site after approval to ensure you remain compliant. Any shady practices or intentional violations can get your AdSense account permanently banned.
Conclusion
Getting approved for Google AdSense presents a major opportunity to monetize your website content. But it requires patience and can take weeks or months depending on how optimized your site is and factors like Google’s demand volume.
By creating high-quality content, meeting all program policies, verifying your account, improving site speed, and building traffic, you can maximize your chances of getting approved faster. Stick with the process, continue optimizing your website, and your approval will come sooner than later.
Read Also – How much AdSense pay for 1,000 views on blog?
Just remember that while AdSense approval takes time for most publishers, the rewards of having your site accepted are well worth the wait.
