Is Adsense Anti-SEO?

[Dolemite]

I just had a site declined for adsense. I know of a few similar sites that run adsense, so I don't think the content is unsuitable. The site is relatively new, but should produce solid traffic once its better indexed.

The only thing I could come up is that its fairly highly optimized. Dashed domain, relevent words in URL (not keywords, per se), headings, ALT text, etc. All the standard SEO.

I can't imagine why that wouldn't be kosher with google. Unless they don't feel good about sending me traffic and then paying me for it. ;) Still, they're getting their cut, so why should they complain?

Has anyone had a highly optimized site approved? Or have others been declined? I sent them an email asking for clarification...so we'll see what they say.

[rcjordan]

>anyone had a highly optimized site approved?

Yes.

[europeforvisitors]

Has anyone had a highly optimized site approved?

Yes, if by "highly optimized" you mean doing the kinds of things that Google encourages: using descriptive page titles, anchor text, etc. to provide easily digested "spider food" for the Googlebot.

By the way, "optimizing" your ALT text with keywords really isn't a good thing to do (even if it's something that SEO types were advocating a few years ago). It may be regarded as spamming, but--more important--it's a disservice to visually impaired users who use screen readers. It's much more courteous to simply use a word like "photo" or "image" so the person using a screen reader will know the graphic isn't a navigational element.

[cornwall]

>>>anyone had a highly optimized site approved?

I would be surprised if any reader of this forum, who is clocking up reasonable sums on money on their bean counter with AdSense, has not got an "optimised" site

As I see it Google wants to encourage Web Masters to write sites that index well, therefore encourage proper indexing (within their rules)...

...proper indexing is also known as SEO!

[Dolemite]

Hmmm, well maybe optimization isn't to blame. Come to think about it, the site may be a little keyword-sparse for when the mediawhateverbot comes to match relevent ads...but comparable sites running adsense are no better.

My ALT tags are fine. In fact, I only use ALT tags when images represent navigational elements.

[Imaster]

Dolemite, I have a pretty well optimized sites and they got accepted. I don't think they are anti-seo. Your site could have been rejected because of other reasons.

If your site fairly runs on the same line as is mentioned at [google.com...] then you are quite safe and Google loves you :D

[Jenstar]

I would guess that there are other reasons why your site was rejected.

Another thing to consider, many are getting one site approved for adwords. Afterwards, you can add your AdSense code to your other sites, and they do not have to go through the approval process. If it was something content-related that got your site rejected, your competitors may have AdSense on their sites because they had another site approved first.