Acceptance criteria?

What sorts of things do Google look for?

[jc2005]

If anyone's been following my previous question (on the general webmaster forum) I'm looking to rebrand an existing website and secure a good future for it.

So far, advertising has been on an ad-hoc basis, but I am keen to look into AdSense.

I'm just curious what sorts of things Google check for in terms of acceptance criteria - to begin with, the rebranded site won't have an established track record, and I'm wondering whether that would count against it.

I suppose they'll check to see that the site is alive (it will be), doesn't do anything dodgy (e.g. nasty stuff or illegal stuff), is on a proper domain, etc., but what else?

From what I've read, and heard from a couple of contacts, Google is very picky about which sites it lets AdSense on, though I see hundreds of sites out there that seem to be on AdSense without being particularly useful, informative or interesting.

So, what does it take? Should I wait until the rebranded site is well established, or can I just jump right in. If Google say no, is that no forever, or just until my site meets whatever criteria?

Any tips would be most welcome...

John

[icedowl]

The only definite thing I can tell you is to make sure there are no broken links anywhere. When I applied, they happened to check my site at the same time I was updating it, and they found at least one broken link at that point in time (though it was never clear to me how that happened). I had them re-check and all was well.

Others probably have more to add.

[Pedent]

AdSense publishers only have to have one site approved, and they can then add their code to other sites without having them checked.

Result: not every site on which you see Adsense ads will have been approved by Google.

[petra]

I think if I remember correctly your site is commercial so just just make sure your site also offers good original informative content and lots of it (10 pages or more)

If you get rejected its not permenant they will re-consider you.

Good Luck! Its a fantastic program!

[europeforvisitors]

From what I've read, and heard from a couple of contacts, Google is very picky about which sites it lets AdSense on

That hasn't been the case in the past, but maybe they've tightened up. In any case, if you've got a clean site that meets all the conditions in the AdSense Program Policies, you shouldn't have a problem.

[OptiRex]

I'm just curious what sorts of things Google check for in terms of acceptance criteria

Ensure you apply from the e-mail address which is shown in your Whois registration. We had one application refused for applying from [e-mail] rather than [e-mail].

We changed that and no problem.

so just just make sure your site also offers good original informative content

I'm not sure if there is a minimum amount of pages however so long as it's as petra says you should have no problems.

Incidentally, one of my best earning pages is a single sheet site added months later after approval of our original Adsense account. You don't have to have a huge site to earn good money.

[petra]

I'm not sure if there is a minimum amount of pages however so long as it's as petra says you should have no problems

Sorry, you're right, that minimum was for DMOZ, my bad.

[robho]

Ensure you apply from the e-mail address which is shown in your Whois registration.

Didn't seem to apply in my case. I joined with the unique address adsense@{mydomain}.com. The entire domain (let alone the address) isn't a domain I use on any whois, isn't a domain I have any Adsense on, and isn't the domain I applied to run ads on.

To get back to requirements, it seems quite important to ensure the site looks "finished". Don't have any "coming soon" pages at all, and check everything works. Probably helps also if it is not too cluttered with existing ugly ads.