Why is my site rejected by Adsense?

[imbrod]

Hi everyone! Can someone please help me out, I wrote Joel but he couldn't.

I created the site All Hosting Guide.

But when I applied for Adsense, they turned me down without explanation.
Furthermore, my site is not listed at Google search engine, although it's been 2 months since I submitted it.

Can anyone suggest some things what should I do in order to make it more 'Google-friendly' and could you possibly think of the reason I was banned? (I read their TOS couple of times and I'm sure I'm not breaking any of their laws)

Thankx
Imbrod

[pamz]

I'd write them again and ask for an explaination. Maybe they will let you resubmit it.

I could not see anything that would be unacceptable.

[dragonsage]

Can anyone suggest some things what should I do in order to make it more 'Google-friendly' and could you possibly think of the reason I was banned? (I read their TOS couple of times and I'm sure I'm not breaking any of their laws)

Thankx
Imbrod

You might add a robots.txt file -- this is a guide to the robots on which directories to spider, as well as some other neat things. Google for "robot.txt" for a tutorial.

Work on getting some inbound links -- they have a more powerful and quicker response in getting you listed than do the "submit your url" forms.

[imbrod]

Thanx for suggestions, but:

- I posted it twice - twice rejected
- robots.txt is supposed to be depreciated by Google (I read that in various sources), so I left it out deliberately
- I have some 10-20 inbound links from other sites; but I also proposed link exchange to over 20 sites and none of them put link back to my site nor replied me!
By the way if here is anyone SERIOUS about link exchange - any kind of serious site is welcomed!

[trotter]

Imbrod,

Set up a free blog with blogger.com and make some interesting and informative posts on it.

I don't know if they're partial to blogger blogs or not :confused: ...but it worked for me.
Btw, once you are approved, you can put the AS script on any or all of your sites. Good luck,

trotter

[imbrod]

Thanx for suggestion, but are you aware that once your site is rejected by Adsense, you CAN'T POST ANOTHER SITE UNDER YOUR NAME! That is rediculous, but it's true.

OK - so let's say I apply for Adsense somehow. But still, I have the problem with listing in Google, so Adsense won't put apropriate ads on my site (only the 'sh**tty ones like public services).

You'll see what I mean if you try to put 'all hosting guide' in google. They don't even list my site which has domain based on those words, let alone the other important keywords!

[flyer]

Most of the advice in here has nothing to do with your problem of being rejected by Adsense, which has nothing to do with links, robots.txt, or traffic.

I would also write them back & ask why your site was rejected. Tell them politely that you want to comply with their rules but don't see what the problem is.

I can't see what's wrong with your site, either, & I've seen lots of Adsense sites.

If they don't respond or won't answer, make another site & reapply with that one. If you get accepted, DON'T put Adsense on that first rejected site.

[jmd]

Imbrod,

When I entered site:all-hosting-guide.com or site:www.all-hosting-guide.com
I found your index page listed in Google with today's date...

You may want to try eliminating the link exchanges also to see
if you are being penalized in the "Sandbox" by Google by association.

John :cool:

[Flashni]

I can't see what's wrong although you have not mentioned the www.w3.com protocol in your header HTML and seem to have loads of uneccessary DC Meta tags.

I would send them a very nice email saying you've read and read again their rules and are sure you comply. You are a newbie and have spent months building this, etc, etc. Please help.

Google usually give cryptic answers and are a pain in the .... as if they are scared of giving their secrets away - but you never know.

Also, check you have no incoming links from porn, gambling sites, etc. Better still to remove all links first.

[adsenser]

Hey Imbrod,

I would suggest you remove the members login box from your main page and then resubmit the site. It's quite possible that it was rejected for this reason.

The Adsense code "reads" the content of your site and then serves the ads accordingly. It cannot do that in password protected pages, so they do not accept password protected sites. This is mentioned somewhere in the TOS, plus I also have a mail from Adsense support from when I had sent them a query.

Oh and one more thing - remove the link exchange and the blinking banner at the end of the page.

Try removing these and then resubmitting again. Just resubmit in your own name, do not send it in someone else's name, coz again that looks fishy. Just tell them the site was rejected the first time, so you made some changes and would like them to consider your site again.

Hope this helps :-)

Rangu
http://www.teachingstylesonline.com

[adsenser]

I just wanted to add this as a separate tip. Getting listed in Google is pretty easy - all you need to do is use Google Sitemaps :-)

You can check out more details of it at :
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

I've used this for all my sites, and I've seen new sites being spidered in as less as 2 days. This isn't an illegal/secret way of getting into Google. All you do is invite them to spider your site - and to do that, you give them a sitemap of your site. Easy isn't it :cool:

If you need any help on that, just send me a message.

Rangu

http://www.teachingstylesonline.com

[flyer]

> I've seen new sites being spidered in as less as 2 days.

How long did they take to get indexed? Spidering by itself means nothing.

[imbrod]

Dear friends, thank you all for your effort!

I'll try to answer your suggestions one by one:


If they don't respond or won't answer, make another site & reapply with that one. If you get accepted, DON'T put Adsense on that first rejected site.

Alas, I can't reapply under my name. Once you rejected, you input your data into a form and get error message something like 'you have already signed-up...'
Did you mean to make another site totally different? Well what about my 2-months of work and cost of domain reg. & hosting? I won't give up so easy...



When I entered site:all-hosting-guide.com or site:www.all-hosting-guide.com
I found your index page listed in Google with today's date...

You may want to try eliminating the link exchanges also to see
if you are being penalized in the "Sandbox" by Google by association.

John :cool:


I realize that site:... exists, but nothing else. You can't find it under any keywords, you can't find links:... - did not match any document etc. As I said, you can't even find it if you enter the keywords of a domain itself: all hosting guide. Try it.

As for eliminating link exchange, well what do I have left? How am I supposed to get visitors? (I also use other methods like safelists, traffic exchange, posting on forums etc.) On the other hand, Google says - the more inbound links you have to your site, the higher you are ranked.

How can I see that I'm being penalized in the "Sandbox" by Google by association? Where can I check it out?



Also, check you have no incoming links from porn, gambling sites, etc. Better still to remove all links first.

No, I don't have illegal inbound links. The problem is, I don't have enough links because of all link exchange sites that I put my links to, only ONE linked back to me! Most of them I removed and now I'm waiting for few of them to link back to me.




I would suggest you remove the members login box from your main page and then resubmit the site. It's quite possible that it was rejected for this reason.

The Adsense code "reads" the content of your site and then serves the ads accordingly. It cannot do that in password protected pages, so they do not accept password protected sites. This is mentioned somewhere in the TOS, plus I also have a mail from Adsense support from when I had sent them a query.

Oh and one more thing - remove the link exchange and the blinking banner at the end of the page.

Try removing these and then resubmitting again. Just resubmit in your own name, do not send it in someone else's name, coz again that looks fishy. Just tell them the site was rejected the first time, so you made some changes and would like them to consider your site again.



Thanx, adsenser, this could be the key to the problem. I didn't realize that password protected fields are illegal, I haven't find that in their TOS. Anyway, I'll remove it just in case.

As for link exchange & baner, I put it afterwards I've been rejected.

As I mentioned above, I CAN'T resubmit under my name. What is even most absurd, I can't even submit another site under my name. My profil is created and there is a message something like 'You don't qualify...'. I can't sign up again because user already exists.


Thank you all once more and you're welcome to reply me again.

[bivie]

Thanx for suggestion, but are you aware that once your site is rejected by Adsense, you CAN'T POST ANOTHER SITE UNDER YOUR NAME! That is rediculous, but it's true.

This is not true. If it is, it's brand new. I had my first sight rejected but I submitted another and it was approved. They also say that if you previously had a site rejected but then get another approved, the one that was rejected will receive traffic once it gets crawled. I didn't see that result, but I modified the domain name and all was well.

Also, check you have no incoming links from porn, gambling sites, etc. Better still to remove all links first.

Incoming won't hurt you. Make sure you have outgoing to content related sites only and no distasteful sites. Also, avoid linking to link farms. Google frowns on this.

I would suggest you remove the members login box from your main page and then resubmit the site. It's quite possible that it was rejected for this reason.

It does break terms to have ads on the login page. This one is up for grabs because it is not just 'a login page.' It is a home page with login on it. Hard to tell about this one. But I would look into it.


remove the link exchange and the blinking banner at the end of the page.

The blinking banner should not be a problem. The link exchange is debatable. It shouldn't but could affect it. I would make a separate page for links and not put AdSense on it. That would definitely be a problem. It's considered to be a non-content page.

Which brings up another subject. It kinda looks like you might have enough content, but it may not be enough.

I submitted this site and it was rejected because it has a lot of other links on it...

http://NetBizWorkshop.net

and was initially seen as non-content rich.

I did a rework and it seems to be alright now. Hope this helps.

[AndyBeard]

If you get rejected, when you are ready to resubmit, you just reply to the email (just like they tell you to do)

Looking at the site

You don't have ToS, Privacy etc

Btw the membership is just for the forum and voting, and you still have access to read the forum as a non member.

Maybe the "Advertise to billions every day" is a problem.

The second rejection was most probably automatic, because the site was already flagged on your first account, and you didn't follow procedures.

[imbrod]

Thanx guys!

To beavie:
- As for resubmission: when I log in my adsense account, I don't have any options, just the message that I've been rejected. When I tried to sign up again, I got error 'email already exists'. So I signed up second time with my name and another email, and got rejected second time.
In the meantime, I wrote them couple of days ago and wait for their answer.

- I will move my partner sites links to another page. You might be right.

- As for login fields, I've seen it on couple of sites with Adsense ads, so that shouldn't be a problem.

- As for content; I beleive I have a lot of content. I've also seen sites with less content with Adsense ads.

- Please explain me: what is 'link farm' anyway? Isn't the link exchange with the page which has nothing but links on it actualy a linking farm?

To Andybeard:
- You were right. I completely forgot about privacy policy. I will put it right away. This could be a problem. As for browsing the forum, anyone can browse it. That is common with most forums.

Maybe I was rejected because of this page because of number of links in my Webmaster Resources Free Scripts section?
What do you think?

[Bob]

Your site navigation is all at the bottom of every page. That is a no no with google.

'
snip
'

Accept you position with google. They got you and you are probably not going to get that site in for a long long time if ever.

There are lots of other ad programs and affiliate programs out there. Find them and put them in place. Forget about google adsense for now.

Move on to other types of ad programs. And consider this, you should never just rely upon one ad program for your website income. This goes for everyone reading this. Get something else running on your sites beside just adsense ads.

I know this is an adsense forum but it is still good advice to be involved with other programs besides adsense. In fact it would be a very good idea to start another forum here just to talk about some other alternatives.

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[imbrod]

Thanx Bob for your answer.

Navigation on the bottom is a common thing for many serious sites, and it also helps GoogleBot indexing site, to the best of my knowledge. Please show me the part of TOS where they claim that it is banned.

I removed the specific sentence from my post, but ask people from this forum, 90% will admit they had same intentions, especially after reading Joel's book.

I was reffering to TOS that the site itself doesn't break the rules and this all was going on long before I joined this forum (in early July) so I guess participating this has nothing to do with the rejection.

As for other pay-per-click programs, I have some expirience with Clicksor: In over a year, I made some $12. So I guess that is not an option.
Yahoo's YPN is still in beta mode.

So do you suggest some other programs?

[bivie]

Thanx guys!

To beavie:
- As for resubmission: when I log in my adsense account, I don't have any options, just the message that I've been rejected. When I tried to sign up again, I got error 'email already exists'. So I signed up second time with my name and another email, and got rejected second time.
In the meantime, I wrote them couple of days ago and wait for their answer.


AndyBeard posted the answer to this for you:

"If you get rejected, when you are ready to resubmit, you just reply to the email (just like they tell you to do)"

[adsenser]

It's very common for people to get rejected at first - but that does not mean you are banned from adsense for ever. Google likes non-cluttered kind of sites. I would suggest you work on the layout of the site and then mail the adsense support directly asking them check your site again.

I know there are many sites which use adsense and do have a login area - but the ads are not displayed inside the members area. The reason is that the adsense code cannot determine what the text is about if the page is password protected, so eventually it ends up serving public service ads.

Rangu

http://www.teachingstylesonline.com

[adsenser]

> I've seen new sites being spidered in as less as 2 days.

How long did they take to get indexed? Spidering by itself means nothing.

In about a week's time - and I had done nothing more than add it to the sitemap. I haven't started experimenting with blog and ping yet. This works for me.

Rangu
http://www.teachingstylesonline.com

[Bob]

I think you should have made something like how-i-built-my-first-website.com and gave tips from the point of view of a fresh new web user building his first website.

There is a website that many people can use to make their website building experience easier. A new website for dummies website. (warning to all you who read this remember to read below before you go off and build this website)

I have to say your website is just rehashed info available from 118 million other places online. Do you really think somebody can't find an actual webhost website and they will use your site instead for webhosting info? Why? Yes, it is supposed to happen just because your site is there right!

Sorry but I am a webhost and I would not link to you or ask for a link from your site, why? Exactly the question. Why should I?

My hosting site is a PR5. Why would I ask for a link from a PR0 website?

Who do I say this? Well, you have picked one of "the most competitive" categories on the internet to try and attract visitors in.

Now lets see..... Doing a Google search for "hosting" - results = 118,000,000 sites found for the word "hosting"!

That is 118 million websites! Think about that....... . . .

What ever on this world convinced you that you could get any kind of search engine traffic to your little web site with 118 million competitors with lots of them being very well funded business people willing to pay and pay very very well for top placement in the search results?

Check this out, my web hosting site is a PR5 and it has been 6 months since I got my last order from my website. What do you think of that? I sell hosting to local business that I contact by phone and who are referred to me by other local business people (my best salesmen). That is the only way I am achieving any kind of success in the hosting business. It is definitely not from what my hosting website brings in because it brings in NOTHING. Nada - zip zero. As a sales tool it is a total flop. I even took the order submit section down and just put in my phone number and a note that said: look, we build a personal relationship with our hosting customers so call now to order. We want to talk to you.

Rule number one in this game is find a niche and exploit it. Hosting is not a niche it is a major industry online with people who are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to be on the first page of google's results for the word "hosting"

Use the experience of building your website to launch a new website in a category that you have some chance of getting traffic in and try not to make it just exactly like 10 million other website on the same subject. That is exactly why you where rejected. Your site has exactly the same info as millions of other sites on the same subject so google just assumed you were another built for adsense website and acted accordingly and rejected you.

They nailed you site for exactly what it was - a built for adsense website. No offense man but I have to look at your site from my own prospective. I could tell exactly what it was from looking at it and google has people smarter then me for sure so.....

Build a website on what ever subject you want but I suggest something you already are interested in so it is a subject you know about and can write about with a fresh and personal prospective and even passion.

Do that and you will be approved without any problem. Remember my opening line about "how-i-built-my-first-website.com"

Well no one (or very few) has done that! If you had done that you would be in the adsense program now because your website would have been a personal projection of your experience and not just rehashed info available on millions of other sites.

You hear people talking on this forum about how they are worried about machine generated content being sniffed out and banned. They are worried for good reason as this kind of thing is exactly what google is on the war path to weed out from their search results. Your site never had a chance. Next time put your own personal experience and point of view into the subject and you will do well.

I have built lots of sites that flopped. I was not happy for sure but what can you do? Grit your teeth and just move on. Remember the glory days of adsense are over. Websites that are "built for adsense only" are on the decline as there is a plague of them online that are polluting the search results.

Do you like to search for something and have to click through many sites or click through many pages of listings to find a site that really is a place you can find real information about what you wanted. Do you really like to have to click through 20 sites that are made for adsense in order to get you there just so you can click on an adsense ad?

The answer is that no one likes this (except us who build these sites) and they are telling google to clean up their search results. Thus the easy money is now long gone.

Everyone get used to this. Build real websites with good original content. If you can't then find out how or go do something else.

There is still money to be made online but things have shifted. The wind has begun to blow a different direction. Some will sink and others will swim some will flounder about asking what is wrong. Some will figure out what it takes to do well and move out in that direction. The way I see it is build good websites. Do not build machine generated built for adsense clone sites. Put some of yourself into the site. Make it so people get a sense of who you are and how you think. Everyone is looking for fresh perspective. Some can really write and give their own perspective and some can only write in tech style with not much personal insight or personality projected in their writing.

Ask yourself if you can tell a good story? Can you? If you can't then find someone who can and pay them to write some good content for your site.

Hint - go to your local collage and place some flyers asking for junior writers. Collage age people need money and some of them are great writers who will work for peanuts. I have found some kids who can write so much better then me it is scary and they work so cheap it is nuts.

I pay for content to be written because I am a better technical writer then a story teller. I love the burry myself in the details of a subject but that makes for boring reading.

Do your research. got an idea for a website? Good. Write up a short outline of how the site will be built and how it will function. Then when you have thought it out for a while go online and search for the subject and read what is out there now.

As an example I once thought of building a website about Clint eastwood. Don't ask me why but I remember the idea hitting me and what happened next. Cool dude I love his movies. So I started to search and I was blown away by the quality and depth of some of the sites I found. I couldn't touch this. I mean some of these sites were astoundingly good. I knew not to waste my time unless I could come up with something different or some other perspective on Mr. Eastwood.

I had to ask myself why would I waste my time trying to outdo what I could never outdo. I would have just embarrassed myself. So I gave up and moved on.

If you want to build a good website ask yourself how you can do it at least as good or maybe better then what is out there now. I know how, I have figured it out. It is the personal touch. Learn how to do it or find some other way to make a buck.

Machine generated content sucks. Google is out to kill it off as fast as possible. Why become a member of an endangered species right from the start?

Accept the fact that you are not a writer if you are not a writer. If the only way you can put a website online is to "copy and paste" then do not expect big things from your website.

I arnt no stinkin writer so I built a 16,000 page business directory back in 2000. From this site all things flow for me. If I publish other sites on the same subject/industry and link to them from this site then as if lightning has struck the sites flower and get indexed in a few days and are found in the search result in weeks. They still are no huge success as being indexed and placed in the results does not guarantee anything. Most do not achieve great traffic so I still seek the holy grail and continue the search for the magic formula. My real business is hosting but I like the chalange of building a good website and seeing a small income flow from it.

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[imbrod]

Bob, I really appreciate your detailed comments.

As the matter affect, I've been web developer for 5 years but this was the second site that I created visual design for. So I'd say I have some experience with building the web sites. Furthermore, I had some experience with AS, but this was the first time I got rejected.

As for creating 'new' sites: My partner (designer) & I work in a small country in Europe so we don't have ability to use Adsense because of the language our sites are in. Second, those are our clients' websites.
Whenever we had some projects on our own, the projects that noone else thought of, we put much effort and money in them, and they turn up to be disaster. (For example, several years ago we created the first portal about new/used cars in our country, but didn't get a dime from potential sponsors)
On the other hand, when I entered the area that has been covered already, the projects did fine. That's why I've chosen hosting guide. And I'm positive that there are not as many guides on the web for free and paid hosts as you say. Most of those sites for entry 'hosting' are hosting providers like yourself.

I really regret that your online business is not doing well, I wish you good luck, and I mean really. Although you don't care for my site much, I still invite you to enter data about your hosting service; you never know - you might get 1-2 customer; and it's free.
I must admit that I have similar experience like yourself; all our clients are word-of-mouth recommended, they rarely look at our site.

The point of all story is that working for customers is very frustrating, exhausting and underpayed job (at least in my case). That is why I chose fields of interest of many people and try to 'find my place under the sun'. And the main thing, I don't have a headache because of the customers.

As for creating the sites of my interest: That's cool, but what about copyright? Take your example, for example: Mr Eastwood might get upset because someone builds a site about him. I noticed few sites about some TV series, films or comic strips that has removed their content because of the copyright warning.
I almost forgot: about my site's content: I personally wrote all the 'goodies' (guidelines - menu on the left, bottom); I even wrote much more about ranking but I removed it because I assumed that is no-no for AS.

All in all, I wish you success in your business once again, but I'll still keep on doing what I'm doing: trying to achieve a financial freedom using the method of creating 100 small steps. (I don't expect to get rich from this one site)

Best regards
Imbrod

P.S. You still haven't suggested me those alternative point-per-click sites, please do so. (except YPN and Clicksor)

[Bob]

imbrod

I did not mean to say I did not like your site, I think it looks fine but to me it does look a lot like most other hosting directories that are new.

I do really think you should put the nav menu at the top. Other then that I just think it does look like a built for adsense site. That is not meant as an insult but if I think it so can google and google is the judge not me so who knows what they really think.

I always knew my online hosting website would not be my main source of new customers. To me this is good because there is a lot of fraud with web hosting payments from stolen credit cards etc.

I will get you the list of banner companies but it will have to be later as I am busy with other stuff for now. If you have not heard from me with the list in a few days send me a PM through the forum.

Good luck with your website I hope it works as you say and you do well in the field of hosting directories.

My experience is to find a less competitive field to build sites for but that is me. As I said I hope it works for you.

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