Pre-Application Checklist: 12 Things to Verify First

Most rejected applications fail items on the same short list. Run through this before submitting. If you can’t honestly tick every box, fix the gap first. Reapplying after a rejection is slower than getting it right the first time.

1. SSL certificate active and valid

Your homepage and every internal page must load over HTTPS without browser warnings. Mixed-content warnings (HTTPS pages loading HTTP images or scripts) count as failures. Most modern hosts include free Let’s Encrypt certificates by default; if yours doesn’t, switch host or use a CDN that adds the certificate at the edge. This is a non-negotiable hard requirement.

2. Privacy Policy linked from every page

Footer link, plain text, the words “Privacy Policy.” Page itself includes the AdSense-specific disclosure about personalised advertising and Google’s Ads Settings. Our dedicated guide covers what to include.

3. Original content, not scraped or rewritten

Reviewers run plagiarism detection. Spinning content with AI from an existing source counts as the same article. Google’s detectors catch structural similarity, not just word-for-word copying. If you wouldn’t be comfortable showing the original side-by-side with your version, rewrite from scratch.

4. At least 15–20 substantial articles

Each over 600 words, ideally over 1,000 for cornerstone pieces. The magic isn’t the word count itself; it’s that 15+ articles of real depth signal a publication, not an experiment. Some niches approve faster with fewer pieces if each piece is exceptional, but 15–20 is the safe threshold.

5. Working navigation menu

A primary menu visible on every page, listing your main categories. It should work without JavaScript or with progressively-enhanced fallback. Reviewers occasionally test with reduced JS support. A navigation that only renders after a heavy bundle loads can technically fail review.

6. About page with real information

Who runs the site. What it covers. Roughly when it was started. If there’s a team, a sentence about the team. Reviewers visit the About page deliberately, looking for evidence the site is operated by a real person or organisation rather than auto-generated. Avoid stock photos of strangers as “our team.”

7. Contact page that works

Either a contact form that delivers messages somewhere you can read, or a publicly visible email address. If you use a form, test it before applying. A 500 error on form submission is a failure mode reviewers sometimes encounter.

8. Mobile-responsive layout

Open your site on a phone. Read three articles. If anything feels broken (text overlapping, images cut off, or navigation you can’t reach), fix it. Mobile is the dominant traffic source for most niches, and reviewers test on mobile more often than not.

9. No broken links

Internal links to deleted posts, footer links to pages that don’t exist, navigation menu items that 404. Use a free crawler to find dead links; Screaming Frog’s free tier is enough for most small sites. Fix or remove every one before applying.

10. Domain old enough for your region

If you’re in India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, or another region with the formal six-month rule, wait. There’s no shortcut. Our guide on domain age covers what counts and what doesn’t. If you’re not in a six-month-rule region, the age requirement doesn’t apply but content depth still does.

11. Indexed in Google

Search site:yourdomain.com on Google. If your major pages aren’t in the results, AdSense reviewers may treat the site as not yet established. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and wait until your homepage and at least your top 5 articles are indexed before applying.

12. Site is in a country AdSense supports

AdSense doesn’t serve every country. Check the official supported countries list before applying. Sites operated from unsupported regions cannot run AdSense regardless of content quality. The determining factor is the publisher’s payment country, not the domain’s TLD.

The five-minute final pass

Before you click submit, do this five-minute sequence:

1. Open your site in an incognito window. Click around for two minutes. Anything weird, anything that looks broken, anything that confuses you? Fix it.
2. Run our automated audit. Address every fail and every warning you can.
3. Search site:yourdomain.com on Google. Confirm at least the homepage and your top articles appear.
4. Send yourself a message via your contact form. Confirm it arrives.
5. Read your About page out loud. If it sounds generic, rewrite the first paragraph.

If you survive that pass cleanly, submit. If you don’t, fix what you found. The two-week reapplication wait isn’t worth saving the ten minutes you’d spend tightening things up first.