Finally decided to monetize your blog? Tired of depending on private ads for money? You feel you are under using your opportunity? You keep getting disapproved by Google AdSense and you don’t know what’s wrong? A yes to any of the questions is enough reason to read this article.
If all or some of these questions are in your head, I’m sure it will cause the word Google AdSense ring about. It’s from an advert on YouTube or some blog post. No matter where it came from, it is sure to lead you to ask this question which is crucial to the blog.
The question is…
What is Google AdSense?
This is an advertising network run by Google. They offer bloggers, websites owners, and YouTubers an opportunity to earn money. And it is done by showing interactive advertisement in content through the means of text, images, videos, and others.
It means Google pays you to advertise for them through your marketable content. This is much better than private ads because companies pay Google lots of money to advertise for them. As Google service is required so is yours because they need people with content to advertise for their clients.
No hassles or worries about payment. It is always constant. They collect payment from the advertisers, take the management fee and send the rest to you. For instance, if a company pays Google $2 per click, you will earn $1.63 and Google takes the rest.
AdSense offers payment inform of cost per click. This means you will earn money for every click on the Ad. The rate of cost per click varies.
Do you ever wonder how those companies get Google to advertise for them? It is through a program called Ad Words. as you use AdSense the company/individuals looking for promotion use AD words.
What is the difference between Google AdSense and AdWords?
AdWords allow users to advertise their content or product on other websites. For AdSense, they allow users to make money for advertising on their website.
Now that the definition is out of the way, let’s answer and discuss another question.
What are the requirements to get your Google AdSense application approved?
These steps are a lot but here are a few which will summarize everything together. To get your Google AdSense application approved.
- Your website must be compatible with Google AdSense program policies, terms, and conditions
- Your website should be at least 6 months old
- You must be at least 18 years old
You’ve seen the first step? It mentions that a website is needed and must be compatible with Google AdSense policies, terms, and conditions. Well, it is the most crucial part and should be taken seriously. Every aspect of it in fact, if you want to increase your chances of getting your blog approved by Google AdSense.
Here are the steps to follow to get a website that complies with Google AdSense:
- Register a domain
- Buy a paid hosting plan and Create a WordPress website
- Build your website with legitimate content (no traffic exchange program)
- Have an about us, contact and privacy policy page
- Remove all private ads
Register a domain
This is one of the factors that drive traffic and the decisions on it should be taken carefully. It identifies your website and it should complement your content. So the domain name has to be compelling.
In order for you to get a domain name, you will need a domain registrar. These domain registrars are companies manages domain names of websites. Most of the registrars share similar features but they all have each of their merit and demerits.
What is a domain name registrar?
This is a company or service that offers you to buy a domain name. The registrars are accredited by ICANN (Internet Corporation for assigned names and Numbers). They are ones who manage the domain name system. The domain name system helps us to make domain names easy to use and remember.
For instance, if you sell small electronics and you want to build a site for your business. The next step is to head over to a domain name registrar and it will register a domain name for you (smallelectronics.com). As the process of registering one is still on, you will also have to choose the top level domain for your URL also known as extensions such as .org, .co,. Com, .io …etc. any of these comes after the chosen website name.
It’s pretty much that simple, but still as simple as it is the wrong name could mess up your efforts in the long run. That is why you should plan and make sure you choose the right registrar.
How do you choose the right registrar?
Choosing the right registrar according to preference is the best. And here are steps to finding a good one so you won’t suffer for a bad decision in the long run:
It must be able to transfer domain
This is a very important factor to consider when choosing a domain name registrar. You don’t know what the future might hold and that is why it good to have preventive measures. If your domain Name registrar is experiencing problems and it does not please you, it can always be changed. But that is if your domain name registrar allows its users to transfer to another registrar.
To check for this feature, look for the transfer details in its policy. In normal cases, a user can transfer from one registrar to another for the only period of 60days following up to the registration. Some don’t even allow transfers, some allow but it will cost you and can let you transfer for free. Be sure to check this factor before any other.
Great customer support
You will need good support from the company to be safe in case problems arise from your domain name. They should be able to respond to you on time and should be able to provide a solution even before you actually need it.
To determine how well their customer services, you can check their reviews of the past clients and present ones. Test out their response by putting out a support request. This way you will know how fast they handle questions.
Contract and pricing
In a domain name registration, you will come across pricing options to choose from. As you’ve chosen the time in which you wish to register your domain name comes up. It can be for a year, 2 years even 10 years. But it is best to start out with a year. You should be able to turn the auto-renewal so your domain won’t expire.
Having a one year plan is better because it allows you to switch domains registrars. Make sure to look out for any costs for actions such as auto-renewal, domain transfer, and any other extra costs.
Additional services
Look for the registrar that offer other web services apart from their primary function. There is some registrar that allow also to build a site and buy certificates.
Domain name security
Sometimes the problem of expiring credit cards come up which can be very dangerous to your site and business. As soon as your domain name use expires it is possible for someone with similar content to buy it before you even think of renewing.
To avoid such problems, seek domain registrar that can hold your domain name for a while after expiration. It will give you enough time to renew it.
Best Domain Name Registrars
Here are best domain name registrars on the market. They each have their own review which consists of their merits and demerits.
BlueHost
This is a popular web host which also offers domain names. Domain registration was added to its list of functions to make it easier for its users to set up a website. BlueHost is the best fit for you no matter your level of expertise.
As you buy their hosting plan you actually get a free domain. BlueHost offers both web hosting and a free domain to go with it, they save you money.
Their customer’s service is run by a stellar support team that is available 24/7, 365 days a year. Their support is so good people prefer them to other web host service based on that fact.
GoDaddy
This a hosting company that has been around for a very long time. They also offer domain names along with their web hosting services. After creating a site with them there is no need to look elsewhere for a domain name.
To register a domain will cost $14.99/year, but the price does not necessarily stay at that. They offer promos where you can register domain names as a low price of $0.99.
They offer good services but their downfall is the design and the how to use service. Still, you can get the job done with GoDaddy. The customer services are quite okay especially if you are the person that requires to voice call customer support.
Network Solutions
This is a domain registrar and also a hosting provider. Network Solutions is very flexible. It can work with or match any other hosting/domain solutions that fit your needs. If your problem is very unique then this the perfect solution for it.
You can afford their hosting service along with their domain registrar for a fee of $9.99. Also to that, they will custom tailor any service you need. Customer support is available 24/7 and their support staffs are really tech-savvy so it will be easy for them to solve your problems.
Their only problem is the interface which is quite complex, especially to newbies.
Namecheap
This one of the best domain name registrars on the market. One of the reasons why is due to their site which is intuitive and easy to use. Another is their offer of a reasonably priced domain along with their DNS service and WHOIS protection. They also offer SSL encryption for does who wish to strengthen their domain security.
If you have any issues, your domain set up has a lot of easy tutorial video that will show you how to solve them. The customer service is responsive and great with their knowledgeable support. You can only reach support through chats, not voice calls.
You can register your domain name in any of these options but I recommend BlueHost. My reason is that they have all the necessary tools to complete the next step after this.
Buy Web Hosting and Create a WordPress website
Now that you are done registering your domain the next step is to create a website. So the questions that should come to mind is: How do I create this website? What is the best way to create one that will be approved by Google AdSense?
To get the best solution, you should seek and buy a good web hosting service. There are several places to get the best services such as BlueHost, site Ground and InMotion.
These hosting providers each offer a platform to create a website. They are all equally capable to get your blog approved. Another thing is, they all have the WordPress built-in installer helps saves you the time and stress of setting up a website. No coding required and a much easier design interface.
Before we move into these three web hosting providers and what they each offer, let’s discuss the types of hosting services. You need to make up your mind about these parts. To not experience problems in the long run.
You may be asking “what does the type of web hosting have to do with Google and why is it important?
There several types of web hosting services out there and I’m going to explain four of them. You should also know that with the right web hosting service, your chances of getting approved will be increased.
Here’s how….
In terms of data security, (how safe is your website from shutting down?) You need to choose the best web hosting service that has ensure your website has no risk of shutting down. They happen in shared web hosting services.
In terms of SEO ranking, this is crucial to Google AdSense. With good SEO ranking, you have a higher chance of getting Google AdSense approval. The quality of your SEO depends on the type of web hosting you use.
Types of Hosting to Choose From
Shared Web Hosting
The word shared explains it a lot. It means your website hosted on a server which is shared by other websites. With this hosting plan, you share crucial resources such as the storage disk and bandwidth. It’s like renting an apartment with other people you may or may not know. It would be cheap but it is not convenient, especially when you encounter problems with your sites.
Although this shared hosting plan is suitable for those who are new to creating a website. It is also great for small businesses that wish to spend little on running their website. Shared web hosting can come in forms or you should I say in different levels to choose from.
In web hosting services like BlueHost, they offer shared web hosting in form of plans that can suit both your needs and financial status. The plans are known as Basic, Plus, choice plus and go PRO. They all differ in ascending order according to these terms:
- The number of websites you can have to yourself
- The number of parked domains you are allowed to have
- The number of subdomains you can have
- The amount of bandwidth space allocated to you
- And lastly, the total storage space for your emails
The type of sites using shared web hosting is known to be new. There isn’t a lot of traffic. But the price is good. The price range is between $5-$20/month for popular hosting services such as BlueHost, site ground, InMotion and so on.
Cloud-based Web hosting
This is the new trend in web hosting. People nowadays cloud most of their data for safekeeping. In the case of preventing websites issues. Cloud hosting is a new hosting technology which allows individual servers to sync together and act as one unit, making it a giant server.
The idea behind the creation of the cloud-based web hosting arises from solving an issue. And it is the ever-increasing needs of websites. As a website grows, its needs and traffic grow with it. So cloud-based web hosting allows the web hosting company to add up more hardware that increases the cloud.
This is surely better than the liming shared web hosting. The reason is if there is a large surge of traffic in a shared server, it could lead to the shutting down of websites. All your sweat and hard work will be nothing. But if it were a cloud-based web hosting, the company will just have add-up more hardware which will increase the size of the cloud.
It means you can have a larger number of websites with more parked domains and subdomains. There will be increase bandwidth space allocated to you along with the email storage space. In addition, it helps to improve SEO ranking I recommend this hosting service.
This kind of service is available in BlueHost in out of three mentioned in this article. The price follows a structure that is meant for all cloud computing packages. It is known as a pay-for-what-you-use pricing structure.
VPS (Virtual Private Server)
This is an improvement of the shared web hosting service. In terms of the problems like website shutdown and the cost of a dedicated server. This web hosting service consists of a shared server that acts like many and separated servers. Even though each VPS involves sharing of Hardware resources, they are all allocated to a dedicated part of the computing resources.
The price range of this type of web hosting is $50 – $200. The pricing depends on your site’s memory (RAM) and the guaranteed CPU. Namecheap and BlueHost can provide this web hosting service.
Dedicated Web server
This is the best choice out of the four mentioned. A using a dedicated server means you are renting a whole server form the hosting company just to yourself. You are allowed to have a full control if you so desire this power.
Using a dedicated server relieves you of problems like shutting down and downtime due to other websites. It best for individuals and most especially businesses that get a lot of traffic. The cost of the dedicated server may be high but it is still worth the money. Along the way, as the business is successful it will be able to handle the costs of the dedicated server.
The price starts at $100 and above.
Recommended Hosting Providers
Here are the 3 recommended hosting services you can choose from along with their essential features:
BlueHost
BlueHost is great for businesses of any size as they offer quality hosting plans of different types. If your website is growing there is no problem there are more hosting plans available. Still at a reasonable price. With such ability they host over 2 million websites in the world. It features include the following:
Shared web hosting
This is the cheapest form of web hosting and still, it satisfies the users, both individual and small businesses. Here is a list of benefits that comes with the shared web hosting plan:
Free domain name
As you sign up for a web hosting plan on BlueHost you will get to register a free domain name. The price range is from $10 – $15 per year.
There are unlimited websites, storage, email accounts, and domains
BlueHost is known to offer unlimited resources with just a single plan which helps to save you the stress of having to compare plans. This feature makes BlueHost very useful if you plan to build many websites.
It has a site builder with templates
This feature allows anyone of any technical skill to build a website to their liking while following the templates. Making it easy to customize a website at any time. BlueHost supports WordPress. They have a one-click installer which relieves the burden of having to install the site builder known as WordPress.
Comprehensive support
BlueHost has a responsive customer service that is available 24/7. They can be reached through phone, email and live chat. They are very knowledgeable in the field; your questions will be answered.
Automated Backups
This one of BlueHost important feature. It safeguards all your data that include websites, emails, files everything. In case your website crashes or shutdown. It gives you the ability to restore your data all with just a click of a mouse. Backs are automatically done on a daily weekly and monthly.
Other hosting plans
BlueHost offer other web hosting plans that can suit your website needs other than shared hosting. These other plans give you access to more resources that can expand your business. Especially those websites that create more traffic.
Pro hosting: It is an advanced level of a basic shared hosting plan. This plan is best for websites that began to have a sudden huge surge in traffic. This pro plan adds more features to help and they include a dedicated IP, better server performance and an SSL certificate. The cost of the plan is $18.95/month.
Cloud hosting: This comes in three plans which are the starter, performance, and business pro. It is a much safer option, it simpler to use and can get contain your website large surge of traffic.
There are features that make it the best option. it includes easy to use interface, integrated caching. it is fully managed, it scales up your CPU and RAM without rebooting and it enables you to move your site to another server. It plan price is from $6.95 – $15.95 / month.
VPS hosting: This is known as a virtual private server and it offers to host with greater power and flexibility than a usual shared hosting. It also offers less price than a dedicated server would.
This plan comes at a price of $29.99 which is a discount for the first month, then the normal price of $59.99 will be paid monthly. It offers 2 CPU cores, 4GB RAM, two IP addresses and a 2TB bandwidth. This is a great plan for anyone with a website that has lots of traffic and needs extra space.
Dedicated hosting: I recommend this hosting plan, but that is if you can afford it. Having a dedicated server is a huge plus. It will provide you with a great degree of flexibility, security, and performance. If you seek to have the greatest control of your server settings this is the best choice. On the first month, the price starts at $74.99, then from the next month, the rice returns to $149.99/month.
SiteGround
If you are just getting started, this is also the best web hosting service for you or your small business. Especially your WordPress blogs. It is cheap, easy to set up and very fast. Its speed makes site ground stand out of the rest.
They make use of SSD drives for all their plans. They provide free SSL certificate. This web hosting provider also shares some features with BlueHost.
Site ground offers to host plans which include start-up hosting plan ($3.95), grow big hosting plan ($5.59) and the Go geek hosting plan ($11.95) monthly.
It has all the essentials you will need. Such as a server, database, and E-mail. Everything you will need to build an AdSense Approved site. They offer unlimited sub and parked domains, free E-mail accounts, free CMS install and even websites (it depends on the plan). Depending on the plan, you will be allocated a disk space of up to 30GB. The highs amount of visit per month is up to a 100,000.
Site ground’s special feature is the fast loading speed of their sites. For this special feature is due to the following:
- Site ground has servers on three continents
- There is SSD storage
- Presence of a super cacher of different levels
- free CDN with each account
- Customizable server setup
The company site ground has perfected the feature which helps to prevent downtime. This possible due to site ground’s ability to be power and hardware redundant. It also has an LXC-based stability that allows you to scale up server resources during the time of high load. So that unexpected surge of traffics does not lead to downtime.
When it comes to Backing up your data, site ground is also at its best. It has free auto daily backups up to 30 copies. They restore your backup instantly with the use of its back up tools. The tool also allows backups on demand.
If you are a victim of hacking and spamming, site ground will give you peace. You would not have to worry about hackers with site ground’s fast monitoring server which monitors human activities 24/7. There is also the highest form of security for site ground’s software which is the presence of many patches that are written by the company’s DevOps team. Also, it Anti-hack systems and help.
On the side of spamming, their spam experts can offer the best solutions. Let me also mention this, all sites in site ground shared server are each isolated from one another. And it is through a unique mechanism. These ways vulnerable accounts won’t affect the other.
Site ground also offers other plans: cloud hosting (price range of $80 – $240/month) and the dedicated ($269 – $729/ month). You will find the go geek plan a bit of a semi-dedicated hosting.
InMotion Hosting
InMotion offers the essential packages you would find also in site ground. Inmotion’s plan price range is from $4.99 – $11.99/ month. You get to have a choice of data centers which can increase your website’s performance. There are free backups. Up to 40GB of SSD is present which 20 x is faster than a mechanical hard drive.
You can have a max of two websites for one account from the price of $8.99/ month. Inmotion allows domain registration and transfer. It has features which help to prevent downtime. WordPress is already preinstalled so website building is easier. You get a free shared SSL certificate. Their support is US-based and it is around 24/7.
The downside about this hosting service is the amount of traffic allowed. The limit is 20,000 visitors. And to be charged for the lowest plan, you need to subscribe for three years from the beginning.
They offer cloud hosting which starts off at a discount of 43% in the first month for each plan. The actual lowest price is $34.99 while the highest plan is $144.99 which starts of at a 55% discount. They also offer VPS hosting ($44.99 – $254.99) and dedicated too ($189.99 – $299.99).
After deciding on which plan to buy, the step is to create a website. And I recommend a WordPress site since you can easily install them from your hosting provider. BlueHost and the other two hosting providers offer you a one-click installment of WordPress. The tools, plugins, and templates can be accessed through the installed WordPress, or through sites like Envato, code canyon WP Eden etc.
Build Up Your Website with Legitimate Content
Setting up a domain and a site is not enough to get you approved. Your blog or website content is one of the major factors that can get Google AdSense approval. It must be of high quality and you must be consistent at updating it.
How to write high-quality content for my blog or website?
There is no template for writing High quality. It simply must be readable and informative enough for the readers to grasp what you are saying. The emotions behind your text depend on you, but it must be readable, error-free, unique and informative. In summary, it should be able to provide value to the readers.
When I mentioned “it must be unique” I mean it. Using copied content downgrades your status on Google. You will be caught by Google and you will not be approved for Google AdSense. It is better to write in your own words, your point of view. Have your own voice, it is much more comfortable and profitable.
It must be legitimate
Your content must not be illegal. For example, if you provided music for download on your site, it must not be pirated. And also avoid the use of traffic exchange programs.
It must be optimized
As writing informative and unique content is important so is writing for search engines. Contents with good SEO optimization are highly favored by Google. The stronger your contents optimization, the easier it is accessible to millions (or billions) of Google users.
Here are some steps on how to create SEO friendly content:
- Popular target keywords about the topic should be included in your web copy. It should be placed in several parts of the copy like headings, meta-description, and content tags.
- Make use of optimized high-quality images with alt text.
- Your headlines should be able to engage Google searchers.
- Your pages loading time should be streamlined.
- Keep updating yourself on the latest ways to write high-quality content.
Writing quality content alone should be able to get you approved, but for an increased chance it is better for the content to be optimized.
There are some tools and plugins that can assist you in writing high-quality and optimized content. They include:
- Buzzsumo – this tool enables you to remain on topic for each blog post you write.
- Hemingway Editor – this is a tool which allows you to write simple and error-free sentences to improve your content’s readability.
- Piktochart – this tool helps to write high-quality Infographics.
- Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer – this tool enables you to get the best headline for your topic.
- Word counter – this tool keeps you aware of the current number of words written.
AdSense requires at least 20 articles with a least of 600 words.
Have an about us, contact us and privacy policy page
All these pages are a need for a standard, profession website and they must be included. Visitors of the sites will be able to contact the owners, they can even know more about the website like the history its goals and policy.
Please keep in mind that the most important page to Google AdSense is the privacy policy page. You should read the Google AdSense terms and conditions to know how to write a compatible private policy.
Remove all private ads
You need to end contracts that need you to advertise for business by being approved by Google. If you are skeptic about business with Google don’t worry they pay better and faster than all other alternatives.
Your website should be at least 6 months old
During the early time of Google AdSense, there were restrictions for how long you own your website. This was bad business for Google because they might give approve AdSense for inferior sites.
So in order for Google to solve that crisis, they introduced a restriction that says you must own your site for at least 6 months. This rule does depend on certain locations like China and India. Even still it is a good idea to own it for at least 6months. Just to be on the safe side.
You must be at least 18 years of age
New blogger of less than 18years of age often makes this mistake. Or people who put incorrect ages which can get them in trouble. Google AdSense is not for people younger than 18.
If rejected, find out why and try again
People get rejected most of the time, but it’s ok. You didn’t commit any offense, it’s just Google telling you something is missing or incorrect. So the next step to take is to search for the reason why your application was rejected.
Try to update your application according to the policies provided by Google AdSense. Sometimes the remedy could take a few days’ even months to fix.
Conclusion
Every step or point on this article work with each other one way or the other. For instance, I provided you with the types of hosting plans and several hosting providers. They will improve your website’s quality thereby increasing your chances of getting approved.
Applying for Google AdSense isn’t complicated. Just read the policies well and update your application according to it. In the article, I provided you with steps to take and I recommended items to give you the best way of achieving the aim which is to get AdSense Approval.
