AdSense Rejection Reasons: The Complete Fix Guide

Received the dreaded "Site Down" or "Low Value Content" email? Here is exactly how to decode the message and fix your site.

Updated: January 20, 2025

1. Understanding the Rejection Email

Receiving an email from Google AdSense stating, "Your site isn't ready to show ads," can be frustrating. The emails are notoriously vague, often listing broad categories rather than pointing to specific blog posts or design flaws.

It is important to understand that AdSense approval is manually reviewed by humans, assisted by AI. If you were rejected, it means your website failed to meet specific quality, technical, or policy standards. This guide breaks down those vague error messages into actionable problems you can solve.

Frustrated user looking at laptop screen

2. Low Value Content (The #1 Reason)

This is the most common rejection reason in 2025. It does not necessarily mean your writing is "bad," but it means it doesn't offer enough unique value to Google's ecosystem.

What triggers "Low Value Content"?

  • Thin Content: Articles that are too short (under 500 words) or lack depth.
  • Generic Advice: Content that repeats what is already on Wikipedia or major news sites without adding a new perspective.
  • AI-Generated Spam: Using ChatGPT or other AI tools to mass-produce content without human editing, fact-checking, or personal insight.
  • Broken Grammar: Sites with excessive spelling and grammatical errors that make reading difficult.
The Fix: Audit your site. Delete posts under 400 words. Rewrite your top 5 articles to include personal case studies, unique images, or data that no one else has. Aim for "Information Gain."

3. Scraped or Copied Content

Google has zero tolerance for plagiarism. If your site aggregates content from other sources, copies news feeds, or simply rewrites existing articles with a spinner tool, you will be rejected.

Signs of Scraped Content:

  • Copy-pasting text from other websites.
  • Embedding videos from YouTube without adding substantial commentary or text around them.
  • Using product descriptions directly from Amazon or AliExpress (for affiliate sites).

Your content must be unique. Even if you cite the source, you cannot monetize a page where the main value is content created by someone else.

4. Policy Violations

AdSense has strict Program Policies regarding what content they will monetize. If your site touches on prohibited topics, you will be rejected immediately.

Prohibited Niches:

  • Adult Content: Pornography or suggestive content.
  • Dangerous Content: Promoting illegal acts, hacking, drug use, or violence.
  • Shocking Content: Gore, gruesome imagery, or hate speech.
  • Misleading Content: Fake news, impossible health claims, or phishing.
  • Copyright Infringement: Sites offering illegal downloads of software, movies, or music (Warez/Torrents).
Policy checklist and legal documents

6. Site Down or Unavailable

Sometimes the rejection is purely technical. If the Google AdSense bot cannot crawl your site, it assumes the site is down.

Checklist to fix this:

  1. Robots.txt: Ensure your `robots.txt` file is not blocking Googlebot. It should generally allow crawling of your content.
  2. Password Protection: Ensure your site is public. If you have a "Coming Soon" plugin active, disable it.
  3. Geo-Blocking: If your hosting provider blocks traffic from the USA (where Google bots often crawl from), you will be rejected.
  4. Speed: If your site takes 10+ seconds to load, the bot may time out.

7. Traffic Quality Issues

While you don't need millions of visitors to get approved, having *some* traffic helps. However, the source of that traffic matters more.

If you are buying cheap traffic (bot traffic), sharing your links in "click-for-click" groups, or spamming links on social media, Google may flag your site for "Invalid Traffic Concerns." Organic search traffic is the gold standard for approval.

8. Action Plan: How to Fix & Reapply

You've identified the likely reason. Now, follow this plan to get approved.

Step 1: The Content Audit

Go through every single post. If it is low quality, either delete it or improve it significantly. Add images, formatting, and personal insights.

Step 2: The Technical Audit

Use Google Search Console to check for crawl errors. Test your site on a mobile phone to ensure the menu works. Fix all broken links.

Step 3: Required Pages

Ensure you have a Privacy Policy, About Us, and Contact Us page clearly visible in your menu or footer.

Step 4: The Waiting Game

Don't reapply immediately. Wait 2-3 weeks. During this time, publish 5-10 new high-quality articles. This shows Google you are active and serious about the site.

Final Advice: Persistence is key. Many successful publishers were rejected 3, 4, or even 5 times before finally getting approved. Read the policy, fix the site, and try again.