In 2003 Google launched an advertising program that would fill out the ‘Ad space’ on your websites with ads that are relevant to the content you have published. Google AdSense like many other monetization programs helps a publisher earn money by displaying ads on their websites, people who may access these websites might get intrigued by an ad and click on it.
Interactions with an ad may allow a publisher to receive money as it was on the publisher’s website, the ad was placed. These ads are managed by Google itself and they can be in the form of any interactive media like pictures or videos. A person will get paid for impressions and clicks on the various ads that might be on their website.
How does AdSense work?
In order for you to earn money via ads using the AdSense program, you must need to be eligible and accept the terms and policies of Google AdSense. The eligibility criteria for Google AdSense will be discussed later on in the article. After the approval you can now allow advertisements to appear on your website, you can choose the content and the type of these ads while also choosing a place where these ads are going to show on the webpage.
The advertisers are often in competition with one another to get their content advertised on particular websites, the competition is harder if the website in question is well known and reputable. The relevancy of these advertisements also comes into play, which helps determine a percentage depicting how many people would actually click on the ad. On the basis of the ‘Click through rate’ or the CTR a website publisher is paid.
What is the Eligibility Criteria for Google AdSense?
In order to earn money by displaying advertisements on your website through Google AdSense, you must comply with the program’s policies and be eligible for certain conditions. These eligibility requirements allow Google to determine if a website is worthy of being accepted into the AdSense program, as millions of websites are available on the internet. To get approved you must lie within the eligibility criteria:
- Over 18: You must be over 18 years of age in order to get approved for this program as per the terms and conditions are shown in the image.
- The Website must be in your control: You must be the one who is running the website and all content should be yours.
- A presentable website: Google will analyze your website for all sorts of things. Presentation and the attractiveness of your content are also necessary to get accepted by the AdSense program.
- Original Content: It is important to have original content even if the topics that your website will cover are different. The authenticity and originality of content published on a website are key factors in determining your website’s fate in the Google AdSense program. The use of Copyrighted content is strictly prohibited.
- A clear structure: Your website needs to have certain elements that allow a person to easily steer across and search through whatever you have published on your website. For this Google might send a team to your website with the intention to inspect it. Google also provides us with some tips to make it easier for a person to navigate through your website.
- Generating fake impressions is strictly prohibited: In case you get approved and start earning because of the AdSense program and you start exploiting clicks and impressions through malicious methods, you will most definitely be banned from the AdSense program. Using bots or software to generate clicks and impressions to gain money is nothing short of a crime and is total exploitation of convenience like Google AdSense.
- Avoiding inappropriate content: Your website shouldn’t contain anything of ill-nature, that may be considered immoral or even unlawful universally. This may include any adult content like pornography, also obscenity. Any hate content or even content that promotes drug abuse will get your website rejected. If your website targets people with malware or hacking content it will not be accepted for the AdSense program.
- Site must be at least 6 months old and has enough traffic: At the start of the AdSense program, an innumerable amount of Websites started applying for the AdSense program, Google couldn’t comprehend the overwhelmingness of the entire thing hence they kept introducing more ways to get eligible for the criteria, in order to reduce the amount of these websites. Hence, they introduced the 6-month eligibility criteria for websites to get approved in some countries. These countries may not get enough traffic on their websites and the money being generated will be less due to this lack of traffic. But in countries like the United States of America or the United Kingdom, the 6-month eligibility criteria does not exist due to the better economic conditions.
How to create an AdSense account?
After you have ensured that your website meets all the policies and eligibility criteria provided by Google for the AdSense program. You may proceed to create an AdSense account. Follow these steps to create an account on AdSense.
- Open your web browser and search ‘adsense sign up’ then click on the relevant link, or click here to access the sign-up page directly.
- You will now be required to choose a Google account, in order to sign up for AdSense.
- After you have entered or chosen your Google account, you will be presented with a form, which is necessary to fill out.
- In case you don’t have a Website yet, you can check the ‘I don’t have a site yet’ box.
- Enter a ‘Website’ and your ‘Country’ to reveal the ‘Terms and conditions’. We recommend that you thoroughly read the terms of service, in order to have a better understanding of AdSense. Afterward, check the box for ‘I have read and accept the agreement’
- Finally, click on the ‘Start using AdSense’ button.
- On the ‘Home’ section you are required to enter the correct information about yourself like name, address, and postal code.
- You can add a site to your AdSense account later, by clicking on the ‘Add site’ button or go to the ‘Sites’ section in the sidebar and your website from there.
After you have entered your information and website’s URL, you can send your website to Google for review. After your website has been reviewed, Google will either inform you that your website was declined for the AdSense program or it will be approved and you can start earning by displaying relevant ads on your Website.