Lately, a lot of websites have been getting flagged for ‘low-value content’ when applying for Google Adsense. What are the reasons behind this new trend, and how can one overcome this problem? We might have found a solution!
What is Low-Value Content?
According to Google, low-value content is when a website does not meet the minimum content requirements and does not have enough high-quality content and a good user experience.
This is very subjective, and the unavailability of feedback outlining exactly what needs to be changed to get approved can make it frustrating. The sentiment so far has been that Google Adsense is one of the easier ad networks to qualify for, especially for websites that did not receive a majority of their traffic from tier 1 countries.
How to fix this issue
There are a series of best practices that can help you identify the areas on your website that need to be improved in order to fix this issue and get your website Adsense approved.
1. Create and Embed Interactive Images
Interactive images are known to drastically improve the user experience by providing a visual and contextual reference to your website visitors.
They are clickable in nature, prompting users to engage with your content, which in turn helps you decrease bounce rates. In addition, with interactive images, you can make your content stand out from other competitors and take a big step towards creating user-first content.
Interactivity Studio is a free online tool that you can use to create and embed interactive images on your website. You can also share the interactive image on the community and obtain a do-follow backlink to your website.
2. Do not copy-paste AI-generated content
Do not ask Chat GPT to create a blog article on something; just copy and paste it directly into your blog. A lot of people are doing this extensively, leading to saturation in AI-powered blogs online.
The best case would be where you can write about something you love and have personal experience in. This is where the aspect of delivering value to your users comes into play.
On the other hand, if you are relying on AI to generate blog articles for you, make sure that you fact-check all information, add your own opinions, and alter sentences to flow naturally. A good way to do this is by using proverbs, metaphors, and calls to action.
3. Cite your sources and give credit
If you are making certain claims you would like your users to believe in, ensure that you are citing your sources appropriately and providing credit wherever necessary.
If you are relying on stock images, you should credit the person who uploaded the image. It is not only good etiquette but also a way to build trust with your audience.
4. Create a legitimate about page
Another great way of building trust with your audience is to create a good about page. What do we mean by good? Let’s see:
Don’t go to thispersondoesnotexist.com or an AI image generator to get an image of someone who does not exist. We understand that sometimes you want to remain anonymous while creating a blog, but in the long term, it is not ideal, and certainly not ideal when applying for Google Adsense.
The best case is where you can add an actual image of yourself and add social links to places that show that you are really someone who has expertise in the subject matter of the blog.
In addition to the image, you should add at least 300 words of bio text to introduce yourself to your readers.
If you want to go a little step further, add links to articles and posts where your website has been mentioned by other reputable sources. This takes time, and most blogs starting out won’t be able to deliver this, but if you can, this will further improve your audience’s trust in your website as a reliable source of information.
5. Add privacy policy and cookie policy pages
Adding privacy policy and cookie policy pages is a very standard practice among websites. Having one can be useful to disclose to your audience that potential advertisers may use any first-party cookies gathered from a person seeing or engaging with an advertisement and use them for re-targeting purposes.
If your website has any affiliate links, it can also be useful to have an affiliate disclaimer. The aim of this exercise is to be transparent with the users of your website and further build trust.
6. Have at least 1,000 visits a month
While Adsense does not have an official minimum traffic requirement that needs to be approved, they have traditionally accepted blogs that regularly get valid organic or social organic traffic.
If you are just starting out and have a blog that does not get as many views, it is advised to scale your content creation strategy till you hit the 1,000 visits a month mark and reapply.
Chances are that your blog will look much different over time and also have an earning potential that you can make the most out of.
7. Create medium to long-form content
Some publishers have brought up the point of ‘Thin content’ on their blogs as one of the reasons that their websites got flagged for low-value content. Thin content refers to having a majority of your website’s pages being less than 300 words long.
It is recommended that the pages of your website are at the very least 1000-1500 words or longer so that you can deliver plenty of helpful information to your website’s visitors.
8. Have enough posts under each ‘Category’
WordPress remains a popular platform that a lot of publishers use as their Content Management System (CMS) for their blogs. With WordPress, one can add their blogs to a certain category page.
There comes a time when publishers create multiple such categories per post. This is a big mistake.
It is important to have fewer categories and more posts per category to show some topical expertise and cover a diverse range of topics that a user coming to your website might be searching for.
9. Publish at least 2 blogs every month
While there is no official figure on how many blogs one should publish every month, it is a really good practice to show Adsense that they will be partnering with a publisher that has an active blog with fresh content covering the latest topics that users might find interesting to read.
She Media, one of Google Ad partners, even has a requirement stating that in order for a blog to be accepted into She Media, the publisher needs to have added at least 2 posts in the past 90 days (The more, the better, of course).
Final Thoughts
Getting flagged for ‘low-value content’ can be frustrating for many website owners, and while there is no straightforward answer to what one should do, thinking out of the box and ensuring that the users of your website are finding the content on your site valuable will ultimately lead to your approval into Google Adsense.
The approach of creating content that is helpful and unique can be a challenge, and creating and embedding interactive images can substantially decrease that burden.
Finally, putting yourself in the shoes of your user and making changes, as suggested in this article, can increase your chances of getting accepted into Adsense.
We hope that this was useful. If you would like to add to this list or make any suggestions, comment down below! Hope you have a fantastic day ahead!