gasftThe recent development plan of a new job listing site that we’ve been working on included a request from the client to set up some ad modules using GoogleAdsense. Against my better judgement based on past experience with the Adsense programme we dutifully completed the required account application form, set up and inserted the placeholder ad spaces and waited for the site to be reviewed.

Yesterday came the (rather unhelpful) emailed result of the application:

Hello,

As mentioned in our welcome email, we continue to review your AdSense application once AdSense code is placed on your sites. As a result of this review, we have disapproved your account for the following violation(s).

Issues:

- Unacceptable site content

———————

Further detail:  Unacceptable site content: Your website contains content that we do not allow at this time. Please review our policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) for a complete list of site content not allowed on webpages.

Remember that this is a job listing site – Jobpro.co.za – and there is a very clear and obvious type of content on the site. They are job vacancy listings.

The email goes on to suggest that we correct all the issues and then attempt to resubmit the site for approval emphasising the point to “please make sure to resolve all of the issues listed above before resubmitting.”

So a quick check of this “Unacceptable site content” on the supplied link to make sure that we hadn’t unwittingly missed anything:

Content Guidelines:

Publishers may not place AdSense code on pages with content that violates any of our content guidelines. Some examples include content that is adult, violent or advocating racial intolerance.
Sites with Google ads may not include or link to:

  • Pornography, adult or mature content – ü Check
  • Violent content – ü Check
  • Content related to racial intolerance or advocacy against any individual, group or organisation – ü Check
  • Excessive profanity – ü Check
  • Hacking/cracking content – ü Check
  • Gambling or casino-related content – ü Check
  • Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content – ü Check
  • Sales of beer or hard alcohol – ü Check
  • Sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products – ü Check
  • Sales of prescription drugs – ü Check
  • Sales of weapons or ammunition (e.g. firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, stun guns) – ü Check
  • Sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer or other goods – ü Check
  • Sales or distribution of coursework or student essays – ü Check
  • Content regarding programmes which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails – ü Check
  • Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others– ü Check
  • Publishers are also not permitted to place AdSense code on pages with content primarily in an unsupported language – ü Check

    • So all looks okay to us. It all makes no sense. We’ve resubmitted the application and wait for the review to take place.

    In the meantime, if anyone (especially anyone from Google SA) could explain this to us we’d be very happy.

    Part Image credit: Getty Images

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