AdSense Readiness Checklist for Tool Sites

A practical checklist to reduce rejection risk before you submit your website.

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Who this is for: owners of utility/tool websites preparing for Google AdSense review.

Important: no checklist can guarantee approval. This page helps you avoid the most common failures.

1. Must-Have Pages (Hard Requirement)

  1. Privacy Policy: clearly explain data handling, cookies, advertising, and third-party services.
  2. Terms of Service: basic usage terms, disclaimers, and liability limits.
  3. About Us: explain what your site does and who it serves.
  4. Contact Us: provide a real and reachable contact method (email is acceptable).

All four pages should be indexable and easy to find from homepage and normal site pages.

2. Navigation and Discoverability

  1. Global links: show policy links in footer or other persistent navigation.
  2. Homepage visibility: at least one clear path from homepage to each policy page.
  3. No broken links: all legal links must return HTTP 200 and correct content.
  4. Consistent language: legal text should be clear and readable in your target language.

3. Content Quality Signals

  1. Original value: each tool should have useful functionality, not just placeholder UI.
  2. Helpful explanation: include concise usage text, examples, or FAQ where useful.
  3. Enough content depth: avoid thin pages with only one input and no context.
  4. No scraped or duplicate-heavy pages: keep copy unique and relevant.

4. Technical Health Checks

Check Expected State
HTTPS All pages served over valid HTTPS certificates.
robots.txt Does not block important pages needed for review.
sitemap.xml Includes homepage, main tools, guides, and legal pages.
Mobile usability Pages readable and usable on mobile without layout breakage.
Page errors No major JS errors on critical pages.

5. Ad Placement Safety

  1. No deceptive placement: ads should not look like tool action buttons.
  2. Readable UI first: avoid ad overload that hides core functionality.
  3. Avoid accidental clicks: keep spacing between ads and interactive controls.
  4. Policy-sensitive niches: avoid risky content categories if unrelated to your site theme.

6. Pre-Submit 10-Minute Checklist

  1. Open homepage in incognito and click Privacy, Terms, About, Contact.
  2. Open 5 random tool pages and confirm footer policy links are visible.
  3. Open mobile view and ensure legal links are still accessible.
  4. Check sitemap contains the four legal URLs.
  5. Verify Contact Us email is correct and clickable.
  6. Re-crawl key pages in Search Console if recently updated.

7. If You Get Rejected

  1. Read rejection reason and map it to specific pages.
  2. Improve weak pages (especially thin tools and policy clarity).
  3. Wait until changes are fully live and crawlable, then resubmit.

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