AdSense Prohibited Content: What Google Won't Monetize

Prohibited content is material on which Google will not serve ads at all, no matter how good the rest of the site is. The list lives in the Google Publisher Policies, and if a reviewer finds it on a site you submit, the usual outcome is a "Policy violations" rejection. Restricted content is a separate, softer category: ads can still run, but fewer advertisers bid.

This guide explains the prohibited categories in plain terms so you can audit your own site before you apply. It is a compliance explainer, not legal advice, and it does not replace reading the policy pages themselves.

Prohibited vs. restricted: the distinction that matters

Google keeps two lists, and people mix them up constantly.

	Prohibited (Publisher Policies)	Restricted (Publisher Restrictions)
Source	answer/10502938	answer/10437795
Can Google ads appear?	No	Yes, with limited demand
Effect on review	Typical cause of rejection	Usually not a rejection reason on its own
Examples	Sexually explicit material, malware, copyright infringement, hacking tutorials	Alcohol sales, tobacco, online gambling, firearms sales, nudity

Google's own wording on the restricted side is direct: "If your content is labeled with an inventory restriction, fewer advertising sources will be eligible to bid on it." On the prohibited side there is no partial outcome. If a page breaks a Publisher Policy, the page, the section or the whole site can lose ad serving. The restricted content guide covers the softer list in detail.

The prohibited categories, one by one

The headings below follow the structure of the Publisher Policies page. The quotes are Google's.

Illegal content and intellectual property abuse

Google does not allow content that "is illegal, promotes illegal activity, or infringes on the legal rights of others." In practice, the IP part is where most small publishers trip up:

• Pages that host or link to copyrighted films, music, software or books without permission ("full movie free", "mod apk", "crack" pages).
• Galleries of images lifted from other sites with no licence.
• Stores or review pages promoting counterfeit goods ("replica" watches or bags).

A movie-review blog is fine. A movie-review blog with a "watch online" button that points to a pirate stream is not.

Dangerous or derogatory content

Content that "incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group" on the basis of protected characteristics is prohibited. So is content that harasses, threatens or promotes self-harm. Reporting on these topics in a news or educational context is treated differently from content that promotes them, but the line is judged by human reviewers, so ambiguous framing carries risk.

Animal cruelty

Promoting cruelty to animals, or "the sale of products obtained from endangered or threatened species", is prohibited. Think ivory, shark fin or tiger parts listings. A wildlife conservation article that describes poaching is a different thing from a shop page selling the products.

Misleading representation and deceptive practices

These two categories catch more sites than people expect:

• Misleading representation: content that "falsely implies having an affiliation with, or endorsement by, another individual, organization, product, or service", or that hides who the publisher is. A site called "Official Turkish Airlines Deals" run by an affiliate marketer is a classic example.
• Deceptive practices: "attempting to steal personal information or trick users into sharing personal information", fake prize pages, phishing-style forms.

The Misrepresentation policy also covers content that "misrepresents, misstates, or conceals information about the publisher". That is one reason transparent About and contact pages matter.

Unreliable and harmful claims

Content that "promotes harmful health claims, or relates to a current, major health crisis and contradicts authoritative scientific consensus" is prohibited, along with demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust in elections. Health sites need to be especially careful: "cure diabetes with this tea" headlines are the kind of thing reviewers flag.

Enabling dishonest behaviour

Google prohibits content that "promotes any form of hacking or cracking", helps people create fake documents, or sells academic work (essay mills, "pay someone to take my exam" services). Spyware marketed for tracking a partner falls here too. A cybersecurity blog that explains how attacks work in order to defend against them is generally treated as educational; a step-by-step page for breaking into someone else's account is not.

Sexually explicit content and related categories

Several separate policies sit here:

• Sexually explicit content: content that "includes graphic sexual text, image, audio, video, or games."
• Compensated sexual acts: anything that "may be interpreted as promoting a sexual act in exchange for compensation."
• Mail-order brides: content that "facilitates marriage to a foreigner."
• Adult themes in family content: material that "is made to appear appropriate for a family audience, but contains adult themes."
• Child sexual abuse material: zero tolerance, with reporting to authorities. There is nothing to "fix" here; such content must never exist.

Note that non-explicit nudity (art, health education) is on the restricted list, not the prohibited one.

Malware, abusive experiences and spam

Google will not place ads on screens that "contain malicious software or 'malware'", that "contain abusive experiences" (see the abusive experiences list), or that violate the Search spam policies. That last point pulls cloaking, scaled content abuse, hidden text, sneaky redirects and hacked pages into the AdSense rulebook.

Many sites fail here without knowing it. A hacked WordPress install that serves Japanese pharma pages to Googlebot is a prohibited-content problem even if you never wrote a word of it.

Where prohibited content hides on ordinary sites

Most publishers who get a policy rejection did not set out to run an adult or piracy site. The problem is usually in a corner:

1. Comments and forums. Google is clear that user-generated content is your responsibility: you need to "moderate your comment section so it stays compliant" (answer/7299563). A tech blog with 400 unmoderated casino and "cheap pills" comments looks like a spam host.
2. Download sections. "Free download" links for paid software or APK mods.
3. Embedded streams. Sports or film pages that frame third-party streams.
4. Old guest posts. Sponsored articles bought years ago for casino, essay-writing or "followers" services.
5. Injected pages. Hacked content that lives in /wp-content/uploads/ or in odd paths like /?p=8823&lang=ja.
6. Third-party ad scripts. Pop-under networks that open adult or scam pages count against your site, not theirs.

How to audit your own site

A practical order of work:

• Search your sitemap and database for risky terms: crack, keygen, apk, torrent, escort, replica, casino, essay writing, hack account. Read each hit in context; most will be innocent.
• Export all comments with links and delete spam in bulk. Turn on moderation for first-time commenters.
• Check Google Safe Browsing's site status and Search Console's Security issues report.
• Fetch a few pages with a Googlebot user agent and compare the HTML with what a browser sees. Differences can mean cloaking malware.
• Remove pop-under and redirect ad networks before you apply.
• Read the policy violations rejection guide if you already received the email.

Deleting the problem pages is usually better than hiding them with noindex. Google's ad placement policy says it may disable ads on content it cannot evaluate, and a reviewer can still reach a page that is linked from your menu. Our checklist has the full pre-application list.

What happens after a violation

If prohibited content is found on an approved account, enforcement can be page-level (ads stop on that URL), site-level, or account-level for severe or repeated violations. The Policy center inside AdSense shows the affected URLs. Once you fix the issue you can request a review there. For accounts that are not yet approved, you simply fix the site and resubmit; there is no fixed waiting period published by Google, but resubmitting an unchanged site rarely produces a different result.

Check your site

A free scan crawls up to 5,000 pages and flags risky keyword clusters, spam comment links and pop-under scripts for you to review by hand.

FAQ

Is prohibited content the same as restricted content?

No. Prohibited content cannot carry Google ads at all. Restricted content (alcohol, gambling, tobacco and similar) can carry ads, with fewer advertisers bidding.

Can I write about drugs, weapons or hacking at all?

News, history, harm-reduction and defensive security content is generally treated differently from content that promotes or sells. The deciding factor is purpose and framing, and a human makes that call, so keep the angle informational and avoid how-to steps for illegal acts.

My site was hacked and now has spam pages. Is that a policy violation?

Yes, hacked content falls under the spam policies that Publisher Policies reference. Clean the site, close the hole, request a security review in Search Console, then apply or request a policy review.

Will adding noindex to a problem page fix a rejection?

Not reliably. The AdSense crawler is separate from Google Search, and reviewers can follow your internal links. Remove or rewrite the page instead.

Does Approvalens decide whether my content is prohibited?

No. It runs deterministic checks and surfaces pages worth a human look. Only Google decides policy compliance.