AdSense "Policy Violations" Rejection: Find and Fix the Cause

A "Policy violations" rejection means the reviewer found something on your site that breaks the Google Publisher Policies or the AdSense Program policies, but the message usually does not say what or where. You have to audit the site yourself: prohibited content, copyright problems, the behaviour of any ad or script you already run, and user-generated spam are the usual suspects. Once the problem is gone, you can request another review.

What a policy violations rejection covers

Two sets of rules apply to every AdSense site:

• The Google Publisher Policies cover content (what the site is about) and behaviour (how ads and pages act).
• The AdSense Program policies cover clicks, traffic, ad placement and site behaviour.

The Publisher Policies also import Google Search's spam rules: Google does not allow ads "on screens that violate the Spam policies for Google web search" (spam policy page). So scraping, cloaking, doorway pages and hacked content can all lead here too.

During the application review you rarely get page-level detail. That is different from an approved account, where the Policy center lists the specific URLs. For an application, assume the reviewer looked at your home page, your menu and a handful of articles, and found something that would be a problem on any of them.

Prohibited versus restricted content

Knowing the difference saves a lot of worry. Prohibited content cannot carry Google ads at all. Restricted content can, but fewer advertisers bid on it.

Type	Examples	Effect
Prohibited	Sexually explicit material, pirated films or software, cracks and keygens, hacking tutorials aimed at other people's accounts, fake documents, essay-writing services, malware, content that incites hatred, harmful health claims that contradict scientific consensus	No Google ads; rejection or disabled ads
Restricted	Gambling, alcohol sales, tobacco, guns and other weapons, recreational drugs, prescription drug sales, shocking content, non-explicit nudity	Allowed, with fewer advertising sources (Publisher Restrictions)

A blog that reviews whisky is restricted, not banned. A blog that links to "full movie free download" pages is prohibited, however good the writing.

The usual culprits on small sites

From the rejected sites we look at, the problem is rarely the main topic. It is usually something at the edges.

Copyright and piracy

• Download links to APK mods, cracked software, PDFs of paid books or "watch online" film pages.
• Song lyrics, full recipes from books, or news articles copied in full.
• Images taken from Google Images without a licence. A single photo is rarely the cause, but a site built on other people's photos is a risk.

The intellectual property policy bans content that "infringes copyright". If a page would not survive a DMCA notice, take it down.

Adult or borderline content

Explicit images, adult chat links, "escort" listings and suggestive thumbnails in a sidebar widget count, even when the main content is clean. Check what your related-posts and "trending" widgets pull in.

Dangerous, dishonest and misleading content

• Guides to bypassing paywalls, hacking accounts, spying on phones or faking documents fall under "enabling dishonest behavior".
• Health posts that promise cures, or claim things that contradict medical consensus, fall under "unreliable and harmful claims".
• Clickbait titles that the article does not deliver on, and fake "download" buttons, fall under misleading representation.

Other ad networks and scripts

This is the cause people overlook. If your site already runs pop-under, redirect or push-notification ads, those behaviours are judged as part of your site. AdSense policies state that sites "may not change user preferences, redirect users to unwanted websites, initiate downloads, include malware or contain pop-ups or pop-unders that interfere with site navigation" (Program policies). Remove those scripts before you apply, not after.

Text that encourages clicks

Phrases like "please click the ads to support us" or a heading "Useful links" above an ad slot break the placement rules. Ads may only be labelled "Advertisements" or "Sponsored Links" (ad placement policies).

Spam you did not write

Comment spam with casino and pharmacy links, spam user profiles, and pages injected by a hacked plugin all count as your content. AdSense asks you to "moderate your comment section so it stays compliant" (site readiness).

How to find the problem

Work through this audit in order:

1. Search your own site. Run site:example.com in Google together with risky words: site:example.com casino, site:example.com download free, site:example.com viagra. Hacked sites often show pages you have never seen.
2. Check Search Console. Open Security & Manual Actions. A "Hacked content" or "Malware" warning explains a rejection on its own.
3. Check Safe Browsing. Look up your domain on the Google Safe Browsing site status page.
4. List every third-party script. View source on the home page and an article and list each external <script src>. Remove anything you cannot explain, especially ad networks you no longer use.
5. Read your comments and widgets. Delete spam, close comments on old posts, and check what dynamic widgets display.
6. Review your menu. Every category in the main navigation should be something you would defend to a reviewer.
7. Check each page against the prohibited list. If you are unsure about a topic, the restricted content guide explains where the line sits.

Fixing and resubmitting

Delete or rewrite the problem pages; do not just hide them from the menu, since they can still be crawled. If a whole section is borderline, move it to a separate domain. Clean up a hack fully (update everything, change passwords, remove unknown admin users) and request a security review in Search Console before reapplying.

Then check the rest of the site against the approval checklist, because a second rejection for a different reason is common. If your content is clean but thin, the low value content guide is the next stop. Our methodology explains which policy signals we can detect from outside and which need human judgement.

Run a free check

A free scan looks for piracy keywords, pop-under and redirect ad scripts, click-encouraging text and spam patterns across up to 5,000 pages. Start a scan.

FAQ

Why doesn't AdSense tell me which page broke the policy?

Application reviews return a reason category, not a URL list. Page-level details appear in the Policy center once an account is approved and serving ads.

Can a single page get my whole site rejected?

Yes, if it is clearly prohibited, such as a piracy download page. Reviewers judge the site, and one prohibited section can be enough.

Is writing about gambling or alcohol a violation?

No. Those are restricted categories. Ads can show, but with fewer advertisers. Selling or facilitating some of them, such as online real-money gambling, adds more limits.

Do other ad networks on my site affect the review?

Yes. Their behaviour is part of your site. Pop-unders, auto-redirects and forced downloads from any network count against you.