Problems with Ads

Can I make money from the ads on my search results?

I have a general AdSense question.

For general AdSense help, visit the AdSense Help Center.

I am having an issue linking my AdSense account to my search engine.

AdSense Site Review

The AdSense site review process usually takes a couple of days, however in some rare instances it can take up to 14 days. Make sure that you don’t remove or update a site that’s still “getting ready” as this can delay the review process.

If your site has been reviewed and we’ve found that it is still not ready to show ads, the reason will appear within the Sites page of your AdSense account.

Why Was My Site Not Approved

There are several reasons why a site might not be approved, so we advise you to watch this video to learn our best practices to get your site approved, and to go through this checklist to review whether your site is ready for AdSense.

Make sure your site is reachable
- Did you provide the correct URL? If you made a mistake, please remove the site from your sites list and add a new site with the correct URL.
- Is your site up and running? Make sure your site is published and live on the web.
- Can AdSense access your site without a password? If your site's login-protected, consider temporarily removing the login so that we can reach your site. Note that after your account has been successfully activated, you can create a crawler login to display Google ads on your login-protected pages
- Can the AdSense crawler access your site? Review our Fix on AdSense crawler issues.
Make sure you have verified the ownership of your site
- Make sure that you've placed the AdSense code on the site and pages that you want to monetize. Check our AdSense code implementation guide.
- If you'd prefer not to paste the code on your site, you can verify your site ownership in Search Console instead. If we detect that you've verified your site in Search Console, we'll continue checking if your site is ready to show ads.
- If you have an ads.txt file, make sure that this one is updated with your publisher ID.
Make sure your site has unique content and a good user experience
- Provide enough unique content that gives users a reason to visit, and return to your site.
- Also, it’s important to ensure that your site does not have any duplicate content.
- Your site should have a good navigation menu and your site’s content should be organized in a manner that is easy for users to easily find it.
- We recommend reviewing our tips on how to establish a high-quality site and deliver a good user experience.
Make sure your site is compliant with AdSense program policies
- Make sure that you adhere to the AdSense program policies.
- Review that the content on your site is compliant with our Publisher content policies.

After making the required changes you can re-submit your site to be reviewed through the “Sites” tab of your AdSense account. Please be aware that this is all the information that we can share regarding the approval status of your site.

If you wish to contact us regarding the site approval status of a different site on your account, we ask you to fill a new contact form through the AdSense Help Center with the new site.

Still Having Trouble Associating Adsense Account with Search Engine

Try the following steps if you are having trouble associating your AdSense account with your search engine:

Make sure that you've signed up for AdSense for Search from within AdSense and that you have activated your account. For detailed instructions, see the AdSense Help Center.
Review the AdSense Program policies to make sure your site's content is in compliance. Keep in mind that we may review all pages of your site, not just the sign-up URL where you placed the code. After you've adjusted your content, sign in to AdSense and confirm that you've resolved the issues on your site.
If you are still having trouble associating your AdSense account with your search engine, please ask for assistance in our Product Forum.

Why aren't ads appearing in my search results?

There are a couple reasons you might not see ads:

The search query didn't trigger any ads. Try a different search query.
If you just applied for AdSense, it takes a few days for the account to be approved. Try again later.
If you've indicated that your site belongs to a qualifying non-profit, you may have disabled ads.

I would like to remove ads from my search results.

Non-profits, schools, and governments may apply for the ads-free version of Programmable Search Engine, which allows ads to be removed from your engine. Learn More.

Other groups can remove ads at a cost of $5 per thousand queries using either the Programmable Search Element Paid API or the JSON API.

Can I block a competitors' ads or other undesirable ads from my results?

Yes. For details on blocking a competitors' ad or other undesirable ads, see the AdSense Help Center. You will first need to associate your engine with an AdSense account. Learn more.

I get a "Forbidden" error when using my search engine.

If you see a "Forbidden" error when searching with your engine, it means that your AdSense account has been rejected or disapproved. See My application was disapproved and the AdSense guidelines.