I’m not sure if this is the best or appropriate place to put his question, so I apologize in advance if it doesn’t belong here.
I applied to google adsense, not really because I have any allusions that it will make me any real money, but to see if my site would qualify. Sure enough, it doesn’t! It is telling me that it is because of low value content. That is very hard to swallow. I’ve tried reading and watching every bit of support and help documentation that they provide, and cannot figure out how my site really applies to any of these issues.
My wife and I have over 50 years of professional cooking experience, and we are really bringing that to bear in this site. Low value content? I just don’t get it.
I can share a link to the site if that’s allowed, and if anyone wants to be kind enough to take a look at it. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
Hey there! Our site www.joytothefood.com was on Adsense for a while, if that helps.
I took a look at your site and it looks like you’re covering a lot of helpful content so it does seem odd they are stating it’s low quality.
A couple thoughts are:
- use of stock images in some of the posts
- no titles for the step by step section (would only need to be a “paragraph” style in bold or can be an h3
- I obviously can’t see the backend of the site, but just making sure you have all alt text, core web vitals pass, images are all at least 1200px wide, etc
Sorry I’m not much more help! Best of luck!
Thank you for getting back to me and the helpful advice.
I was concerned about those images, I will figure something out. The only thing is that some of them are historical pics. I can’t go back in time and take original photos, so I wonder how to get around that, hmmm…
I’ve never thought about having titles for the process shots, good point.
I have all of that backend stuff covered, except what is “core web vitals pass”?
I also heard from a Facebook forum and read an article that sounds like I’ve now destroyed my chances of ever getting on MV, because of being rejected by Adsense. That really sucks, but I’m not giving up! There are other ad companies, after all.
Hey Jason,
So a couple things - You definitely haven’t destroyed your chances of getting on Mediavine. They are actually more helpful if you were to get rejected because they usually give advice to correct the issues they have.
Heck out core web vitals here: Core Web Vitals report - Search Console Help
And stock images themself would not be the problem, it would be the sizing and ensuring you have the rights to the photos (through something like adobe stock or similar)
I should follow up that early on, google Adsense just “shut us off” with no reason given and we always suspected that it was because we had very low traffic at the time. We later got it back on and now have mediavine so it’s all possible with more traffic and more chugging along!
Hi @Jason!
I agree with Mika that I’m surprised your site is thought of as low quality content. I think you’ve got all the components for good content there, though agree with the comments about not using stock images and doing H2 titles for the steps.
I know you mentioned the recipes are historical, but many bloggers often go back and remake thier recipes so they can photograph them again. That would be my recommendation to you for those recipes.
Regarding post layout, there are a number of sites out there you can look at for examples of how to organize content better - here are a few:
Now these are all sites that have been around awhile so they’re very experienced and likely have people helping them put things together, but it gives you an idea of what Google is rewarding.
Also, Core Web Vitals are what Google has in place to make sure your site runs well. Basically does it load fast enough (though there’s much more nuance than that). Check out this article by SEMrush to learn more:
And the last thing I wanted to be sure and mention - I couldn’t access your site from mobile, either on Safari or my Google app. The message I get is that the “server cannot be found”. Since mobile is where the majority of traffic comes from, that’s the first thing I’d focus on. You may need someone’s help for that, like Grayson from iMark Interactive.
I hope that is all helpful!
Thank you so much for the support and encouragement. I am looking at all of the links and advice given.
One thing, i think you misunderstood me about historical content. I was referring to the photos in my articles, not recipes.
I have no idea what’s happening with your not being able to find the site on mobile. You’re the first person to ever report having an issue. I will do what I can to look into it.
To be clear, all of the photos on my recipe posts are unique and original.
How would I go about contacting Grayson, and would he be able to help for free?
Grayson wouldn’t be able to help for free - you’d have to pay for his services. I haven’t worked with him, but hear he’s one of the lower cost ones. You can fill out the contact form on his website here:
Also, I tried looking up your Core Web Vitals on the Google PageSpeed Insights report (which is here: https://pagespeed.web.dev/) and this is the response that’s generated:
Unable to resolve https://www.seasontwotaste.com/. Try checking the URL for validity.
So there’s definitely something going on with your website. You may be able to Google it to gather more info, or you may just want to reach straight out to Grayson.
Also, did you ever join Food Blogger Pro? I know we briefly talked about that when we spoke. If you were to go through their step by step process of starting a blog you may be able to figure out a step that was missed or something that didn’t get connected, resulting in some of these issues.
I know tech issues are difficult, but you’ll get it figured out.
you mis-spelled it. its seasonstwotaste, not seasontwotaste.
We just cannot afford to join food blogger pro at all right now. As i was telling you on our call, I’m waiting for my disability case to be resolved. Right now we’re living on an extremely tight budget until at least January.
Thank you once again for all of your help and support.
Oh, well that might be part of the problem! Sorry about that @Jason
I still think checking out your Core Web Vitals will be beneficial. I see that certain areas are coming up Not Applicable which is interesting. Hopefully some Googling will be helpful with why that is.
I’m sorry I’m not more help here - tech is not my strong suit!