Many AdSense applicants wonder how long it will take Google to review their applications. According to Google, it's an easy question to answer: The review process should take less than a week.
A lot of applicants also worry whether Google will deem their sites worthy of an AdSense account. They can rest easy: The approval process is clear and straightforward, and most legitimate Web publishers can meet Google's standards quite easily.
The real mystery is why Google isn't more realistic about its approval process. As quite a few applicants can attest, that one-week estimate is wildly optimistic.
(Full disclosure: I have a dog in this hunt. I applied for an AdSense account more than a month ago, and I'm still waiting to hear from Google.)
The AdSense program is wildly popular, and the review process is clearly very labor-intensive. Google tries hard to ensure that its ads don't appear on sites that don't meet its terms of service. And the only effective review method still involves real people actually checking out new applicants' sites, one at a time.
So the delays are understandable. Google's failure, however, to keep AdSense applicants informed about these delays is inexcusable.
The problem is that so many AdSense applicants are waiting months to get approved, yet Google sticks to that ridiculous one-week estimate. Applicants who go looking for more information or for someone to contact at Google wind up getting dumped into the AdSense "help system," which consists mostly of forums where other AdSense users try to answer their questions.
Google employees rarely, if ever, venture into the AdSense forums to provide any officially-sanctioned feedback. That leaves other AdSense users to inform frustrated applicants that they may have to wait three or four months for a response.
Worse still, many applicants assume that Google rejected their applications and didn't bother to notify them. As a result, Google runs the risk of doing exactly the thing its review process is designed to prevent: Ruin the credibility, and thus the effectiveness, of its AdSense system.
It's time for Google to step up and communicate clearly with AdSense applicants. At a minimum, this should include:
- Revising that official one-week review estimate to something more realistic. If it takes Google four months to review a typical AdSense application, then the company should say so.
- Adding a question to the AdSense support FAQ that gives new applicants some realistic guidance about how long they will wait for a response.
- Reviewing the AdSense support forum to address applicants' concerns that they have been forgotten, overlooked, or rejected without notice.
- Occasionally sending email to applicants, assuring them that their applications are still in line for review -- and that they will, indeed, get a response eventually.
Or Google can keep playing these silly games and deny the problem. And eventually, AdSense will pay a very real price.
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