AdSense on a Game Site: What a Reviewer Actually Sees

Open a typical game page the way a reviewer would. There is a title, a box with a game in it and a few sentences that could belong to any game on the internet. The game is somebody else's work, the sentences are generic and nothing on the page says who chose it or why. That page gives a person deciding whether your site deserves ads almost nothing to approve. This guide is about changing that without tricks.

Nobody outside Google can promise an approval, and this is not a recipe for one. It is a description of the problems that make a game site look empty, and of what a page looks like when it is not.

The problem is that the content is not yours

Google's publisher policies expect a site to offer something of its own to visitors. When the main content of a page is a third-party game, everything around it has to carry that weight: what the game is, how you play it, why it is on your site and what a visitor can do next. An aggregator is judged mostly on what it adds to the games, not on how many it lists.

Write what is on the screen

Compare two descriptions. The first: “An addictive game with exciting challenges.” The second, for a game like Gulp.io: move a hole over objects smaller than it, swallow them to grow and avoid holes large enough to swallow you. The second tells a visitor what they do, what they gain and what ends the run. It is also impossible to reuse for another game, which is exactly the point.

• Say what the player does, what they get for doing it and what ends the round.
• Write the controls as actions: hold, drag, tap, release. Not “mouse and keyboard.”
• Mention modes, saving and multiplayer only if you have checked that they exist.
• If you have not played far enough to know something, leave it out. A shorter true description beats a longer guess.

Tell visitors why you picked the game

This is the part almost no game site writes, and the part that is entirely yours. A short editorial note on a game page, or a page that explains your selection rules, shows that a person made a choice. Good reasons are specific: it loads in a few seconds on a mid-range phone, the first minute teaches the controls without text, rounds are short, it works in portrait, it does not interrupt play with pop-ups.

Write the reasons you really used. If your honest rule is “it passed our review checks for loading, controls and ad behavior,” say so and list those checks on a page of their own. Our quality standards page is an example of that kind of page.

Do not fake the numbers

Play counts, like counts, “1.2M plays” badges, live “players online” tickers and star ratings are a quick way to make a thin page look busy. They are also a trap. A number that does not come from real events is misleading to visitors, and Google's policies include rules against misrepresentative content. If a reviewer or a visitor notices that every game has a suspiciously round count, the number damages trust in everything else on the page.

• Show a count only if it is computed from real plays or real likes, and show it from the first real one, even if that number is 3.
• If you have no data yet, show nothing. An empty space is more convincing than an invented figure.
• Do not seed ratings, reviews or “trending” rankings. Order lists by something you can explain, such as newest, editor's pick or genre.
• Do not copy a provider's own statistics onto your page as if they were yours.

Avoid repeated text across pages

A FAQ block with the same four questions on every game page, with only the title swapped in, turns hundreds of pages into near-copies of each other. Write answers from what you know about each game, or drop the block. The same applies to “similar games” text and category introductions: if two pages could be swapped without anyone noticing, one of them is not adding anything.

Make sure one page has one address

• Set a canonical URL on every page, including pages on subdomains.
• Return a real 404 for pagination numbers that do not exist instead of repeating the last page.
• Keep your sitemap honest. It should list the pages that exist, not a fallback list when a query fails.

The trust basics

• An About page that says who runs the site, a contact page that works and a privacy policy that matches what the site really does.
• Terms and a copyright or DMCA page with a way for rights holders to reach you.
• An ads.txt file listing the accounts you actually sell through, and nothing you cannot explain.
• A cookie notice that does what it says. Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland need a Google-certified consent management platform for personalised ads, and a home-made banner does not replace one.
• Ads that do not sit on top of game controls or move the buttons a player is about to press.

Add writing that answers a question

Guides are the part of a game site that is wholly yours. The ones that work answer something a player really wonders about, name the game or setting they describe and stop when the question is answered. A 500-word piece that settles a question is better than 1,500 words that circle it. Our guide on writing a game description shows the style we aim for.

Before you apply or reapply

Open ten random pages as a stranger and ask what each offers that the game provider's own page does not. Rewrite or remove anything repeated. Delete claims you have not verified and numbers you cannot trace. Then wait for the review rather than resubmitting every few days, since each application evaluates the site as it stands that day.