Technical SEO Checklist I Use Before Requesting an AdSense Review

AdSense review is not only a question of placing an ads.txt file and waiting. Google needs to understand that the site has real publisher content, clear ownership, useful navigation, and pages that are not created only to target keywords. For a small portfolio site, those signals have to be especially clear because there are fewer pages for Google to evaluate.

When I review a Next.js site before an AdSense submission, I start with the pages a crawler will see first: homepage, blog index, article pages, privacy policy, contact page, sitemap, robots.txt, and ads.txt. Each page needs a job. If a page exists only because a template generated it, it should be improved, noindexed, or removed.

Content quality comes first

The most important check is whether the site contains original content that could help a specific visitor. A portfolio page should explain the problem solved, the technology used, and the result. A blog article should include experience, tradeoffs, or a practical process. Thin daily posts with similar structures can hurt trust because they look scaled rather than written.

I would rather publish six strong articles than sixty generic ones. Strong articles usually include a concrete scenario, a decision process, limitations, and a result. They also avoid inflated claims and repeated keyword phrases. If the same paragraph can fit ten different titles, it is probably too generic for a publisher review.

Crawlable structure

Next.js makes it easy to generate metadata, sitemaps, and canonical URLs, but those pieces still need to agree with each other. The canonical URL in metadata should match the sitemap URL. The robots file should allow important pages. The blog index should link to every public article. Article pages should return a proper 404 when the slug does not exist.

I also check that images are real assets, not broken placeholders, and that the article has visible text in the HTML. If content depends entirely on client-side rendering or a third-party widget, a crawler may see less value than a human visitor sees.

Trust pages

AdSense reviewers expect basic publisher trust signals. A privacy policy should mention cookies, analytics, advertising partners, and how visitors can opt out of personalized ads. Contact information should be easy to find. Terms and disclaimer pages do not need to be legal essays, but they should describe what the site publishes and who is responsible for it.

For service businesses, I also add local context where it is true: city, country, professional role, and links to credible profiles such as LinkedIn or GitHub. This helps separate a real professional site from a low-effort content farm.

Final review routine

Before clicking request review, I run a production build, open the generated sitemap, verify ads.txt, check several article pages on mobile, and scan for duplicate titles or placeholder copy. The goal is simple: every indexed page should be useful, navigable, and clearly owned.