You added your site to AdSense and the Sites page shows Getting ready (Google is actively reviewing) or Requires review (it hasn’t started yet — you still need to request the review). It’s been a week. Two weeks. Some forum posts say “mine took 24 hours, you’re rejected” — those posts are wrong. Google’s official wording as of June 2026 is that review “usually takes a few days, but in some cases can take 2-4 weeks.” There is no published SLA. Clean, clearly-compliant sites often clear in 3-7 days; borderline sites (thin, programmatic, AI-looking, YMYL) get routed to slower human review and can take 4-8 weeks; rare cases hit 90+ days.
Fastest path: make sure (1) an ad tag is actually on the page, (2) nothing blocks Google-Display-Ads-Bot (the bot that verifies a new site), and (3) you actually clicked Request review. Then wait — you cannot speed up the queue, but you can guarantee you’re not the bottleneck.
Know which status you’re in
The label on AdSense → Sites tells you what to do. As of June 2026 there are four states:
| Status | What it means | Your move |
|---|---|---|
Requires review | Not reviewed yet. Setup tasks incomplete, or review never requested. | Place the ad tag, then click Request review. |
Getting ready | Google is actively reviewing right now. | Wait. There is no resubmit while in this state. |
Needs attention | A specific issue is blocking approval. | Open the site, read the issue, fix it, then Request review again. |
Ready | Approved; ads can serve. | Done. If ads still don’t show, that’s a separate issue (see Related). |
If you’re on Requires review and assumed the review was already running, it wasn’t — you have to click Request review to start it.
Common causes
Ordered by hit rate, highest first.
1. Normal review queue (~70% of cases)
If you requested review in the last 3 weeks and your site meets the basics (15+ substantial articles, About/Privacy/Contact pages, mobile-friendly, no policy violations), you’re probably just in the queue. Nothing is wrong. Waiting is the fix.
How to spot it: On AdSense → Sites the status is Getting ready with no specific issue listed, and you requested review < 3 weeks ago.
2. You never actually requested the review
Requires review is the most-missed state. People add the site, paste the code, and assume Google starts automatically. It doesn’t — a site must be in Requires review or Needs attention and have an ad tag present before you click Request review.
How to spot it: The status reads Requires review, not Getting ready. Open the site card and look for a blue Request review button.
3. AdSense crawler can’t fully access your site
Two Google crawlers matter here: Google-Display-Ads-Bot (verifies a site when you add it to AdSense) and Mediapartners-Google (reads page content to choose ads). Both honor robots.txt. If your robots.txt blocks them, a CDN/WAF challenges them, or pages return 5xx, the reviewer can’t see your content and the review stalls.
How to spot it: In Search Console → Settings → Crawl stats, look for Mediapartners-Google and Googlebot activity. If it’s absent or hitting errors, the bots are being blocked. You can also confirm a single page is fetchable with Search Console → URL Inspection → Test live URL.
4. Site has the wrong country or ownership setup
If the AdSense account country doesn’t match reality, or the ad code on the site uses a different publisher ID than your account, review can stall in a soft-loop where neither approval nor rejection fires.
How to spot it: In AdSense → Sites, click your site. A configuration mismatch usually surfaces as Needs attention with a specific message. If the card is silent, this is probably not your issue.
5. Domain is brand-new
A domain registered < 30 days ago is harder to review — there’s no history. Many publishers report that sub-1-month domains sit longer.
How to spot it: whois yourdomain.com | grep -i "Creation Date". If it’s < 30 days, expect a longer wait.
6. You added the site but never placed the ad tag
The AdSense ad tag must be present on the live site for review to complete — Google explicitly says to place an ad tag before requesting a review. ads.txt is recommended but not mandatory for the review itself; the in-<head> AdSense snippet is what the verifier looks for.
How to spot it: curl -s https://yourdomain.com | grep -E "adsbygoogle|ca-pub-". If empty, your code isn’t installed.
7. Bot protection blocks the verifier
This is the single most common technical blocker in 2026. Cloudflare with Bot Fight Mode / Super Bot Fight Mode set to challenge or block “Definitely automated” traffic will catch Google-Display-Ads-Bot, so the reviewer sees a challenge page instead of your content. Even though Google’s ads bot is on Cloudflare’s verified-bot list, an aggressive Bot Fight setting overrides it.
How to spot it: In Cloudflare → Security → Events, filter by user agent containing Google-Display-Ads-Bot or Mediapartners-Google. Challenges or blocks there are your answer.
Shortest path to fix
You can’t speed up the Google queue. What you can do is make sure nothing on your end is the bottleneck.
Step 1: Confirm the ad tag is installed
curl -s "https://yourdomain.com" | grep -oE 'ca-pub-[0-9]+'You should see your publisher ID (ca-pub-XXXXXXXXX). If not, copy the snippet from AdSense → Sites → Get code into your site’s <head>. For Astro / Next, that’s the root layout. Then verify it loads: open DevTools → Network and confirm adsbygoogle.js returns 200.
Step 2: Unblock both AdSense crawlers
Check your robots.txt:
curl -s https://yourdomain.com/robots.txtThere should be no rule denying Google-Display-Ads-Bot, Mediapartners-Google, or * for the paths you want crawled. If you see something like this, remove it:
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Disallow: /If you’re on Cloudflare with Bot Fight Mode or Super Bot Fight Mode:
- Security → Bots → turn Bot Fight Mode Off, or
- For Super Bot Fight Mode, set Definitely automated to Allow (don’t Block/Challenge), or
- Add a WAF skip (custom) rule for user agents containing
Google-Display-Ads-Bot,Mediapartners-Google, orAdsBot-Google.
Then confirm a real fetch succeeds with Search Console → URL Inspection → Test live URL on your homepage.
Step 3: Confirm trust pages exist and return 200
for path in /about /privacy /contact /terms; do
echo -n "$path: "
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" "https://yourdomain.com$path"
doneAll four should return 200. If /about or /privacy is missing, create them — these are the pages reviewers explicitly look for.
Step 4: If status is Requires review, click Request review
Go to AdSense → Sites, open the site, and click Request review. You may be asked to pick a consent-management option (CMP) and click Submit. The review only starts after this — pasting the code is not enough.
Step 5: Keep publishing during the wait
A common trap: people stop publishing while in review, the site looks stagnant when a reviewer eventually opens it, and that hurts. Publish 1-2 new substantial articles per week during the review window. The reviewer doesn’t see your dashboard — they see the live site at the moment they review.
Step 6: Do NOT remove-and-re-add to force a re-review
While a site sits in Getting ready, there is no resubmit. The only thing close is deleting and re-adding the site, which resets your queue position (you go back to the end) and usually hurts. If the site is in Needs attention, fix the named issue and use Request review instead — do not delete the site. Note: if a site has been rejected several times recently, the Request review / Start review button goes inactive and shows the date you can next request one.
Step 7: After 4-6 weeks, contact support
After 4-6 weeks of Getting ready with no change and no blocking issues on your end, submit a contact form referencing your publisher ID and the date you requested review. Don’t expect a fast reply, but the timestamp is now logged.
How to confirm it’s fixed
You’re unblocked when all of these are true:
curl -s https://yourdomain.com | grep -oE 'ca-pub-[0-9]+'prints your publisher ID.- Search Console → URL Inspection → Test live URL returns “URL is available to Google” for your homepage (no robots/WAF block).
- AdSense → Sites shows
Getting ready(review running) rather thanRequires review(not started) orNeeds attention(issue to fix). - Cloudflare → Security → Events shows no recent challenge/block for
Google-Display-Ads-Bot.
When approval lands, the status flips to Ready. If it goes to Ready but ads don’t appear, that’s a different problem — see Related.
FAQ
Is “Getting ready” the same as being rejected?
No. Getting ready means review is actively running. A rejection arrives as Needs attention with a named policy reason, or as a dated lockout on the Request review button after repeated rejections. Sitting on Getting ready for weeks is normal, not a no.
What’s the difference between “Requires review” and “Getting ready”?
Requires review means review hasn’t started — you must place an ad tag and click Request review. Getting ready means Google is reviewing right now and there is nothing to click.
Do I need ads.txt before review?
No. ads.txt is recommended for filling inventory and protecting against spoofing, but it’s not required for the site review itself — the in-<head> AdSense snippet is what the verifier needs. AdSense may take a few days (up to a month on low-traffic sites) to crawl ads.txt after approval.
How long is too long? Google’s stated band is “a few days to 2-4 weeks.” Past 4-6 weeks with everything green on your side (ad tag present, crawlers unblocked, trust pages live, review requested), it’s reasonable to file the policy contact form.
Can I speed up the review? You can’t move the queue. You can only remove your own blockers (Steps 1-4) and avoid resetting your position by deleting/re-adding the site.
The bot I need to allow — is it Mediapartners-Google or something else?
For the initial site verification it’s Google-Display-Ads-Bot. Mediapartners-Google reads content to target ads. Allow both, plus AdsBot-Google if you also run Google Ads landing pages.
Easy to misdiagnose as
This is not a rejection. Reviews can take days to weeks. If your overall AdSense account was already approved on another property and only this new site is stuck on Getting ready, that’s a different per-site review path — see account approved but this site stays pending.
Prevention
- Apply only after you have 25-40 substantial articles and a domain at least 30 days old.
- Have About, Privacy, Contact, Terms pages live (returning
200) before submitting. - Allow
Google-Display-Ads-BotandMediapartners-Googlethrough any WAF / bot wall before submitting. - Place the ad tag and actually click Request review — don’t assume it auto-starts.
- Keep publishing 1-2 articles per week during review; don’t go silent.
- Don’t remove-and-re-add the site to “force” a re-review — it resets your queue position.