Six places to check when activation keeps failing on website policy
Activation comes back refused on website policy, and the message lists most of the policy without naming the page or the setting on your site that failed.
The refusal message lists the policy without naming your page
On 6 August 2026, Diamond Product Expert Jason King told one organisation in the Google for Nonprofits Help Community that the message was "just a generic list, not necessarily the actual problem", and that he could not see an obvious reason for the rejection.
The policy is more specific than the refusal you received. It names the categories a reviewer works from, including insufficient unique content, unclear mission, broken links, slow load speed, no HTTPS or mixed content, disallowed commercial activity, and domain redirect.
WORK ONE CASE. The cases below stand alone and are not ordered by likelihood. Each one starts from a category the policy names and ends on one change you can make. Work the case you can see on your own site: one named change is testable, another full rewrite of the site is not.
Typing the submitted address lands you on a different web address
Show the table: Find your case (7 rows)
| Refusal category | What it looks like on your site | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Domain redirect | The submitted address sends you to a different web address, a third-party platform or a social media page | Type the submitted domain into a fresh browser window |
| Insufficient unique content | Pages made mostly of links or embedded content, placeholder pages, Under Construction pages, PDFs doing the work of pages | The programme pages a reviewer would open first |
| Unclear mission | The mission and activities are not stated as readable text on the page | Home page and programme pages |
| Disallowed commercial activity | Store, admissions or memberships ahead of the mission, third-party ad blocks, a donation link that fails or leaves the secure page | Home page, main navigation, the donation link followed to the end |
| No HTTPS or mixed content | The padlock is missing on some pages, or a page pulls http assets | Each page template, not only the home page |
| Broken links | Links in the navigation or the footer that lead nowhere | Navigation, footer, programme pages |
| Not accessible to the crawler | Pages load for you and for colleagues while AdsBot is blocked | robots.txt, server configuration, firewall rules |
Categories and site requirements as stated in Google's Ad Grants website policy; the crawler row from Google Ads destination policy. Google's live documentation controls.
Open a new browser window, type the address exactly as it went into your application, and watch the address bar. If it changes to a fundraising platform, a shop on somebody else's domain, or a social media page, the address you submitted is not the address that holds your site.
Google's Ad Grants website policy says the submitted domain must directly host your organisation's website and cannot automatically redirect visitors to a different web address, a third-party platform or a social media page. Domain redirect is one of the rejection categories it names. Ownership of that domain, in the same policy, means you hold administrative control over its content, structure and technical settings.
The fix
Submit the domain that hosts the site itself rather than one that forwards to it. Where a redirect has to stay, make it permanent and send it straight to the final destination instead of through a chain: Google Search Central recommends permanent redirects where possible and says Googlebot can follow up to 10 hops.
The programme pages are a list of links, an embed and a PDF download
The pages a reviewer opens first carry almost no text of their own. Your programme page is a list of links to partners, an embedded video and a PDF annual report, and one page in your menu still says Under Construction. Google's Ad Grants website policy names that shape of page as pitfalls:
- thin content
- copied content
- pages made mostly of links or embedded content
- placeholder pages
- Under Construction pages
- overreliance on PDFs
Insufficient unique content and unclear mission are two of the rejection categories the same policy lists, and it describes a qualifying site as needing substantial, unique content with a clear mission and activities. A link list and a download leave a reviewer nothing to read.
The fix
Put your mission, your programmes and your activities on the page as readable text, rather than inside a PDF, an embed or a link out. Take placeholder and Under Construction pages off the site before your next submission.
The first thing on the site is the shop, the tickets or the memberships
Your home page and your main navigation lead to admissions, a store or memberships before they lead to your mission. A third-party ad block sits in the sidebar, and nobody has followed your donation link to the end in months.
Google's Ad Grants website policy allows limited commercial activity, a mission-related online store among its examples, but says it should not be the site's primary focus. Proceeds must be clearly disclosed as supporting nonprofit programmes, and financial information clearly presented. Your site cannot host excessive third-party ads such as AdSense or work primarily as an affiliate or referral site, and donation links must work and reach a secure donation page.
In a Help Community thread on 5 August 2026 about a public garden with admissions, memberships and nursery sales, Diamond Product Expert Jason King said commercial activity can be advertised where the site clearly states proceeds go to the nonprofit and the commercial activity is not the sole focus. He had noticed recent rejections saying otherwise, and suggested pushing back by citing the actual rule.
The fix
State on your admissions, store and membership pages that proceeds support your programmes. Remove affiliate and third-party ad blocks. Follow your donation link to the end yourself and confirm it lands on a secure donation page. If your next refusal still cites commercial activity, quote the published rule when you reply.
The site opens in your browser and Google's crawler cannot reach it
Every page opens for you, for your colleagues and on your phone, which is what makes this refusal read as unfair.
Google Ads policy says landing pages must be accessible and crawlable by Google AdsBot, and not blocked by robots.txt or server configuration. Your page can be open to visitors and closed to AdsBot at the same time. Editing your robots.txt or a server rule takes administrative control over the website's technical settings, the control the Ad Grants website policy calls domain ownership.
The fix
Read your own robots.txt at yourdomain.org/robots.txt and look for anything that disallows AdsBot, then check your server, firewall and bot-protection rules for the same block. If your site sits on a platform where those settings are out of reach, get that access before you submit again.
The padlock is missing on some pages while you tune the speed score
Your last two resubmissions went in after performance work. Some of your pages still load over http, or load over https while pulling an image or a script over http, so the padlock shows on your home page and not on the page your menu leads to.
No HTTPS and mixed content are rejection categories the website policy names, alongside broken links and slow load speed, and HTTPS is one of the things it says a qualifying site needs. Slow load speed appears there as a reason, with PageSpeed Insights mentioned as a tool, but no primary Ad Grants source names a score you have to reach. The number is not where your pass or fail turns.
The fix
Get HTTPS across every page, with no http assets left in your templates. Click through your navigation, your footer and your programme pages and fix the links that lead nowhere. Stop resubmitting on the strength of a score.
You rewrote the pages with AI and now suspect that is the reason
You drafted or rewrote your pages with AI before one of your submissions, and that now looks like the hidden cause behind every refusal.
Google's Search guidance says appropriate use of AI or automation is not against its guidelines, and that the problem is automation used to generate content primarily to manipulate search rankings. That puts your page back under the thin content and copied content pitfalls the Ad Grants website policy names, rather than under a rule about what wrote it.
The fix
Judge each page against the thin content and copied content pitfalls instead of its authorship. Rewrite the pages that carry nothing specific about your own programmes, your own locations and the people you serve.
Change one thing you can name, then submit again
Your refusal arrives as a category. You can check those categories one at a time: the address you submitted, the text on your pages, your commercial pages, your crawler rules, HTTPS, your links. Work one case, confirm the change on the page or in the setting, then submit again. Google makes the activation decision, and Google's live documentation controls over any summary of its policy, including this one.
The qualification review is free. All we need is your organization's name and website. Start the free quiz
Questions
What does Google actually require of our website?
Six things, in plain language: your organization owns or controls the domain, the site explains your mission and what you actually do, the content is substantial and original rather than thin or copied, navigation and links work, the whole site is served over HTTPS, and it displays and functions properly on a phone. Any donation path you offer has to be secure and lead somewhere obviously yours, and the standard Google Ads policies apply to your pages as well as to your ads.
Google's rule · Checked AUG 2026
Do we need HTTPS on our website?
Yes. A valid certificate on the domain your ads point to is part of Google's website requirements for Ad Grants, and a site served over plain HTTP will not pass the review. It is usually the cheapest thing on any corrections list: most hosting providers issue a certificate free and switch it on in a few clicks.
Google's rule · Checked AUG 2026
Is there a page speed score our site has to hit?
No. There is no published Ad Grants speed threshold, and AdGranted will not invent one: inventing arbitrary numerical thresholds is exactly what our compliance standard forbids. What gets judged is whether material pages load at a usably quick speed, particularly on a phone. A site slow enough that visitors give up is a genuine problem; an imperfect number from a testing tool, on its own, is not.
Commonly repeated · Not a Google rule
We sell tickets and merchandise. Does that count as commercial activity?
It does, and there is no flat ban on it. Google permits limited commercial activity as long as the site stays principally focused on the nonprofit mission and the selling connects to what you do: an event ticket, a fundraising shop. It turns into a problem when the commerce dominates the site or has nothing to do with the mission. Third-party advertising is treated more strictly: ad networks on your pages, and affiliate links whose job is to push visitors elsewhere, are a fail rather than a suggestion.
Google's rule · Checked AUG 2026
We take donations through a third-party platform. Is that a problem?
Normally not. Donation, event and application platforms are assessed on how they are actually used rather than on who hosts them, and a third-party donation provider is not by default an Additional Domain for our pricing. What has to hold up is the path itself: the link works, the destination is recognizably your organization, the process is presented securely, and nobody is bounced somewhere unexpected. A broken or confusing donation path is a mandatory correction whoever operates it.
How we work
Do a few broken links really matter?
Yes. Google treats broken links, dead pages and poor navigation as a website-policy risk, so a 404 behind a menu item, a donate button that leads nowhere, a redirect loop, or a form that visibly fails to load can each hold up approval. Donation and application paths get particular attention: Google expects them to work, to be secure, and to land somewhere plainly connected to your organization.
Google's rule · Checked AUG 2026
Is a rejection permanent?
Not necessarily. Every rejection gets classified first as correctable or final. Correctable covers the ordinary cases (a document the verifier could not accept, a mismatch between your public register entry and your website, a verification request nobody answered), and the case goes back in once that is fixed. It is final when the underlying eligibility problem cannot be resolved or further resubmission stops being reasonable, and then the refund applies.
Our terms
What are the commonest reasons an application is rejected?
In our experience they are administrative rather than exotic: the verifier cannot confirm the applicant belongs to the organization, the legal name or address does not match the public register, a verification email went unanswered, or the site does not meet Google's website policy. That is precisely why the eligibility and website reviews happen before we apply, not after a refusal.
How we work
Sources
- Website policy, Google for Nonprofits Help
- Destination not accessible, Google Advertising Policies Help
- Site move with URL changes, Google Search Central
- Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content, Google Search Central Blog, 8 February 2023
- Help Community thread on a website that cannot pass approval, 6 August 2026
- Help Community thread on activation rejected twice for website policy, 5 August 2026