How to Improve Your Score

Actionable Ways to Boost Your AdGateScore

Improving your AdGateScore isn't about chasing a number. It's about making your website genuinely better for visitors and more attractive to ad networks. Every improvement you make benefits your readers, your search rankings, and your revenue potential. Here are practical steps for each scoring module.

Improving Performance (20% of score)

Performance improvements often yield the fastest score gains because they're purely technical and don't require creating new content or waiting for traffic to grow.

• Optimize images: Convert images to WebP format, compress them, and use lazy loading. Unoptimized images are the most common cause of slow pages. Tools like Squoosh or ShortPixel can reduce image file sizes by 60-80% without visible quality loss.
• Minimize JavaScript: Remove unused scripts, defer non-critical JavaScript, and avoid loading heavy libraries that you don't actually need. Every script adds to your page load time.
• Enable caching: Set proper cache headers so returning visitors don't have to re-download your entire site. Most hosting providers offer caching configuration in their control panels.
• Use a CDN: A content delivery network serves your files from locations closer to your visitors, reducing load times globally. Cloudflare offers a free tier that provides significant speed improvements.
• Fix Core Web Vitals: Focus on Largest Contentful Paint (load speed), Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability), and First Input Delay (interactivity). Google's PageSpeed Insights tool provides specific recommendations for each metric.

Improving Content Quality (25% of score)

Content Quality carries the most weight in your score because it's the most important factor for ad network approval.

• Write longer articles: Aim for 1,000 to 2,000 words per article. Thin pages with only a few hundred words signal low-quality content to ad networks. Each article should thoroughly cover its topic.
• Use proper headings: Structure your content with H2 and H3 headings that break the article into logical sections. This improves readability and helps search engines understand your content structure.
• Add essential pages: Every site needs an About page, Contact page, and Privacy Policy at minimum. These are mandatory for ad network approval and signal that your site is professionally operated.
• Include original images: Stock photos are acceptable, but original images, infographics, and screenshots add value and distinguish your content from competitors.
• Publish consistently: Regular publishing shows ad networks that your site is actively maintained. Aim for at least 2-4 new articles per month.

Improving Policy Compliance (20% of score)

Policy Compliance is often the easiest module to max out because it consists of clear, binary requirements.

• Install SSL: Switch your entire site to HTTPS. Most hosting providers offer free SSL certificates through Let's Encrypt. Ensure there are no mixed content warnings.
• Write a comprehensive privacy policy: Cover data collection, cookie usage, third-party advertising, and user rights. Free privacy policy generators can create a starting template.
• Add cookie consent: Implement a cookie consent banner that complies with GDPR and CCPA requirements. This is required by all major ad networks.
• Review content safety: Ensure your site has no content that violates ad network policies, including adult material, hate speech, dangerous products, or copyrighted content.

Improving Site Architecture (15% of score)

• Fix broken links: Audit your site for dead links and either update or remove them. Broken links signal poor maintenance.
• Improve mobile responsiveness: Test your site on multiple screen sizes and fix any layout issues. Over 60% of web traffic is mobile.
• Create a sitemap: Submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console. This helps search engines index your site properly.
• Strengthen internal linking: Link between related articles to help visitors and search engines navigate your content. Each article should link to at least 2-3 other relevant pages on your site.
• Simplify navigation: Every important page should be reachable within 2-3 clicks from your homepage.

Improving Traffic Signals (20% of score)

Traffic improvements take the longest because you can't artificially inflate genuine organic traffic.

• Focus on SEO: Optimize your content for search engines with proper title tags, meta descriptions, and keyword targeting. Organic search traffic is the most valued traffic source for ad networks.
• Build diverse traffic sources: Don't rely on a single traffic channel. Combine organic search with social media, email newsletters, and referral traffic for a healthy mix.
• Target valuable geographies: US, UK, Canadian, and Australian traffic commands the highest ad rates. If your content can appeal to English-speaking audiences, optimize for those markets.
• Improve engagement: Longer session durations and lower bounce rates signal quality traffic. Create compelling content that keeps visitors reading and exploring your site.