Is Your Website Ready for Google Ad Grants? The Website Policy, Point by Point

Your website is ready for Google Ad Grants when it meets each item in Google's Ad Grants website policy: you own the domain, the site lives on that domain, it has real mission content and complete key pages, it shows who you are, it works on phones over HTTPS, and donation links go to a secure page built for giving. Below is each item, what it means for a typical small nonprofit site, and the usual fix. Most of them take an afternoon, not a rebuild.

This post stays on the website side. Eligibility and the account rules (click-through rate, conversion tracking, keyword rules) are a separate topic, covered on our Google Ad Grants page. We don't manage Ad Grants accounts; the website half is where the program overlaps with search, which is our work.

Keep Google's own Ad Grants website policy open as you go, since Google can update the wording.

1. You own the domain your ads point to

What it says: the nonprofit must own the domain its ads send people to.

What goes wrong: the domain was registered years ago by a volunteer, a former staff member or a board member, in a personal account, with a personal card on auto-renew. Or the web designer registered it in their own account.

The fix: log in wherever the domain is registered and check the registrant name and email. If it isn't the organization, move it into an account the organization controls, using a role address such as admin@ rather than one person's inbox, and give two people access. Turn on auto-renew with an organization card. This is worth doing even if you never apply.

2. The domain hosts the site directly

What it says: your domain must host your website itself, not redirect to another address or to a third-party platform.

What goes wrong: some small organizations don't really have a website. Their domain forwards to a page on a fundraising platform, a social media page or a site builder's free subdomain. Visitors end up somewhere other than your address.

The fix: put a real site on your domain. It can be small, but it has to live at your address. Where your donation form lives is a separate question, covered in item 13.

3. A significant amount of original content about your mission

What it says: the site needs a significant amount of original content related to your mission.

What goes wrong: the site is five pages of two sentences each. Or a chapter's site is mostly text copied from the national office. Or program descriptions were pasted in from a grant proposal and read like one.

The fix: describe your own work in your own words. For each program, a page that says who it serves, what happens, where and when, how to take part, and what has changed for people (shared with permission, names changed). A chapter can link to national material, but its own pages should say what the chapter does locally. Original doesn't mean long. It means yours.

4. Well-developed key pages

What it says: Google names the key pages it expects to be well developed: home, about, mission, programs or services, and contact.

What goes wrong: the About page is a paragraph and a group photo. Programs are a bulleted list on the home page with no pages of their own. Contact is a form with no email, address or hours.

The fix: give each its own page and fill it in. A workable minimum:

• Home: one sentence on what you do, for whom and where; links to each program; a visible Donate button
• About: history, how you're governed, staff and board names (with their consent)
• Mission: the mission statement plus a plain explanation of how your programs carry it out
• Programs or services: one page per program
• Contact: email, mailing address, hours if you have a public location, and a form

5. Your mission, activities and proof of who you are

What it says: the site must clearly state your mission and activities and include a physical address, EIN and/or an annual report.

What goes wrong: none of the three appears anywhere. Or the only annual report is a PDF from six years ago.

The fix: put your EIN and mailing address in the site footer so they show on every page. Publish your latest annual report as a page or a PDF and link it from the About page. If your physical location has to stay private for safety, read the exact wording on Google's policy page, note the "and/or", and decide with your leadership what to publish. Don't put a confidential site address online to satisfy a checklist.

6. Working links and donation buttons

What it says: links and donation buttons have to work.

What goes wrong: the Donate button points to a form that was retired when you switched donor software. Event pages link to last year's registration. Menu items lead to pages that no longer exist.

The fix: on a phone, tap every item in your main menu, your footer and your home page, then every Donate button on the site. Fix or remove anything that errors. Google Search Console, which is free, also lists pages Google tried to reach and couldn't.

7. Pages that load quickly

What it says: pages need to load quickly.

What goes wrong: full-size photos straight off a camera, an autoplaying video header, several embedded social feeds, a slider with ten images.

The fix: resize photos to the size they display at before uploading, turn off autoplay video, and cut embeds that don't earn their place. Test on a phone over cellular data, not office Wi-Fi. Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool shows what is slowing a given page down.

8. Works on phones and tablets

What it says: the site has to work on mobile phones and tablets.

The fix: open the site on a real phone and a real tablet. Open the menu, read a program page, fill in the contact form, start a donation. Watch for text you have to zoom to read, buttons crowded together, and forms where the keyboard covers the field you're typing in. If your template doesn't adapt to small screens at all, this is the one item that may justify a new theme.

9. The whole site on HTTPS, with HTTP redirected

What it says: the entire site must use HTTPS, and HTTP must redirect to HTTPS.

The fix: type your address four ways into a browser: with and without "www", and with "http" and "https" in front. All four should end up at the same secure address with the padlock showing. If one shows a security warning or stays on plain http, ask your host to fix the certificate and the redirect.

10. No excessive third-party ads

What it says: no excessive third-party advertising on the site, and no AdSense.

What goes wrong: a volunteer once added display ads to raise a few dollars, and they're still running.

The fix: remove the ad code. Sponsor logos on an event page are a different thing from an ad network, but keep them in proportion to your own content, and if you're unsure, go by Google's wording rather than ours.

11. Not mainly sending traffic elsewhere through affiliate links

What it says: the site shouldn't exist mainly to send visitors elsewhere through affiliate links.

What goes wrong: a "Shop and support us" page with dozens of affiliate links, linked from every page.

The fix: if you use affiliate programs at all, keep them to one modest page, and make sure the rest of the site is about your programs.

12. Commercial activity explains how proceeds support programs

What it says: if you sell anything, the site must say how the proceeds support your programs.

What goes wrong: a resale shop, a gift shop, branded merchandise or paid workshops appear on the site with no word about where the money goes.

The fix: add a sentence or a short section to each shop or sales page that says what the proceeds pay for. "Every purchase at our resale shop funds the job-training program that staffs it" is clearer than "proceeds support our mission." Only write it if it's true.

13. Donation links go to a secure page dedicated to donations

What it says: donation links must lead to a secure page that is dedicated to donations.

What goes wrong: "Donate" leads to a contact page that says to call the office, or to a store page where a gift is one item among T-shirts, or to a form that isn't on a secure page.

The fix: every Donate button should go to an HTTPS page whose only job is taking a gift. If that page is hosted by your donation software, check that it loads securely and stays focused on giving. Then test the whole path on a phone, start to finish, with a small real gift.

The whole policy as a checklist

Policy item	Quick check	Typical fix
You own the domain	Who is the registrant?	Move it to an organization account
Site hosted on the domain	Does the address stay put?	Build a real site; stop forwarding
Original mission content	Is it in your own words?	Rewrite copied or thin pages
Key pages	Home, about, mission, programs, contact	Give each a full page
Mission, address, EIN, annual report	Footer and About page	Add EIN and address; post the report
Working links and donate buttons	Tap everything on a phone	Fix or remove broken links
Fast pages	Test over cellular data	Resize images, cut autoplay
Phones and tablets	Test on real devices	Fix menus, buttons and forms
HTTPS everywhere	Try all four versions of the address	Certificate and redirect
No excessive ads, no AdSense	Look for ad code	Remove it
Not mainly affiliate links	Count outbound shop links	Keep them to one page
Commercial activity explained	Shop and sales pages	Say what proceeds fund
Secure donation page	Follow every Donate button	One secure page for giving

Why this work pays off either way

Nearly every item above also helps the people who find you through ordinary search results. Original program pages are the ones that rank for what people type. An About page with your EIN and annual report answers the "is this organization legit" question before anyone has to ask it. The fixes are rarely wasted, even if you later decide the grant's account rules are more than your team can keep up with.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes on these thirteen items, request our free nonprofit SEO audit and we'll point out the gaps we find on your actual site.