Fix Google Ads
Unoriginal Content
Violation

Log in to the email account connected to your Google Ads account. Google will have sent you a message explaining that one or more of your ads have been disapproved because the landing page or website they link to contains unoriginal content. The notice may describe the issue as thin content, scraped content, duplicate content, or a site that does not add value for users. Keep this email open as you work through this checklist — it tells you exactly which URLs, campaigns, or ads are affected.

Unoriginal content is any content on your website or landing pages that was not genuinely created by you, that copies or closely repeats content from other websites, or that exists purely to fill space without giving the reader any real value. Google's policy exists to protect users from clicking an ad and arriving at a page that offers nothing useful — a page that is just a thin wrapper around other people's content, a page that has been auto-generated by a machine, a page that copies text from other sites, or a page that shows almost the same content to every visitor but swaps out a few words to appear different.

Inside your Google Ads account, click the wrench icon at the top right, then select Policy Manager. Look for ads marked as Disapproved. Click each one to see the exact reason and the landing page URL that triggered the flag. Write down every ad ID, campaign name, ad group name, and landing page URL. You must fix every single flagged item — missing even one will cause your appeal to be rejected. Create a simple list you can work through methodically.

Go to support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6020955 and read the Unoriginal Content policy in full. Google explains that ads must not direct users to websites that provide little or no value to users. Reading the actual policy page in full helps you understand the complete scope of what needs to be fixed and ensures you are not missing any specific requirements before you start making changes.

The Unoriginal Content policy covers several distinct problems. Your violation could be one or more of the following: your site copies text directly from other websites without adding anything new; your site uses auto-generated content that was written by software rather than a real person; your landing pages show extremely thin content with very little information; your site acts as a made-for-advertising page designed to drive clicks to other sites rather than provide real value; your content is the same across many pages with only minor variations; or your site aggregates content from other sources without commentary or added insight. Knowing which specific type you have determines exactly what you need to fix.

In Policy Manager, check the scope of the violation carefully. If only specific ads pointing to specific landing pages are disapproved, you fix those pages and resubmit those ads. If there is a broader account-level action, every page across your entire account may need to be fixed before an appeal will succeed. Understanding the scope prevents you from doing partial work and having your appeal rejected, or worse, escalating a limited violation into an account suspension.

Open each flagged landing page in an incognito browser window and read it from top to bottom as if you are a potential customer who has never seen your business before. Ask yourself honestly: does this page tell me something useful? Would I leave this page feeling like I learned something, or like I wasted my time? Does the page contain information I could not easily find on ten other identical websites? If the honest answer is that the page is thin, repetitive, or unhelpful, that is exactly what Google is seeing too.

Copy sections of text from each landing page and paste them into a Google search using quotation marks around the text. For example, search for the exact phrase in quotes. If the same text appears on multiple other websites, your page has copied or duplicated content that will trigger the Unoriginal Content policy. Also use a free plagiarism detection tool such as smallseotools.com or duplichecker.com to scan the full text of each page and identify any passages that match content from other sites.

Auto-generated content is text that was produced by a software tool or content spinner rather than written by a real person. Signs of auto-generated content include: sentences that are grammatically correct but read awkwardly or do not make natural sense; paragraphs that seem to jump between topics without logical flow; text that uses unusual word choices or phrasings that a native speaker would not use; and content that is very long but seems to say very little. If any of your pages use this type of content, all of it must be replaced with genuinely written original text.

Duplicate content does not only mean copying from other websites — it also means having the same or very similar content repeated across multiple pages of your own website. A common example is a local services business that has separate pages for each city it serves, but where every page contains the same text with only the city name changed. Google considers this unoriginal content even if you wrote the original text yourself. Use a tool like siteliner.com to scan your website for internal duplicate content and identify which pages are too similar to each other.

A made-for-advertising page is one whose primary purpose is to generate clicks or leads for the owner rather than to genuinely help the visitor. Signs that a page may be classified this way include: the page contains very little actual information about the product or service; the page exists mainly to collect contact details; the page pushes visitors to click through to another site; the page has more advertising than content; or the page provides no information that would help a visitor decide whether the product or service is right for them. If this describes your pages, they need significant content development.

Content aggregation means collecting information, articles, reviews, or other content from other websites and presenting it on your own page. Aggregation by itself is not automatically a violation — but aggregation without any original commentary, analysis, or added value is. If your pages display product descriptions pulled directly from manufacturer websites, news articles reproduced from other publications, or reviews copied from review platforms without any additional insight or original writing from you, this content needs to be replaced or significantly supplemented with original material.

Take each section of text that was identified as copied or duplicated and rewrite it entirely from scratch in your own words. Do not paraphrase by simply changing a few words in the original — this still counts as duplicate content. Write each section as if you are explaining the topic to a customer face to face. Use your own knowledge, your own examples, and your own way of expressing things. The new text must be genuinely different in structure, phrasing, and wording from any existing content on other websites, while still being accurate and useful.

Every page that contains auto-generated or machine-spun text must have that text removed and replaced with content written by a human being. This does not mean you cannot use AI writing tools to help you brainstorm or draft ideas, but the final published text must read naturally, must be reviewed and edited by a person who understands the topic, and must not simply be raw machine output published without human oversight. The resulting content must genuinely reflect expertise, real knowledge, and a human perspective on the subject.

A thin page is one that does not give the visitor enough information to be useful. If your landing page has fewer than 300 to 400 words of substantive content, it is likely considered thin. Expand each thin page by adding: a detailed description of what you offer and how it works; the specific benefits for the customer; answers to the most common questions a customer would have; information about pricing or how to get a quote; details about your experience, credentials, or track record; and any other information that helps a visitor understand your offering and feel confident contacting you.

If your website has multiple pages covering similar topics — for example, service pages for different cities or product pages for similar items — each page must have a genuinely different focus and content. Changing only the city name or product variant while keeping all the text the same is not sufficient. Each page should reflect the specific context of that topic: a page for a specific city should include information relevant to that city, such as local considerations, local contact details, or local examples; a page for a specific product variant should include the specific details and benefits of that particular variant.

If your pages legitimately aggregate content from other sources — such as product reviews, news summaries, or industry data — you must add substantial original value on top of the aggregated content. This means writing your own analysis of what the aggregated content means for your customers, adding your professional opinion or recommendation, providing context that the original source does not provide, or summarising multiple sources in a way that saves the reader genuine time and effort. The original content you add must be substantial enough that the page would be valuable even if the aggregated content were removed.

Meta titles are the text that appears as the clickable headline in search results, and meta descriptions are the short summary text beneath it. Both must be original, unique to each page, and accurately describe the specific content of that page. Do not use the same meta title or meta description across multiple pages, and do not copy meta text from other websites. Log in to your website management system or CMS and update the meta title and meta description for every page you have fixed. Keep meta titles under 60 characters and meta descriptions under 160 characters.

Your website must have an About Us page that clearly establishes who is behind the business, what relevant experience or qualifications they have, how long the business has been operating, and what specifically makes this business credible in its field. Generic About Us pages that say things like We are a team of dedicated professionals who care about our customers are not sufficient. Be specific: name the people involved, describe their relevant background, mention specific credentials, years of experience, notable projects, or anything else that genuinely demonstrates expertise in the subject matter of your ads and landing pages.

Original case studies, before-and-after examples, or documented results from your actual work are among the strongest forms of original content you can add to a landing page. These cannot be replicated by any other website because they come from your specific business experiences. Write a detailed account of a real project or client result: describe the situation, what you did, and what the outcome was. Use real numbers where possible, for example: how much money was saved, how many units were sold, or what percentage improvement was achieved. Get permission from clients before using their information.

Testimonials from real customers are original content that no other website can replicate. Ask actual customers to provide written feedback about their experience and display this on your landing pages. The testimonials must be genuine — do not write them yourself or make them up. Include the customer's first name and last initial at minimum, and ideally a photo or their job title and company name if they consent. Testimonials that are specific — mentioning the actual service received, the problem it solved, or the result achieved — are far more credible and valuable than generic praise.

If your business holds any relevant professional certifications, industry memberships, awards, or accreditations, display these on your landing pages and link to the issuing bodies where possible. These signals help demonstrate that the content on your pages comes from a legitimate and credible source rather than a made-for-advertising site. Examples include: trade association memberships, professional qualification certificates, business awards, regulatory body registrations, or verified partner statuses with recognised companies. Even if you feel these are well known within your industry, explain what each one means in plain language for visitors who may not be familiar with them.

Content that is attributed to a named person with identifiable expertise is treated more credibly than anonymous content. Where appropriate, add an author name to articles, guides, or detailed content pages on your website. The author should have a short biography that explains their relevant background. This does not mean every page needs an author box — a simple product or service landing page does not require one — but any page that makes claims, provides advice, or discusses a complex topic benefits significantly from having a named, credible human source associated with it.

A Frequently Asked Questions section written based on the actual questions your customers ask is original content that reflects genuine expertise and provides real value to visitors. Write out 5 to 10 of the most common questions you receive about the product or service on each landing page, and provide detailed, genuinely helpful answers. Do not copy FAQ content from other websites. The questions should reflect what your specific customers actually ask, and the answers should reflect your specific knowledge and experience. This type of content is highly valued by both users and Google's quality review systems.

A page whose only content is a contact form asking for a name, email, and phone number, with no explanation of what the visitor will receive in return, what the business offers, or why they should get in touch, is considered a low-value page under the Unoriginal Content policy. Either remove these pages from your ad campaigns entirely and replace them with properly developed landing pages, or add substantial content to them so that a visitor understands clearly what they are signing up for, what they will receive, and why this business is a good choice for them.

If your website has many pages that cover essentially the same topic with only minor differences — for example, the same service described across 20 nearly identical city pages, or the same product described across multiple pages with only colour or size variations — consider consolidating the weakest of these into fewer, stronger pages. It is better to have 5 excellent, genuinely unique pages than 50 thin near-duplicate pages. If you do need separate pages for different locations or variants, make sure each page contains genuinely different and locally or contextually relevant content.

Go through your website and identify any pages that exist for no clear user-facing reason — old landing pages from past campaigns that were never deleted, placeholder pages with no real content, pages that were set up for tracking or technical purposes but are publicly accessible, or pages that were created speculatively but never properly written. Either delete these pages, set them to noindex in your website settings so search engines cannot access them, or develop them into genuinely useful pages. Any URL that a Google reviewer can access and that contains thin or no content is a risk to your account.

A website that has helpful navigation giving users easy access to your services, your About page, your contact information, and any other relevant sections signals to both users and Google that it is a real, well-organised business website rather than a made-for-advertising property. Review your navigation menu and ensure it contains links to all your main service or product pages, your About page, your Contact page, and any policy pages. Users should be able to find any important information within two or three clicks from any page on your site.

Internal links are links within your website that connect one page to another related page. For example, a landing page about a specific service should link to your About page, your Contact page, your testimonials or case studies, and any related service pages. This internal linking structure helps visitors navigate your site and find more information, and it also signals to Google that your website is a coherent, well-structured resource rather than a collection of isolated landing pages designed only to capture leads. Add at least 3 to 5 relevant internal links to each major landing page.

Content that is outdated, inaccurate, or no longer relevant to what your business actually offers is a form of low-quality content that can contribute to an Unoriginal Content violation. Review all the content on your landing pages and check that: prices and offers are current; services described are ones you still provide; any statistics or data cited are from recent sources; any third-party tools, platforms, or partners mentioned are still relevant; and any guarantees or promises made are ones you can still honour. Update or remove any outdated content you find.

If your landing pages are blocked from being accessed by Google's systems, the review team cannot see the new content you have created and will not be able to verify that the violation has been fixed. Check your website's robots.txt file — this is found at yourwebsite.com/robots.txt — and make sure it does not block Googlebot from accessing your landing pages. Also check that your landing pages are not set to noindex, which would prevent them from being indexed. Use Google Search Console to run a URL inspection of each landing page and confirm that Google can access and render each one successfully.

Some websites load their main content using JavaScript after the initial page loads. While Google can generally render JavaScript, content that is only loaded this way can sometimes be missed or delayed during a review. Use your browser to view the page source — in Chrome, right-click the page and select View Page Source — and check whether the main text content of your landing page is visible in the raw HTML. If the content only appears after JavaScript runs and is absent from the page source, work with your developer to ensure the core content is available in the initial HTML response.

After making content changes to your landing pages, check whether Google has crawled and indexed the updated versions. Go to Google Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool, enter each landing page URL, and click Request Indexing. This tells Google to re-crawl the page and pick up the new content. Also check the Last crawl date shown in the inspection results to see when Google last visited the page. If it was more than a week ago, requesting indexing ensures Google sees your updated content before you submit your appeal.

Cloaking is the practice of showing different content to Google than you show to regular users — for example, showing Google a page full of keyword-rich text while showing actual visitors a very different page. Cloaking is a serious policy violation that compounds an Unoriginal Content issue. Ensure your server delivers the same content to all visitors regardless of who is accessing the page. If you have any redirects or conditional content rules set up, have your developer review them to confirm that the content Google sees is identical to what a regular visitor sees.

Some websites include text that is made invisible to users — for example, text set to the same colour as the background, text hidden behind images, or content set to display:none in the CSS. This is another form of cloaking and is a direct policy violation. Use your browser's developer tools to check each landing page for any hidden text elements. Right-click the page, select Inspect, and look through the HTML for any text content that has been hidden using CSS styling. Remove all hidden text and ensure every word on your pages is visible to actual human visitors.

Unoriginal Content does not only apply to written text — it also applies to images and videos. Using stock photos that appear on hundreds of other websites contributes to a page feeling generic and unoriginal. Where possible, use original photographs of your actual business, team, products, or work. If you use stock images, ensure they are properly licensed for commercial use and, where possible, customise them with your branding or combine them with original elements. If you use any videos, ensure they are original content you created, not videos embedded from other channels without adding your own commentary or context.

Open an incognito browser window and visit every landing page you have updated. Read each page carefully as a first-time visitor and confirm that: the content is genuinely original and cannot be found word-for-word on any other website; the page contains enough useful information to help a visitor make a decision; there is no thin, copied, or auto-generated content remaining; the page clearly identifies who the business is; contact details are visible; and any trust signals such as credentials, testimonials, or case studies are present and credible. If you are satisfied with what you see, the page is ready for review.

Before submitting your appeal, run the full text of every fixed landing page through a plagiarism checker such as smallseotools.com, duplichecker.com, or copyscape.com. This final check confirms that no copied passages have been missed during the rewrite process. If the tool flags any sections as matching content elsewhere on the internet, rewrite those sections before proceeding. You want to be confident that every page contains genuinely original content before asking Google to review it again.

Before submitting your appeal, prepare a written list of every specific change you made, with dates. For example: 1. Completely rewrote the landing page at URL from scratch, replacing approximately 400 words of copied content with 800 words of original content on the date. 2. Added a genuine client testimonial section with three testimonials to the landing page at URL on the date. 3. Removed the auto-generated city pages and replaced them with individually written location pages on the date. 4. Added an About Us page with named team members and credentials on the date. Specific, dated evidence is far more convincing than a general statement that the issue has been fixed.

In your Google Ads account, click the wrench icon, go to Policy Manager, find each disapproved ad, and click Appeal. Paste your specific evidence list into the appeal text box. Keep the tone factual, professional, and focused on the specific changes you made and how they address the Unoriginal Content policy. Submit once only — multiple submissions do not speed up the review and can flag your account for additional scrutiny. Expect a response within 1 to 5 business days for most content-related appeals.

The most effective way to prevent future Unoriginal Content violations is to have a simple review process for every new landing page before it goes live. Before connecting any new page to a Google Ad, check: was every sentence written originally by a human? Does the page contain at least 400 words of substantive content? Has the page been checked for duplicate content using a plagiarism tool? Does the page have a clear and unique purpose that no other page on the site duplicates? Is there an original image or piece of media on the page? Running through this simple checklist before launch prevents violations before they happen.

Schedule a recurring calendar reminder every three months to audit all active landing pages connected to your Google Ads campaigns. During each audit, check every page for: content that may have drifted into duplication as your site has grown; outdated information that needs updating; thin pages that need expanding; and any new content that may have been added by team members without proper review. Maintaining content quality as an ongoing discipline rather than a one-time fix is the most reliable way to keep your account in good standing over the long term.

Unoriginal Content violations can sometimes be difficult to fully resolve, particularly when the issue is widespread across many pages, when the site has been heavily reliant on auto-generated content, or when the violation is at account level rather than ad level. If your first appeal is rejected, read the response carefully to understand what Google still objects to and make further targeted changes before resubmitting. If you cannot identify what is still failing, or if your account is at risk of permanent suspension, working with a Google Ads specialist who understands content policy compliance is strongly recommended.