Pour & Notes — starter site with AdSense wiring

A small, complete static website (plain HTML/CSS, no build step) about home coffee brewing, set up so it's straightforward to get Google AdSense running on it. Swap the content for your own topic if you like — the structure is what matters for approval.

What's in here

site/
├── index.html              home page
├── about.html               required for AdSense review
├── contact.html             required for AdSense review
├── privacy.html             required — mentions cookies/ads explicitly
├── ads.txt                  required once you have a publisher ID
├── articles/
│   ├── brew-ratio.html
│   ├── grind-size.html
│   └── roast-levels.html
└── assets/
    └── style.css

1. Host it somewhere real

AdSense needs a live, public URL — it won't review a file on your computer. Easiest free/cheap options:

• GitHub Pages (free): push this folder to a repo, enable Pages in repo settings.
• Netlify / Vercel (free tier): drag-and-drop deploy, or connect a git repo.
• Any regular web host / your own domain via cPanel, etc.

2. Get an AdSense account

1. Go to https://www.google.com/adsense/ and sign up with the same site URL.
2. Google gives you a publisher ID that looks like ca-pub-1234567890123456.

3. Wire up the publisher ID

Find and replace every occurrence of ca-pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX in the <head> of each HTML file with your real publisher ID. On Mac/Linux you can do this in one shot from inside the site/ folder:

grep -rl "ca-pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" . | xargs sed -i '' 's/ca-pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/ca-pub-YOURREALID/g'
# (drop the '' after -i if you're on Linux, not macOS)

4. Update ads.txt

Replace pub-0000000000000000 in ads.txt with your real ID, and confirm it's reachable at https://yourdomain.com/ads.txt (root of the domain, not a subfolder). AdSense checks this file specifically.

5. Fill in the placeholders

• contact.html — replace hello@example.com with a real inbox.
• privacy.html — replace [Your Site Name], [yourdomain.com], and the date.
• about.html — adjust to describe you/your actual site if you change the topic.

6. Add real ad units (optional, once approved)

The site already loads the AdSense script and has clearly marked ad placeholders (<div class="ad-slot">) in index.html and each article. Once your site is approved:

1. In AdSense, go to Ads > By ad unit and create a Display ad.
2. Copy the <ins class="adsbygoogle">...</ins> snippet it gives you.
3. Paste it inside the commented-out placeholder in each .ad-slot div, replacing the placeholder comment.

Or skip manual placement entirely and turn on Auto ads in your AdSense dashboard — the site-wide script tag already in every page's <head> is all Auto ads needs.

Why this structure helps approval

Google's AdSense reviewers (and their automated checks) are mainly looking for:

• Original, substantial content — not thin or copied pages (the three articles here are real, specific write-ups, not filler).
• Clear site identity — an About page saying who runs the site.
• A way to contact the owner — the Contact page.
• A privacy policy that discloses cookie/ad usage — included and written specifically to mention Google's advertising cookies.
• Easy navigation and a working, mobile-friendly layout.
• ads.txt present at your domain root once you have a publisher ID.

None of this guarantees approval — Google's review also checks for enough total content, a clean design, and genuine traffic/history in some cases — but it removes the most common rejection reasons (missing privacy policy, no contact info, thin content).

Customizing

• Colors/fonts/spacing all live in assets/style.css as CSS variables at the top of the file.
• Add new articles by copying one of the files in articles/ and linking it from index.html.