I bought a domain last month that looked like a solid acquisition: decent content, clean design, and what appeared to be legitimate traffic.
Then I applied for AdSense.
Instant rejection.
After digging deeper, I discovered that a previous owner had apparently gotten the domain banned from AdSense years ago.
The frustrating part is that Google doesn't provide an official way to verify this before you buy a domain.
Since I buy domains fairly regularly, I ended up building a small checker that looks at multiple signals to estimate whether a domain may have AdSense issues.
Now every domain goes through this check before I spend time building content or migrating projects.
It's already saved me from investing weeks into domains that were unlikely to monetize.
Curious how other founders here handle domain due diligence before acquisitions. What checks are non-negotiable for you?
Tool for anyone interested: https://serpspur.com/tool/adsens-banned-site-checker/