Are there specific content categories you don’t accept?

Have you checked out our Content Guidelines? They list all of the content categories we don’t accept, such as those related to gambling, pornography, as well as the sale of health supplements and illegal drugs. Here is the full list of content categories we don’t accept:

  • Adult
  • Alcohol
  • Drugs
  • Tobacco
  • Gambling
  • Games/Contests/Sweepstakes
  • Malware
  • Online pharmacies
  • Weapons & Explosives
  • Cryptocurrency

We also strictly prohibit content that:

  • Features pornographic language or imagery
  • Promotes hate, violence, or discrimination
  • Defames an individual, organization, or group of people
  • Facilitates participation in any illegal activity (including but not limited to prostitution, the use or sale of illegal drugs, and the illegal downloading of movies or music)
  • Promotes businesses that appear to be generally deceptive or misleading
  • Encourages high-risk investments or money-making schemes with the intention of profiting off user participation in such practices
  • Contains adware, malware, spyware, virus, Trojan horses, or other features designed to infiltrate or damage computer systems or access personally identifiable user information without explicit user consent
  • Promotes or analyzes Forex trading
  • Promotes non-government approved pharmaceuticals and supplements
  • Is intended to frighten or alarm the reader with information geared toward persuading the reader to take a specific action

Certain categories have a higher rate of deceptive business practices and have received a significant number of complaints in the network. Therefore, these categories are subject to greater scrutiny (submissions will be handled on a case by case basis):

  • Financial Services
  • Health Services

Outbrain reserves the right to reject content for the following quality and tonality infractions:

  • Grammatical errors
    • Improper spelling
    • Incorrect language use
    • Incoherent passages or structure
    • Improper use of capitalization
  • Lack of authenticity
    • Illustrates a lack of understanding of the intended subject matter
    • Misleads or deceives
  • Lack of timeliness
    • News content must contain up-to-date material
    • Other forms of content can be added or rejected at Outbrain’s discretion based on timeliness.
  • Poor Design
    • Grainy images
    • Graphically violent or pornographic imagery
    • Illegible fonts
    • Dark copy on dark backgrounds or light copy on light backgrounds
  • Inaccurate or Misleading Headlines
    • Does not depict landing page content
    • Exaggerates or embellishes landing page content
  • Calls-to-Action in Headlines
    • Registration requests
    • Prize offers
    • Promotions or sales
    • Urges customer calls or emails
    • Shocking or sensational
  • SEO-Focused Content
    • Linkbacks to low-quality content to boost SEO
    • Hidden text
    • Hidden links

If you are unsure if your content meets our Content Guidelines, please contact our DIY Customer Success team and we’ll let you know!

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