Design Counts

Adding Google AdSense to WordPress

WordPress installed on your own website allows you to add any adverts that you like. If you are using the free WordPress.com blogs then you are NOT allowed to add any advertising. So if you would like to make some money from your efforts you will need to have your own domain name and web hosting account. This does not need to cost you a lot of money and most people will find a hosting account provided by some of the larger web hosting company’s fine. If you expect to get a lot of visitors (traffic) to your website or blog then you may need to consider using a dedicated server, in most cases this will not be necessary.

Google AdSense is probably one of the most popular affiliate / associate programmes available and you get paid for every valid click or visual impression (sometimes for image links). Google does use monitoring to ensure that its publishers get value for money and that people do not click on their own links, or get friends to do this for them. If you plan to use Google AdSense on your website please do not be tempted to click your own adverts or encourage others to do so, it is one easy and quick way to lose your Google AdSense account.

To use Google AdSense on your website you need to have an established website or blog, in other words please do not apply to open an AdSense account with little or no content – such as “Please be patient while I get this website sorted” statement. Google’s guidelines are that a website should be substantially completed (or started in the case of a blog!).

Once you have your website established with several pages of content then you can apply online to join the Google AdSense programme. Before using the adverts code on your website you should carefully read over the rules involved in using AdSense, this will reduce the chance that you do something wrong that leads to your account being closed. Once a Google AdSense account has been closed there is very little chance that it will be reinstated.

Adding AdSense Code to WordPress

There is a number of ways to do this, and before we do anything the AdSense rules must be considered. AdSense does not allow more than a certain number of AdSense Ad Units / Link Units to be added to a page. A page as far as AdSense is considered is what a visitor can see at one time when visiting your website. As WordPress is designed as a blogging platform (primarily) then you can have a number of blog posts shown on the front page of your website. The number of posts shown can be configured by you in the WordPress dashboard (control panel). Therefore adding Adsense directly to WordPress posts is not a good idea if you plan to show 5, 10 or more post entries at one time in your home page. With a little bit of thought and planning you can easily add Google AdSense and other Advertising to your WordPress powered website, and keep within the rules!

How to Add AdSense to WordPress

The three ways I add AdSense advertising code is to:

1. Add AdSense code to a Text/HTML Widget and then position it in one of the columns available in your WordPress template – if it is widget ready (most are). Keeping in mind the column width available to you.
2. Add AdSense code to individual Pages (not posts).
3. Add AdSense code to the WordPress Template.

The most effective way to present AdSense or any advert is where the reader will notice it. People are said to be advert blind, so by having adverts in the same place all the time you may find that people visiting your website will fail to notice the adverts and will therefore not be drawn to the content provided in them. Another thing to consider is that many visitors to your website / web page will skim the content, reading only a small part of the page – many people move on after only 5 to 10 seconds, unless you have the information or content they are specifically looking for.

It is important if you want to make money from Advertising to have the adverts in prominent positions where your readers will read them. Another location is to have adverts at the bottom of your content or article, as people having read and appreciated what you have presented will often be interested in learning more, or purchasing a product or service – by having a block of adverts at the bottom of your page can help improve on your adverts performance.

If you are new to using AdSense and WordPress then use Widgets to add your adverts to your website.

Instructions on creating your first Google AdSense Advert

First you need to sign up with Google AdSense then login to the AdSense control panel. When you login you will be presented with a number of menu options / menu tabs.

The layout of this AdSense control panel will depend on what visual interface settings are presented to you. At the moment Google AdSense has an Old Interface Layout and a New AdSense Interface layout. I tend to still use the old one, if you are a new user you may not be given the option. So where possible I will show both screen captures of the process involved in creating your first AdSense advert and code.

Next page on Creating your first Google AdSense Advert