How to Install AdSense on Your WordPress.org Blog

Google AdSense is the publisher’s component of the world’s most popular pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform, and as such, it is among the most popular ways to monetize a blog. Its popularity, plus the fact that it is easy to use, is the reason it is my #1 choice for monetizing your first blog (see Step #7 of my blog tutorial).

All you need to do is use the information below to install Adsense on your blog (takes about 10 minutes), and in no time advertisers will be paying you every time one of your blog visitors clicks on an ad!

Once you have had your application approved to use AdSense, you will be provided with a small piece of customizable code for pasting into your website, allowing you to start displaying context-relevant advertisements immediately. In this tutorial, we will explain how to install the AdSense code on your self-hosted WordPress blog. If you don’t have a blog yet, start with Step #1 of my tutorial to create one, and then come back to this article once your blog is setup.

Using AdSense is completely free, but you will need to have a free Google account in order to get started. If you have a Gmail address, you’ll already have one. If not, it only takes a few minutes to sign up. Once you send an AdSense application at google.com/adsense, you should receive a confirmation email, typically within one working day, to confirm that you have passed the review process. Note that you will need to prove to Google that you have a website that follows their terms of use.

1 – Get Your AdSense Code

By creating a new ad unit with AdSense, you will be able to place advertisements on your website immediately. You don’t need to worry about understanding the code either; you can use a simple graphical editor to change the way your ads will look once they’re displayed on your site.

1. Log into your Google AdSense account once you have been accepted, and click on the “My ads” menu item at the top of the page. Click the “+ New ad unit” button to continue.

2. Enter any name you want for the ad unit, and choose your preferred ad size and layout from among the thumbnail previews. If you plan to display the ads in the sidebar of your WordPress blog, as most people do, you’ll probably want to choose either the “Large Skyscraper” or “Medium Rectangle” option.

3. Click on the “Text ad style” button to customize the colour scheme and formatting for your ads.

4. Click “Save and get code” once you have finished customizing your ads. Wait for a few moments for the code to appear before selecting it and copying it to the clipboard using the CTRL + C keyboard shortcut.

2 – Install the Code in WordPress

Although you can paste the code in just about any page element of your WordPress blog, by far the most popular option is to place it in a sidebar widget so that your ads appear in the right-hand side of your website beside your posts.

1. Navigate to “Appearance > Widgets” in your WordPress administrator dashboard to open the widgets section.

2. Scroll down the list of available widgets in the left-side column to find the “Text” widget, and drag it over to the preferred widget area in the right-side column. The number of available widget areas will vary depending on your theme, though most people use the Primary Widget Area to display their ads in the sidebar.

3. Click on the activated Text widget and enter a title. Always choose a neutral title, as per Google’s terms of uses; “Our Sponsors” tends to work best. The title should never try to directly encourage people to click on the ads.

4. Paste the AdSense code into the text box, and click “Save”. Context-relevant ads, along with the formatting and colour theme you selected previously, will appear immediately on your blog.

Note that you can have multiple instances of the text widget displayed in one or more widget areas of your WordPress site, allowing you to display multiple ads.