Add AdSense to a WordPress Blog, Updated for WordPress 2.8

Posted by SEO Dave on July 28th, 2006 at 07:36pm

Updated March 2009 for adding Google AdSense to WordPress 2.8 themes. Works with WordPress 2.7 and WordPress 2.7.1.

As you can see I use the AdSense program on this the Make Money Online Guide. This post will explain how other WordPress 2.8 users can achieve a similar use of AdSense on their WordPress blogs.

If you are feeling lazy check out the WordPress 2.8 Themes on this site, you’ll find WordPress 2.8 themes with AdSense already added and SEO optimized code (better search engine rankings as well as money from AdSense).

Popular WordPress themes like Blix, Talian, Almost Spring and many more all with AdSense added and SEO optimization and updated to work in WordPress 2.8.

The WordPress Themes with AdSense/SEO at Google AdSense Themes include a file designed for novice WordPress users to set options like ad colour, ad unit sizes, channels, border corners etc… though if your a complete technophobe (like my wife) adding your google_ad_client (the pub-number) is all that’s needed (if you can copy and paste one small line of text you can setup my themes) to have your site have the same level of SEO/AdSense ads you see on my sites like these-

Adventure Travel Vacations : uses Talian WordPress Theme (very popular theme).

The Big Feature : youngest sons site, uses Web 2 WordPress Theme.

Conspiracy Theories and Hoaxes : uses Almost Spring

Adding AdSense to your WordPress Template

WordPress has a quite easy to use template system, trust me I’ve tried many popular blog CMS’s and WordPress is by far the easiest to use.

There’s two ways to edit a template, via the built in template editor or in a HTML editor. I use a HTML editor (just a basic text editor not unlike Notepad) for major template work and the built in editor for small changes. I prefer using a offline text editor since you can easily backup your work as you go along, not as easy with the online theme editor.

I’ll only deal with the WordPress built in editor for this post since explaining FTP etc… is too much for one post.

So log in to your WordPress blogs Dashboard and on the left menu click the Appearance link, followed by the Editor link which will appear below.

You should see a page like this in WordPress 2.8

You can see from WordPress post pages like AdSense Revenue there are multiple Google AdSense Ads on the page. You should be aware at this point you can only use three ad blocks per page (you might find Make the most of your ad units helpful). This makes adding the AdSense code a little trickier than if you could add unlimited ad blocks, but with a little thought it’s possible.

So three AdSense for content ad blocks is what we are aiming for, to achieve this I added one Wide Skyscraper (160 x 600) ad block to the side menu, one Square (250 x 250) ad block and one Banner (468 x 60) ad block to the content to WordPress posts.

Adding AdSense Ads to the Menu (non widget)

If you use widgets skip to the next section. If you don’t use widgets I strongly advise learning about them, you can build your menus exactly how you want them without having to edit the template files.

Using the WordPress Theme Editor open the file Sidebar (sidebar.php). The actual code will vary depending upon which template you are using, this is for the WordPress theme Almost Spring, but will be relevant for most themes.

You will see code like this-

<div id="sidebar">

<ul> <?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>' . __('Pages') . '' ); ?> <li> <h2></h2><h2>< ?php _e('Archives'); ?></h2> <ul> <?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?> </ul>

The simplest way to add your AdSense block is to insert it near the top-

<div id="sidebar">


<script type="text/javascript"><!--

google_ad_client = "pub-8325072546567078";

google_ad_width = 160;

google_ad_height = 600;

google_ad_format = "160x600_as";

google_ad_type = "text_image";

google_ad_channel ="";

google_color_border = "E8E7D0";

google_color_bg = "FFFFFF";

google_color_link = "B96F17";

google_color_url = "B96F17";

google_color_text = "000000";

//--></script>

<script type="text/javascript"

  src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

</script>

<ul> < ?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>' . __('Pages') . '' ); ?> <li> </h2></h2><h2>< ?php _e('Archives'); ?></h2> <ul> < ?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?> </ul>

Note: You’ll need to replace my google_ad_client with your code otherwise I’ll be paid for all your AdSense clicks!

This would put the AdSense ad right at the top of the menu. You can see from this blog it’s possible to put the ad block lower on the menu, I have it between Categories and Archives. So feel free to experiment with it’s placement.

You may find wrapping the AdSense code in a div helpful since you can then add padding etc…-

You can then edit the div’s style to match your sites positioning by adding more or less padding, the above code gives 5 pixel of padding around the entire AdSense block, padding is very useful when your Ad block doesn’t quite line in with the rest of the menu (try 10 for all values to see what it looks like).

When complete click the Update File button within the Theme Editor and all your pages will now have a Wide Skyscraper (160×600) AdSense ad on the side menu.

If you find the file won’t save (if you see the message “If this file were writable you could edit it.” where the Update File button should be) you will have to change the files write permission (needs to be 666). To do this access your site via FTP and navigate to /wp-content/themes/YOUR-THEME/ now select all files in the directory and change permission to 666 (it will probably be 644). You can find more info about this at WordPress support forums.

Adding AdSense Ads to the Menu Via a Widget)

I have to admit since I only use my own AdSense themes I’ve always built the sort of AdSense widget I’m about to describe below directly into the themes code via the functions.php file which is a completely different process. So this is the first time I’ve made a AdSense widget like this (learn something new everyday )

Log into your WordPress Dashboard, click “Appearance” on the left menu followed by “Widgets”.

On the Widgets page you’ll see a list of widgets, near the bottom is one called “Text” with an “Add” link to the side of it and the description “Arbitrary text or HTML”.

Click the “Add” link.

On the right side of the page a new Widget called Text will appear.

You are supposed to click the “edit” link to the side of this, but on my theme (which has custom widgets) I had to click the “Save Changes” button first before being able to edit the text widget. So if you have problems, save changes as you go along.

Click the “Edit” link next to the Text widget.

In the new form that opens paste the following:

In the single line box name the widget something like “Adverts” : note this will be used as the menu heading, you see this on your blog, if you just want the AdSense ad unit with no menu heading leave this box blank.

In the large second box add

Don’t forget to change the google_ad_client = “pub-8325072546567078″; to use your pub code.

You might need to play around with the padding numbers, currently all set at 5px, if you find you need more padding on the left change padding-left:5px; to padding-left:10px; and see how it looks….

Should look something like this-

I originally called the widget “AdSense Widget” until realising this was used as the menu heading on the blog!

Click the “Done” button followed by the “Save Changes” button and your new AdSense widget will be live. If you aren’t familiar with widgets and this is your 1st use of widgets you’ll only have the AdSense ad unit on your sidebar menu.

On the widgets page click the “Add” links next to the menu widgets you want to show on your blog. Just add them one at a time until you have the menu you desire then click the “Save Changes” button and the new menu will go live.

And that’s how you add AdSense to your menu using a widget.

Adding AdSense Ads Within the Content of Posts

Now we come to the tricky part, we want individual post pages (like this one) to have an AdSense ad within the content (will result in more clicks = more revenue), but we can’t have 10 AdSense ads on every archive and similar pages.

Fortunately WordPress templates have a file called Single Post (single.php) load it into the theme editor and you should see something like this-

<div class="postentry"> <?php the_content(__('Read the rest of this entry »')); ?> <?php wp_link_pages(); ?> </div>

Add the AdSense code for a Square (250 x 250) ad block as follows (note the div with the float right styling, this is important).

<div class="postentry">


<div style="float:right; padding-left:5px;">

<script type="text/javascript"><!--

google_ad_client = "pub-8325072546567078";

google_ad_width = 250;

google_ad_height = 250;

google_ad_format = "250x250_as";

google_ad_type = "text_image";

google_ad_channel ="";

google_color_border = "E8E7D0";

google_color_bg = "FFFFFF";

google_color_link = "B96F17";

google_color_url = "B96F17";

google_color_text = "000000";

//--></script>

<script type="text/javascript"

  src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

</script>

</div>

<?php the_content(__('Read the rest of this entry »')); ?> <?php wp_link_pages(); ?> </div>

When the file is updated all your WordPress single post pages will have a square AdSense ad floating to the right of the posts content, but the same posts on archive and similar pages will have no ad block. This ad will most likely generate most income because it’s in a hot click area (see AdSense Heat Map).

That leaves the third and final AdSense ad block which I’ve added just above the comment area of the blog page. To add this we again edit Single Post (single.php) using the WordPress built in theme editor.

<div class="postentry"> <?php the_content(__('Read the rest of this entry »')); ?> <?php wp_link_pages(); ?> </div>

<p class="postfeedback">

Add the AdSense code for a Banner (468 x 60) ad block as follows.

<div class="postentry"> <?php the_content(__('Read the rest of this entry »')); ?> <?php wp_link_pages(); ?> </div>


<script type="text/javascript"><!--

google_ad_client = "pub-8325072546567078";

google_ad_width = 468;

google_ad_height = 60;

google_ad_format = "468x60_as";

google_ad_type = "text_image";

google_ad_channel ="";

google_color_border = "E8E7D0";

google_color_bg = "FFFFFF";

google_color_link = "B96F17";

google_color_url = "B96F17";

google_color_text = "000000";

//--></script>

<script type="text/javascript"

  src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

</script>

<p class="postfeedback">

With the WordPress theme I use (Almost Spring) this ad block just fits. If you find there isn’t enough room try a smaller width ad. You might have to add a div with center text align to make it look right.

This last ad block will probably be low click thru because of it’s location.

And there you have it three Google AdSense ad blocks added to a WordPress blog. If you use my technique and want to say thanks link to this page (or the home page) from your blog. Also feel free to add a comment below, love to see others using my ideas.

51 Comments for Add AdSense to a WordPress Blog, Updated for WordPress 2.8

1. perry | August 12th, 2006 at 12:12 am

your blog entry was very helpful to me, but when i tried to add the 250×250 block to my singlepost.php file, it seems to have worked, but it left my header and my footer scooted over to the left of the actual post. It doesnt look right. Is there an easy fix to this? BTWL I’m using the “classic” wordpress theme I think. (I’m totally new to this).
2. SEO Dave | August 12th, 2006 at 11:22 am

Hey Perry,

Not tried adding AdSense to the classic theme (there is a theme called classic), I’ve got it on the server. Had a look and didn’t see a post page for that theme though, which would mean it uses the default singlepost page.

Or did you mean the default theme?

That has a singlepost template page and should work the same as the template I’m using (looks similar).

If you make another comment add your URL I’ll take a look and then when I’m sure which theme you mean try it to see what happens (only takes a minute to try).

Oh and sorry about your comment getting filtered, the comments filters are broke right now do to excessive comment spam (broke the database a while back), so everything is filtered!

David
3. AdSense now working | May 14th, 2007 at 8:24 am

very helpful article for me to add adsense code to my blog
4. Pufone | May 20th, 2007 at 9:23 am

Hello David.
Your tutorial is really good, however it’s much easyer to use a plugin like AdSense Deluxe or Mutube Adsense Manager. I have a tutorial on how to add AdSense to WordPress blogs. The best thing about plugins is easy management of ads: from colours to shapes and location. Allso theme tweaking requires lots of time and when you decide to change it, you have to start all over
5. SEO Dave | May 20th, 2007 at 11:16 am

Hi Pufone,

It is much easier to use a plugin, however I’ve not seen a plugin yet that puts the ads in the right place, for example Mutube Adsense Manager appears to only ad ads to the sidebar which will see a low CTR!

So for me adding them manually is the best (only) way.

If you look through http://www.morearnings.com/category/wordpress-themes/ you’ll find some popular WordPress themes that I’ve added AdSense to and they are free to download.
6. Kymberlyn | May 29th, 2007 at 9:46 am

Dave thank you so very much for this post. I have been trying to ad adsense to my blog for months now without success. It’s fair to say I am not very “blogwise”. Using your info I have managed to add it to my sidebar but I am still not seeing in my posts. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong? Thank you in advance. Your blog(s) are enormously helpful
7. Subodh | July 26th, 2007 at 2:25 am

I am trying to ads within the content of posts but theme which I am using doesn’t having Single Post (single.php) . So can you please help.
8. Jenny Dating | August 3rd, 2007 at 8:28 pm

Hello,
I installed your theme and it worked great.
big thanks.

I do have one question: how do I add adsense channel to the code so I know how much I earn from my blog?

Thanks.
9. Jiun | September 2nd, 2007 at 5:21 am

Hi Dave, Wonder if you could help me out here. The theme I’m using doesn’t have a single.php so how do I add the code to my post? Thanks.
10. SEO Dave | September 2nd, 2007 at 12:45 pm

Look though the template pages for this-

div class=”postentry”

Then using trial and error post the AdSense code, if it’s the wrong template page remove it and try the next one. Eventually you’ll find the right page

David
11. Cruelty-free shopping | November 4th, 2007 at 4:33 am

Dave, Thanks for this post. I had installed connections and was looking for ways to add adsense. Your adsense-enabled connections theme was like THE perfect match.

Is there a way I can make this theme widget-aware?

I do seo as well, though not nearly accomplished as you are. I read your blog regularly as well. I have placed links to your sites at:
http://veggieplaza.com/veggieblog/?page_id=4
http://www.olympictabletennis.com/index.php?option=com_weblinks&catid=23&Itemid=23

Most of my sites are PR 1 or 2 as of now so I know that you are not really gaining too much from me but I will appreciate it a lot.

Thanks again! Look forward to your reply and staying in touch.
12. AdSense Rocks | November 7th, 2007 at 2:31 pm

Thanks for this tutorial – I was able to add my adsense block in a matter on minutes. Hopefully I’ll see a great CTR!
13. How to Wrap Text Around A&hellip | November 8th, 2007 at 1:57 pm

[...] the instructions on wrapping text around Adsense, go here Add AdSense to a Wordpress Blog and look for this text: Add the AdSense code for a Square (250 x 250) ad block as follows (note the [...]
14. Rajeev Edmonds | November 21st, 2007 at 3:51 pm

I personally use Adsense Deluxe plugin for Wordpress in one of my blogs and it makes my life easier in integrating my Adsense Code in the pages.
15. Free Blog | November 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm

How to add adsense and meta tags to free wordpress blog?
Nothing to do with the free blog I guess
Its nothing on the point of advertising and earnings
16. Nadia | November 24th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

This info is very useful, thanks.
Can you give an example where to put google’s code to get skyscraper between categories and archive like you have?
Thank you.
17. wegeer | December 11th, 2007 at 1:15 pm

There is a plugin for inserting adsense automatically into blog posts .It is called “All in One Adsense and YPN” plugin:

http://www.linewbie.com/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-adsense-and-ypn
18. AdSense works | December 19th, 2007 at 10:06 am

wow mate

this was what i was luking for
nice nd good xplanation how to add adsense to my blog

have tried adsense plugin , but coudnt make it working .
this worked in first shot
thanks

where is u r buy me a coffee , lunch button
19. SusanneUK | January 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am

Thanks so much for this very well laid out assistance, so easy to understand and implement.

I did get one odd thing though, hope you can help..

I put the adsense into the single post thing.. and I made sure the “Float Right” part was there and double checked myself several times, but my adsense ads appear above the content of my post and to the left..

Not sure what to do..

Hope you can help but again thanks so much for this.

Sue
20. SusanneUK | January 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Hi again

Just wanted to let you know I sorted out the problem, the font for the ” was wrong in my copy.. changed that and now it works..

Thanks very much
Sue
21. BallparkBob | January 21st, 2008 at 7:04 pm

I am using the Digg 3 Column blog from WordPress. When I click on “Presentation”, I don’t see a link that says “Theme Editor Link”. Perhaps things have changed since you first made this post or I selected a blog theme that does not support this? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
22. DeSTInY | March 11th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Google Adsense is the flagship of contextual advertising! Really the best webmaster program for earning money!
23. sheetal | April 11th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

Hi Dave,
I installed your connection adsense,and absolutely loved it. But the sidebar was a problem, so I changed to dig3, which doesn’t have inbulit adsense. This tutorial helped me a lot to insert the adsense in the post. Thanks
24. SEO Dave | April 19th, 2008 at 10:43 am

Hi BallparkBob,

Sorry for taking so long to respond (so many blogs to moderate!).

Have updated this page to include instructions for adding AdSense to WordPress 2.5.

David
25. Tom | May 16th, 2008 at 9:09 am

Hi,

I have used your method to add AdSense within pages content, not posts, by editing the page.php file. It works great, just as I want, Thanks.

But there are just some pages I don’t want ads on, do you know if there a piece of code to exclude ads on these pages ?

Thanks again.
26. Vince | June 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 am

Nice site! Big thanx to webmaster!k
27. Leigh | June 11th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

I’ve installed Google Adsense to my WordPress blog, but no ads are displayed in my blog. It seems from all that I’ve read that I installed correctly (go to Manage, Ad Units, upload code …). I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the theme. I have a custom designed theme. Must there be a space allocated to ads? I know they can be added to posts, too. Would that help?

Finally, how do Channels work? I’m not sure what they are and how to create them or how they work!

Any assistance will be greatly appreciatec.
28. Martin | June 22nd, 2008 at 1:47 am

Wow!!! Good job. Could I take some of yours triks to build my own site?t
29. SEO Dave | June 22nd, 2008 at 3:20 am

If your asking to copy my content to your site then no, that’s copyright infringement and may result in a DMCA complaint from yours truly

If you mean can you use my tips to add AdSense to your site then feel free, that’s what this information is here for.

David Law
30. Robert | July 19th, 2008 at 4:15 am

Your work is marvelous!!o
31. Vince | July 25th, 2008 at 10:54 am

i love this site.
32. Ranjith | August 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

Wow, that was really cool. I was having trouble adding adsense to my blog. I’m only a beginner and I’m just starting out with wordpress. You have done a nice job and you’ve written it in a way even a 2 year old could understand. I will only be glad to add your blog to mine. Be adding you soon.
33. Timmy | August 9th, 2008 at 8:48 am

This site is really superb!!! Thank you for you work! Good Lucke
34. Sexy Stomach | August 12th, 2008 at 3:42 pm

Hello,

Is this for the web based wordpress? or just the downloaded wordpress templates?
35. Todd | August 14th, 2008 at 1:01 am

Thanks to your blog, I was able to get Adsense posted to my blog! You’re awesome!
36. Cornets | September 5th, 2008 at 3:52 am

I tried your tips in the side bar templates both left and right and it didn’t work no ads displayed at all. I wonder if it has something to do with the theme Quadruple blue 1.0 that I am using. I also looked through all my templates for div class=”postentry” and didn’t find it anywhere. If you know what might be the problem any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
37. SEO Dave | September 7th, 2008 at 1:12 am

This will only work with the hosted version of WordPress, so not with wordpress.org (or is it com) which gives free hosted WordPress blogs.

David Law
38. Austin Helsel | September 27th, 2008 at 4:55 am

Thx again for the help but you are using buzz words that many of us do not yet understand such as
follows (note the div with the float right styling, this is important).

If we don’t know what to compare it to we cannot see the difference. Float right???
I do appreciate your help but you always need to clarify with a comparison and also point it out.
Austin from http://www.SmartWayMarketing.com
39. Abel Christianson | November 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

Very useful and imformative post about implimenting Adsense into your Wordpress Adsense blogs. Your templates look pretty good and very functional.

Abel
40. Johanna | November 13th, 2008 at 3:21 am

Hi! I tried to add the code, but nothing happened. Maybe I could send you a copy of the code from my editor and you could tell me where I should put the code? Maybe I just wasn’t putting it in the right place. Thanks!
Johanna
41. Kipp Davis | January 18th, 2009 at 11:02 pm

This is great information. However, I am having trouble getting the ads into the correct location. It may be because of the way Google “improved” the code for everyone’s adsense. I’ve tried pasting your code with my numbers into the single.php for a 250×250 ad, and it gives me a narrow highrise, which is what my original code designated. So, I went to the Adsense “Get Ads” page and generated code for a 250×250. When I paste that code in, in place of your code, it doesn’t do the “float right”, even though I didn’t replace that line from your code. If I paste my new Google 250×250 numbers into YOUR original code, I still get the narrow highrise (although it IS float right). I don’t get it. Can you help?
42. Kipp Davis | January 19th, 2009 at 6:33 pm

Play around long enough and you figure it out on your own… I failed to put and enddiv tag in. I put it in and everything works fine… thanks for the great page!
43. Boaz Ariely | January 19th, 2009 at 9:57 pm

Thanks for the help. You may have written it a while back but there’s always need for that.
If you don’t wanna get at all into the php files, you can add the AdSense to your sidebar by going to WIDGETS and adding a new TEXT widget where ever you want in the side bar. Just enter the adsense script there… You can wrap it with a DIV to add some top margin if you want.
boozika2000
44. susana | January 28th, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Hey, I’m trying to as adsense to my blog on wordpress as well but I don’t seem to have that “design” link.
45. Family on bikes | March 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

“We just followed your directions and they worked great – we now have adsense on all our single post pages. However, we would like to add ads to the main blog page – the one that comes up first with five posts on it. Do you know what the name of that page is? We’ve tried looking through the list of all the pages, but can’t seem to figure out which one it is.
46. SEO Dave | March 15th, 2009 at 2:37 pm

Glad you got some of it working

The main page is usually the index.php file, but some themes don’t follow that convention.

Also look for-

Archive(s).php and even Categories.php all depends on what the theme creator used at the time!

One of the themes I’ve worked on called Beautiful Sunrise http://www.google-adsense-templates.co.uk/wordpress-theme-beautiful-sunrise-with-adsense-and-seo-optimisation.html uses the index.php file as the single.php page and the index page info is found in home.php

Some themes also have parts of the theme within smaller files that are then included. For example you might find the post content part of all the different archive type php files are within a file like this. If this is the case you will be looking for a relatively low code page (not a lot of text) with the function

php the_content();

or

php the_excerpt(’,')

If you find a function like this you have a page that probably creates a content part of a page, the excerpt function is almost certainly a archive type page.

Good luck

David Law
47. Kristine | April 3rd, 2009 at 7:12 am

Hi! This post is very informative. I followed your instructions here but I still can’t get Adsense to work on my blog. After pasting the Adsense code, I clicked “Done” then “Save Changes”. I clicked on the text widget again and boom! The code is gone! It is erased. The box is just plain white. The ads, obviously, are not appearing after many trials. Please help! Thank you.
48. Josh Groban | April 23rd, 2009 at 5:18 am

I am confused
49. Rachainj | May 22nd, 2009 at 10:14 pm

Good instruction for this post.
50. Salvatore | June 9th, 2009 at 9:18 am

Thank You Very Much. I was able to use the code and reference information to edit the index page of Amazing Grace theme for WP.

It all worked great, but with some careful placement, a little padding and centering here and there and of course, resetting the display to read just one post at all times.
51. matthewz | June 11th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

thanks SEO Dave! This was a great walk through for me to get adsense up and running. Appreciate the post.

Add AdSense to a WordPress Blog, Updated for WordPress 2.8

Adding AdSense to your WordPress Template

Adding AdSense Ads to the Menu (non widget)

Adding AdSense Ads to the Menu Via a Widget)

Adding AdSense Ads Within the Content of Posts

51 Comments for Add AdSense to a WordPress Blog, Updated for WordPress 2.8

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