Can’t create a AdSense account because the URL mustn’t use a path or subdomain

Hi Henry,

Thanks for reaching out. I’ve tested this using the signup procedure as per your steps and I can confirm I also see the same message (recording)

I also tested signing up using the AdSense platform directly, under the “Sign up for AdSense” button in the help center article and I can confirm the same notice, which results in users being unable to proceed. With that I suspect users need to submit the parent domain as opposed to a subdomain or subdirectory, and once approved then they can submit any such additional sites based off the parent domain.

With that I’ll create a GitHub issue to escalate this, with the engineers then investigating this further. I’ll also do some more testing and tag you within the GitHub issue. Many thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Thanks James for getting back to me. I’ll follow the GitHub issue when you create it

I know you can create an AdSense account when using Blogger (example.blogspot.com for example) but it may be Blogger is a special case being a Google product

No problem, you’ll find more details on the GitHub issue below:
https://github.com/google/site-kit-wp/issues/4363

Note also that rather than waiting for any updates on this you can manually sign up to AdSense as a workaround, using this link. When signing up you can use the parent domain and not a subdomain. This will allow you to proceed. This unfortunately is the only work around I have at present. A full parent URL is required during setup, as per Google AdSense guidelines. After your site is approved you can setup the AdSense module within Site Kit, at which point you’ll not longer be asked to create an account.

Note also that for subdirectory URLs I believe you won’t need to add that site in manually within your list of “sites” if your AdSense account and parent site are approved. The AdSense product experts should be able to assist with this or confirm this if you wish to check on the official Help Center.

I know you can create an AdSense account when using Blogger (example.blogspot.com for example) but it may be Blogger is a special case being a Google product

Interesting. I don’t have much experience with Blogger so I can’t state how a site setup within the service would work.

Be sure to keep watch of the related GitHub issue, and many thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

Instead of activating Site Kit for the entire network (this as you know isn’t supported yet), I’m letting each site administrator activate Site Kit on their own sub-site in the network.

Therefore I don’t actually need an AdSense account for the parent domain example.com. Instead, each site admin will have their own AdSense account at the subdomain.example.com level. At least that is what I’m hoping for ??

Thanks for sharing your use case. I’ll add this to the related GitHub issue. While I can’t be sure if this is possible I’ll certainly include it within the issue. On the Site Kit site what I was thinking was the plugin could pass the parent domain only so that users can submit their AdSense application. The engineers would take a look at this or decide on the best course of action if any.

Based on your other GitHub issue which you opened last week we has a discussion on whether it was possible to add the same site for more than one AdSense accounts. We then found the below question asked in the AdSense support forums. It’s possible that any other AdSense accounts (such as your users) may have the site/sub-domain site not approved if the parent domain is already on your own or another AdSense account:
https://support.google.com/adsense/thread/2231853/can-i-use-multiple-adsense-accounts-on-one-website?hl=en

As I can’t be sure this is the case I would suggest posting a similar question over at the product experts at the AdSense Help Center.

> On the Site Kit site what I was thinking was the plugin could pass the parent domain only so that users can submit their AdSense application

Google may want to approve example.com and subdomain.example.com separately. That would make sense because they are different websites managed by different users.

Perhaps you could clarify this? It will be super useful to know

Hi Henry,

See below response:

> On the Site Kit site what I was thinking was the plugin could pass the parent domain only so that users can submit their AdSense application

I mentioned this we can only make changes to how the Site Kit plugin works. When using Site Kit to submit an account approval it pre-populates the site name field with the subdomain or subdirectory URL, and this won’t allow the standard AdSense account approval form to submit. The engineers will however take a look at the GitHub issue and advise further.

Google may want to approve example.com and subdomain.example.com separately. That would make sense because they are different websites managed by different users.

Ideally yes, that would work. I did however check the AdSense setup guide and it looks like in order to approve an AdSense account initially a parent domain must be used. For that reason I suspect your users will need to submit the parent domain, and I’m unsure it multiple users can use the same parent domain to get their AdSense account approved. This is independent of a Site Kit setup. For that reason it would be good to get confirmation on whether users can use the same parent domain used on other AdSense accounts for their own AdSense account approval.

I will try and determine this when possible. In the meantime you may wish to post a similar question with the product experts in the AdSense Help Center.

I’ve re-submitted the parent domain and it was approved this morning. If that is a prerequisite for each user submitting their sub-site then at least that is done.

I’m not convinced Google will allow each sub-site to be signed up separately. Unless they allow accounts to have a subdomain in the URL.

fyi https://support.google.com/adsense/thread/135818358/can-a-different-adsense-account-be-used-for-each-website-subdomain

@jamesosborne a Platinum Product Expert has replied:

People can only apply to monetise a subdomain if they also own the main top-level domain, and have had that approved for Adsense already.

Does this apply to the rest of the modules? For example, Analytics? If so then I can’t see how Site Kit can be used in a network install when public registration is open

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Henry Wright.

Thanks for sharing. That’s useful to know. So users would then need to have the parent domain “approved” within their AdSense accounts.

Separate to how subdomain site approvals work I also checked whether it’s possible for the same site to be added to more than one AdSense account. One community article states the following:
“Usually if they try to add a url thats already in use, they don’t approve it. “

While this isn’t a Site Kit issue it looks like your users may not have any site approved if the parent site is registered in your own AdSense account, going by that article.

Does this apply to the rest of the modules? For example, Analytics? If so then I can’t see how Site Kit can be used in a network install when public registration is open

Individual sites within a multi site setup should have no problem setting up Analytics. There is no requirement to have properties approved or no requirement of adding a property for a parent domain.

Note also that the way you’re looking to setup AdSense for your users is more an edge case than most Site Kit users. Subdomain sites can be setup and added to users AdSense accounts. If however you’re looking for users to monetize their subdomain sites alone with their own AdSense accounts this doesn’t seem supported, regardless of using Site Kit.

As we have an open GitHub issue I’ll lose this support topic now. Feel free to add any additional insights to that issue, and thanks again. I’ll keep some notes on this internally should other users make similar enquiries.

Hi @jamesosborne

Note also that the way you’re looking to setup AdSense for your users is more an edge case than most Site Kit users

I’ve been thinking about this. The problem actually relates to all network installs with open public user and blog registration.

See this image of the Network Settings screen in the WordPress network admin area:

View post on imgur.com

Hope this helps

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Henry Wright.

Hi Henri,

If you want to include that in the related GitHub issue then our engineers can review this before making any changes. In particular please include how users may be impacted with these settings if attempting AdSense setup on a subdomain or subdirectory.

I’m also happy to also check this type of setup if you want to include the steps to recreate any potential issue during setup with these configurations you highlighted. We need to make it easy for those reviewing the issue to understand the difference scenarios when they may not have went trough the steps themselves previously.

Done https://github.com/google/site-kit-wp/issues/4363#issuecomment-981711272

Excellent! Thanks Henry, much appreciated.