Google AdSense is the most popular way for publishers to monetize their online content. You have to get approval from Google in order to display advertisements on your site. Earlier, you were able to show ads on any number sites after getting account approval. Nowadays, you need to get approval for each site before creating ad code for that site. However, many users want to add subdomains and subdirectories to an existing account. In this article, we will explain how to add subdomains in Google AdSense account.
Subdomains and Subdirectories
Since many users confuse subdomains and subdirectories, here are the basics:
- Subdomains are any prefix added to your main domain in defined format.
- Subdirectories are any suffix added to your main domain in defined format.
Below are some of the examples of subdomains and subdirectories of the domain example.com and how it works in your AdSense account.
| Subdomain or Subdirectory | Site Level Approval | Add to Existing Domain | Additional Approval | Auto Ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| blog.example.com forum.example.com | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| example.com/blog example.com/forum | No | No | No | Yes |
First, you need to get approval for a proper primary domain. The primary domain indicates a high-level domain like examlpe.com or www.examle.com. Though www.example.com is a subdomain of example.com, Google considers this as a primary domain and accept in the approval form. However, it is not possible to get approval for subdomains or subdirectories site without the approval of primary domain. It could be a problem for some cases where you have language specific domains like en.example.com for English and de.exmaple.com for German. Unfortunately, you need approval for example.com or www.example.com to use any of its subdomains. This is also the reason, you should be away from free website builders offering subdomain sites. In this case, you need to purchase a domain and redirect free subdomain pages to paid domain pages before applying for AdSense approval.
When you have an already approved domain, you do not need to add subdirectories separately. However, it is possible to add a subdomain in your account under the main domain and you do not need to get additional approval for this. You can use the same ad unit created for your main domain on subdomains and subdirectories of the same domain. In fact, Google will automatically show advertisements on subdomains and subdirectories when you have enabled Auto Ads for the main domain.
What are the Advantages?
You may wonder why there is an option to add subdomains in AdSense account. In AdSense reports section, you can generate reports separately for your main and subdomains. This is very useful when you have multiple subdomains and want to track the earnings separately.
Note that it is also possible to track the traffic separately for subdomains with Google Analytics. Therefore, if you have separate people managing subdomains, it is good idea to track Analytics and AdSense data separately.
How to Add Subdomains in Google AdSense?
Follow the below instructions to add subdomains under your main domain:
- Login to your AdSense account and navigate to “Sites” menu.
- In “Overview” section, click on the small down arrow against your domain and then click on “Show Details” link.
- This will open the “Manage subdomains” section where you can view previously added subdomains if any.
- To add new subdomain, click on “Add subdomain” link.
- Provide the correct URL of your subdomain and click “Add”.
- You will see the subdomain is added in the list.
Now, you can see the reports and the dashboard cards will start showing the subdomains separately.
Note: You can anytime remove the subdomain from your account. However, if you want to remove the main approved domain from your account, you first need to remove all subdomains under that domain.
Controlling Auto Ads on Subdomains
As mentioned, Google will automatically show Auto Ads like anchor, vignette and matched content ads on your subdomains. This works when you have any ad units on the subdomain pages without the need of inserting code in the header section. If you do not want the Auto Ads to show in subdomains, then make sure to exclude the pages or entire subdomain in your Auto Ads settings.
Final Words
It is common to create subdomains for additional sections of the site like forum and blog. If you have such setup, you can add them in your AdSense account under primary domain and start tracking the earnings. However, make sure to follow AdSense policies and implementation guidelines for subdomains to avoid violation.
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