HOW TO FIX ADS TXT IN WORDPRESS
HOW TO FIX ADS TXT IN WORDPRESS?
To fix ads txt in WordPress, you have to download the correct ads.txt file from your Google AdSense account and then upload it in your public_html folder for your website. The Public_html folder is commonly accessed through your file manager tab in your CPanel. Then use Google Search Console and make sure Google has indexed the URL for your ads.txt file: https://“yourdomain”/ads.txt.
For non-tech-savvy people, I have broken down the process with screenshots below.
Please note that this process can be similar to all hosting services/website builders.
Equipment used in Video. These are affiliate links so I earn a small commission at no extra expense to you if you make a purchase. As always thank you for your support!
FIXING YOUR ADS TXT EARNINGS AT RISK ERROR IN WORDPRESS
If you have a website and are trying to put ads on your website through AdSense, you may have run into a big red error on your AdSense account.
Specifically, it probably says something like this: “Earnings at risk. You need to fix some ads.txt file issues to avoid severe impact to your revenue”
I have fixed this error on my website GrindPolicy.com. And trust me, I know what it’s like to pull your hair out when the error just wouldn’t go away.
I’m going to show you how to fix this ads.txt error in WordPress and also explain just how long it will take for the error to go away.
WHAT IS THE ADS TXT FILE?
According to Google, ads.txt is a file that ensures your digital ad inventory, such as people who can post ads on your website, is only sold through your authorized sellers such as AdSense.
In other words, it helps prevent people from putting their own ads on your site without going through AdSense.
WHAT DOES THE ADS TXT FILE LOOK LIKE
The ads.txt file is a simple one-liner of actual text. As you can see it’s nothing fancy. It will say Google.com, have your publisher ID and a mix of numbers and letters.
WHERE DO I FIND THE ADS.TXT FILE IN WORDPRESS?
You can locate your ads.txt file through your file manager for your hosting service. Go to your folder that contains your publicly accessible material for your website, commonly named public_html, and locate a text file called ads.txt.
Note there will be no ads.txt file unless you have uploaded it yourself after downloading it from your Google AdSense account. This process is explained below.
IS ADS TXT MANDATORY?
While not mandatory, it is strongly recommended by Google to use an ads.txt file. Google states it can help buyers identify counterfeit inventory and help you receive more advertiser spend that might have otherwise gone toward that counterfeit inventory.
FIX EARNINGS AT RISK IN ADSENSE
Now, if you have the error we are talking about don’t freak out! It’s a really quick and easy fix.
LOG IN TO ADSENSE
First, you’re going to log into your AdSense account. Here you will likely see the error displayed across the top of your screen. It should say these words exactly: “Earnings at risk. You need to fix some ads.txt file issues to avoid severe impact to your revenue”.
EARNINGS AT RISK – FIX NOW BUTTON
Notice the button that says fix now. Click on it!
Once you have clicked the fix now button you should see a box containing the following dialogue.
Don’t be intimidated by this box. Fixing ads.txt is really easy.
Importantly, it’s instructing you to download your ads.txt file and place it on your website. Additionally, if you have multiple websites that need the ads.txt file you may see multiple them all listed here.
I am going to show you how to put the txt file onto your root level domain as it’s asking.
DOWNLOAD YOUR ADS TXT FILE
Click the download button. This will download the ads.txt file onto your computer. The file will likely download to wherever you have set your download folder. To make things easier I like to save things to my desktop.
LOG IN TO YOUR WEBSITE HOSTING
Once downloaded, you can now log in to your website hosting service. For me, I use Bluehost for WordPress.
**Please note: If you’re using a different service you just need to log in and access the location where you manage all your folders for your website. Then look for the folder that has all your publicly accessible material for your website.
ACCESS YOUR CPANEL
Whatever service you use WordPress or otherwise, you’re going to want to access the area where you manage all the folders for your website. I log in to my Bluehost account and then click on advanced which lets me get into my Cpanel.
ACCESS FILE MANAGER
Once you’re in your file manager, you’re going to see a list of folders. The folder you are looking for is titled Public_html.
CLICK ON YOUR PUBLIC_HTML FOLDER
This folder contains all the material on your website that is publicly accessible. This is where you’re going to place the ads.txt file that you downloaded earlier.
Again, if you’re using a different service you just need to access the location where you manage all your folders for your website. Then look for the folder that has all your publicly accessible material for your website.
UPLOAD YOUR ADS.TXT FILE TO YOUR ROOT DOMAIN
Once in the Public_html folder just locate and click the upload button. Now select the ads.txt file you downloaded onto your computer and let the upload process. It should only take seconds.
Once it’s done you should be able to see the ads.txt file in your public_html folder. If it’s not there then try the process again. This is where your ads.txt file will be in WordPress if you ever need to find it.
Note that I already have an ads.txt file uploaded and that’s why you see it there in the screenshot. Hence, if you’ve never uploaded one before don’t expect to see a file present. After it’s uploaded you should be able to see it listed just as it is in the screenshot above.
Congratulations! You’ve uploaded the ads.txt file to your root level domain. That wasn’t too bad. But wait there’s more!
HOW TO MAKE SURE ADS.TXT ERROR IS FIXED
There are a couple of steps that are necessary in order to make sure you have correctly fixed the issue.
CHECK YOUR WEBSITE FOR ADS.TXT
You want to make sure you can access your ads.txt file from your website. Go to your website’s URL. For instance, my website URL is grindpolicy.com. Now search your website URL with the ads.txt extension added to it. For me, that would be grindpolicy.com/ads.txt.
Your ads.txt file should populate under the URL and should be identical to the file you downloaded from Google AdSense.
MAKE SURE ADS.TXT IS CAN BE CRAWLED AND INDEXED WITH GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
If your URL shows your google ads.txt file then you know that you’re able to access your ads.txt page. However, you need to make sure Google can also access the page. This is essential. Google needs to be able to crawl your ads.txt page.
In order to make sure your page can be crawled you need to go to Google Search console. Once there, sign and click on the URL inspection tab.
INSPECT YOUR ADS.TXT URL
Copy and paste the URL of your domain and ads.txt extension. So for me, that’s grindpolicy.com/ads.txt.
Now click enter to inspect.
Be aware, if this page is not indexed by google you are going to want to click on the request indexing button.
This process takes up to 48 hours. What you have done is requested that google crawl your site and index your ads.txt page.
Once completed you will see a green circle with a checkmark letting you know that your page has been successfully crawled by Google. This is necessary for the error to go away!
GOOGLE ADS.TXT TROUBLESHOOTER
If you are having trouble with your page being successfully indexed through Google Search Console, then there’s something preventing Google from being able to crawl your ads.txt page. This could be due to various reasons including any security settings you might be using to stop crawlers from accessing your website.
Luckily, Google has a troubleshooter that can help narrow down the issue. Go through the prompts to explore the possible reasons google isn’t crawling your ads.txt page.
However, if you can access your ads.txt page URL and your page is successfully indexed, then you have successfully fixed your earnings at risk error.
IMPORTANT
This does not mean the error will go away. Please keep in mind that it takes some time to update.
HOW LONG DOES ADS TXT TAKE TO UPDATE?
Once the fix is applied, it can take up to 48 hours for the error to disappear and for your ads to appear on your website. This may be the case for many, but it was not for me. It took me two months for my EARNINGS AT RISK error to go away!
SECOND GUESSING
After two weeks my error did not go away and I was left second-guessing myself.
I know there are a lot of other people who were in the same boat as me scratching their heads and wondering if they did everything right. I am here to tell you that if everything checks out with the indexing then you definitely did it right. You just have to wait!
Sit tight, relax, keep making content and let Google do its thing.
Funny enough I had created an ad code and put it on my website two days before the error went away. I don’t know if this helped speed the process up or not but it doesn’t hurt to try. Go ahead and place an ad code on your site even just as a place saver.
But ultimately it’s just a waiting game.
Google does say it can take much longer for brand new websites for the ads to populate and the error to go away. Although they estimated about a month. Again, I had to wait two months!
CONCLUSION
To fix ads txt in WordPress, apply the simple fix mentioned above and do the check to make sure everything was done correctly. Index your ads.txt page with Google Search Console. Then sit tight and wait.
If you have any questions regarding this process go ahead and leave a comment below. Become a member of GrindPolicy and stay up to date with helpful information to help you succeed and motivational content to ignite the fire in your soul.
