A small newsroom's guide to AdSense

AdSense is usually the first money a local news site makes, and the first thing that makes it unpleasant to read. Both are the same decision made differently: where the ads go.

Three placements do most of the work

• One above the story, below the headline — seen by everyone who opens the page.
• One inside the article, a few paragraphs down, where a reader who's engaged will pass it.
• One in the sidebar on desktop, which costs nothing on phones because it isn't rendered.

Adding a fourth and fifth rarely earns proportionally more and reliably makes people leave sooner, which costs you on every other metric. Start with three and only add one if the numbers over a full month say so.

What gets sites rejected

• Thin or copied content. Wire copy republished without your own reporting is the most common reason a local site is turned down.
• No contact page, no about page, no privacy policy. Reviewers check that a real organisation stands behind the site.
• Ads placed so they're likely to be tapped by accident — next to navigation, or where a page element shifts under a thumb.

ads.txt, in one paragraph

ads.txt is a file at the root of your domain listing who is allowed to sell your inventory. Without it, buyers can't tell your genuine ad slots from someone spoofing your domain, and your rates suffer. It's a formality, but it's a formality worth getting right — and it's one line for AdSense, plus whatever any other network asks you to add.