Set Up Google’s WordPress Plugin Site Kit

Google AdSense Notifications suggested I try out Google’s new official WordPress plugin: Site Kit.

I already have AdSense working fine on all of my sites. But I decided to try Site Kit on one.

When you set up AdSense Site Kit, be sure you finish following all of the steps. You get Congratulations! messages for finishing steps along the way, but you are not really completely done. If you want ads to show so that you can earn money, you have to completely set up and connect AdSense once you have Site Kit successfully installed.

There was a link on the page that the email sent me to, but I went to the WordPress Dashboard Plugins page. It’s always easiest to install Plugins here.

I went to the Dashboard Plugins page, clicked Add New and Searched Site Kit. It was the first on the list and very obviously Google. I clicked Install Now, then Activate.

Start Setup brings you to Google.

It offered the option to “Help us improve Site Kit by sharing anonymous usage data. All collected data is treated in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy.” I checked the box. Why not? Then I clicked Start Setup.

The first step is verifying that I own the site. I clicked Sign in with Google, then selected the Google account I use for AdSense.

The next page allows you to select what AdSense has access to. The first three are not optional. AdSense will see them, no choice.

• Associate you with your personal info on Google
• See your personal info, including any personal info you’ve made publicly available
• See your primary Google Account email address

The next two are choices.

• View and manage Search Console data for your verified sites.
• Manage the list of sites and domains you control.

Both have links to Learn more. Both links go to the page where you typically “Manage your info, privacy, and security to make Google work better for you.” It is the normal Google Account Home page where you can manage your data, privacy and security.

I checked both boxes. They are more benefit to me than they are to Google.

You can read how Google helps you share data safely and Site Kit’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service before you click continue if you want. It is not the AdSense terms, it is Google relationship terms. It is a lot of information. And I actually reviewed it all this morning. A lot of it is about intellectual property rights.

I clicked Continue.

And I got “The state parameter is invalid or expired. This may happen for security reasons because you have taken longer than 10 minutes in the Site Kit setup process.”

It takes more than 10 minutes to read the Google Terms of Service.

I tried hitting the back button, refreshing and then clicking Continue again. It didn’t work. It brought me to the same error message.

So I clicked the back button until I got back to my WordPress Dashboard.

Site Kit by Google is in the Installed Plugins list. I clicked View details and selected the Installation tab.

Installation from within WordPress

• Connect Site Kit to your Google account.

I think this is where I am stuck.

The FAQ tab didn’t seem to be any help either.

Then I refreshed the page and Site Kit showed up as a link in the Dashboard side navigation.

I clicked Site Kit in the Dashboard side navigation and it let me continue the setup.

The Sign In With Google button brought me back to the page with the three steps. I clicked Proceed and finished the verification without dawdling so it would not time out.

Then I clicked Allow to let Google show information on the WordPress Dashboard.

The last button Add Site, gives permission for this site to show on the Search Console. (It already did, but Site Kit does it again.)

Done! All set up. Go to my Dashboard brings you back to the WordPress Dashboard.

Back on the WordPress Dashboard I can see that it is not really finished. Site Kit has connected the Search Console and PageSpeed Insights, but AdSense and Analytics are not connected.

I clicked Connect Service for AdSense. That is the whole point of this.

Every time you click anything on Site Kit you go to this screen and log in again.

I already have AdSense on this site. Site Kit can see it.

Looks like you’re already using AdSense

Site Kit will place AdSense code on your site to connect your site to AdSense and help you get the most out of ads. This means Google will automatically place ads for you in all the best places.

Let Site Kit place AdSense code on your site to get your site approved Recommended

You’ve already got an AdSense code on your site for this account, we recommend you use Site Kit to place code to get the most out of AdSense.

The slider for Let Site Kit place AdSense code on your site to get your site approved was already selected. I clicked Continue.

It did some testing to make sure this site is ready for AdSense.

Let’s get your site ready for ads

In order for your site to display ads, make sure you’ve completed these steps in AdSense

1. Enabled auto ads for your site
2. Verified that your site is marked as “Ready”

I clicked Continue again.

So now the WordPress Site Kit Dashboard shows that AdSense is connected. The last step is connecting Analytics.

So I clicked Connect Service for Analytics.

Connect Service for Analytics requires permissions again, so I clicked through all of that.

And now all of the dots are green and checked. Google’s WordPress Plugin Site Kit is completely set up.

I already had AdSense on this site. I went to Add Code to Head (under Settings in the WordPress Dashboard) and removed the adsbygoogle code. I left the Amazon snippet and the eBay snippet. Then I clicked Save Changes.

This is the site I made the changes to; Ireland: A Different Visit

Everything is working as it should. Ads are showing, for what it’s worth. This isn’t a site that ever makes a lot of money from AdSense. (But considering it has been up for years and always earns more than it costs… no complaints.)