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Can I use Google AdSense on password-protected areas?

I have lots of content behind a password screen for our customers and want to know if I can use Google AdSense to help make a few bucks off that traffic. My friends say "no", but I thought you might have a definitive answer for me?

Dave's Answer:

Today, the answer is indeed no. As Google says in the AdSense Terms of Service, explaining why you might not be getting ads on a protected page:

"Your web pages are behind a login: At this time, pages that require a login can not be easily visited by our crawlers. Additionally, since these types of pages are not easily visited for approval and it is difficult for our AdSense specialists to verify that pages behind a log in follow Google AdSense policies, we are unable to offer support for these pages."

However, as of early November, it's clear that the AdSense team is testing out just this capability, as this notice the AdSense team sent to a colleague explains:

"You are one of a select group of publishers that has been chosen to try out our new Site Authentication feature. Site Authentication allows publishers to give our crawler access to login-protected content so that users can receive targeted ads. While there is no obligation for you to try out this new feature, you may find it helpful if you have pages of your site protected behind a login screen.

"As an example, an online newspaper site may protect content behind a login for premium readers. Without Site Authentication, the publisher can't show readers targeted ads on those premium pages because our crawler has not been able to access the content. Using Site Authentication, the publisher can now specify details for our crawler to pass the login screen and reach the protected content, allowing AdSense to serve relevant ads to the readers."

As you can read, the program's called Site Authentication, or, perhaps, AdSense Site Authentication and it'll offer exactly what you -- and many other people -- seek in terms of additional functionality with AdSense. If you didn't receive this message and are part of the AdSense program, I'd shoot 'em an email asking if you can be part of the beta test. It can't hurt!

And if you haven't yet signed up for AdSense, I encourage you to start here: Get started with Google AdSense.

Good luck! Come back in a few months and let us know how it's working out, please.

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Categorized: Pay Per Click (PPC) (Article 6971)
Tagged: google adsense, htpasswd, password protected web pages, ppc
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Comments

As blogging software continues to integrate better with forums, I think membership or subscriber only content will become much more common.

Posted by: Andy Beard at November 2, 2006 11:43 PM

If that is true, how can www.linkedin.com have google ads in the password protected areas?

Posted by: Andrej at February 20, 2007 2:43 PM

hello
i couldn'nt use my gmail account in google agsense,so which adress should i use there ??

maya

Posted by: takmaya at February 25, 2007 7:28 AM

Andrej, I'd guess that's because big advertisers get special dispensation from Google to break the regular rules. I'm sure if you had > 10mil ad impressions you could get some waivers from 'em for your site too. :-)

Posted by: Dave Taylor at February 27, 2007 11:54 AM

Hey can u tell that how to hack the pcsecurity????

Posted by: Ady at May 13, 2007 7:04 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!