Comment on SEO AdSense WordPress Theme by SEO Dave.

AdSense Publisher ID Although there’s copy protection in the Stallion theme it should have an impact on editing the sorts of template files your average WordPress ‘tinkerer’ (couldn’t think of a better word :-)) might want to tinker with.

index.php, single.php, header.php, functions.php etc… can all be edited with no impact on the protection. If you do want to add something to the functions.php file I’ve added a file zz_extra_functions.php which I use for testing new code before committing it to the theme. Left it in place so others can use it to add new code you might be advised to add to your functions.php file (makes it easier to upgrade).

Anyway, the setup you want wouldn’t be possible with the current Stallion theme without editing files.

If you want this just on the blog posts and pages (not that it could work on archives) and you are happy with two of the ad blocks have the same code might be a quick hack.

In single.php find the line including: st_adsense_lnk6_sing this is part of the AdSense link ad at the bottom of the main content.

If you replace with with a copy of a AdSense content ad it should work, will take on the sizes of that ad block. Actually you might be able to replace it with the sidebar ad unit. So put that on hold a second :-)

Find $AdSense6 in single.php and replace with $AdSense2

That should take on the settings for the Sidebar Content Ad Unit (will be a content ad unit rather than a link ad unit), so you can set the size via the AdSense Options page via the sidebar Ad Unit options.

If you don’t want the ad centered there’s a class “adscenter” associated with the div that holds that ad unit, if you look through the style.css you’ll find other alignments for ads etc… (left, right, floats etc…) or you could add some inline css to have it do whatever you want.

If you want this on pages as well edit pages.php. Doing it this way would also keep the current link ad unit on archive pages, you could change them as well via their template pages.

Regarding ad placement the majority of clicks are above the fold, so I think you’ll find these changes will have little impact either way. Though will depend a lot on the site, if you have content people tend to read to the bottom rather than the usual scan through, might get more clicks.

I find with AdSense the best placement is the tall sidebar ad unit on the left menu at the top and the floating ad unit floated to the right (Stallion default setup). Or the sidebar ad on the right sidebar and the main ad unit floated to the left. I’ve found the first setup tends to work best.

Have you played around with the new widget areas, you can add the sidebar ad units in more areas than the two sidebars.

There’s a widget area where the search form is on the header (turn the search form off first, via the options pages) a 469px wide ad unit fits here. A widget above the rotating banners, a 468px ad unit can be placed here and another widget areas within the main content (same place as where the floating ad goes) and several options related to the new footer widgets. The sidebar ads can be added to any widget area. There’s also the ad area below the header which is good for the wide 728px ad units, you use the movable ad unit for that area.

I’ve not had time to write anything about advanced use of Stallion, I’ve not had time to experiment fully with ad placements myself yet!

Next feature update plan to use the WP Expander plugin to delay the AdSense ad units as well, reduce ad blindness (not had time to test it yet) and to see if I can give the option to switch a link ad unit to a content ad unit via the options page which would give you what you want.

David