Well, so much for that … I thought I might have had a few plugins lying around gathering dust but I was surprised to see that as I checked them over and deactivated and then deleted some unused ones, the total eventually reached 15!
A clear out was definitely called for. I checked pages on my site each time I made changes and nothing has affected the situation. Ads are still not showing.
Sorry Andrew, only just saw your message – what issue is that? If you mean the ad in the sidebar widget it’s on virtually every page (or should be!).
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
The issue that your adverts aren’t displaying due to the new WordPress update.
I don’t really understand your point. The ads aren’t displaying on any page (apart from a link unit at the top of each page), and it coincided with the WordPress update.
That’s all I can tell you.
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
I believe you, but to debug the issue we’ll need to see a link to a working (or broken) example of it.
In case you mean you haven’t seen a link to the site, it’s real-memory-improvement.com
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
There seems to be a coming soon page on that site
It’s showing up fine here. Can’t understand that. I logged out and back in in case it was stuck, showing pages in the cache (if that’s using the term correctly). It’s still showing up okay.
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
Sorry I couldn’t find the underlying issue (but that may just be me).
Were you able to see any of the pages at least?
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
Yes I saw the first one on the list. I also found this topic by Google about people who experience the same symptom as your problem: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1208336?hl=en-GB
I took a look at that page Andrew, and I thought I’d better check I had the code exactly right (although it wouldn’t make much sense to me that it had worked for a long time and then suddenly messed up for no apparent reason).
So I copied the code afresh, and then put it in the first of the possible spots in the Adsense Insertion slots. Then I used the shortcode on a page, and the ad appeared 🙂 It wasn’t in exactly the right place, of course, so I enclosed it in a left-aligned div and it looked fine.
So I thought, okay, this is going to be a lot of work but it can be done, I’ll have to replace all the ad code with shortcodes, page by page.
But then I tried it with another ad further down the page and it wouldn’t show. I’ve tried it on a few pages and it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Seems pretty random.
I’m not going to struggle through rejigging 200+ pages when it’s obvious that lots of the ads just won’t work. I need to find what the hell is causing the problem, otherwise I’m just grasping in the dark.
Also I tried the code (fresh from the Adsense site) in a slot for the sidebar, and tried using the shortcode. Nothing. Just doesn’t work.
I’m making very little from my ads anyway so I’m not tearing my hair out over losing money, but I do need to find the cause of this. And it HAS to be connected with WordPress’s new version. Maybe I’ll try posting a fresh question and see if anyone else is having this problem, or has solved it?
By the way, one of the pages I tried with the shortcodes was the homepage, in case you want to take a look at it (http://www.real-memory-improvement.com/).
Moderator
James Huff
(@macmanx)
Volunteer Moderator
I still stand by the best way forward being to upgrade to 4.2.3 again, so you are not vulnerable to a publicly known security vulnerability, then wait for the plugin’s developer to reply at https://wordpress.org/support/topic/my-ads-disappeared-and-i-dont-know-the-cause-this-plugin
Alternatively, upgrade to 4.2.3 again, so you are not vulnerable to a publicly known security vulnerability, then try a plugin that might work better, like https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-publisher/ (the official Adsense plugin from Google).
—-
Basically, the person who can fix the plugin for you is the plugin’s developer. After all, they claim it works in 4.2.3, so they must know something about it, I hope.
The important thing is that it looks like you’re back on 4.2.3, so your site is safe. The lost revenue from not running ads for a few days is figuratively pennies compared to losing an entire site due to a publicly known security vulnerability.
