1. Received an email: Ensure your AdSense ads continue to serve to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK after January 16, 2024. See Figure 1.
2. How does this affect me? It appears you have not yet adopted a Google-certified CMP to solicit user consent, which means that after January 16, 2024, your website will stop showing AdSense ads and you will be unable to monetize traffic from the EEA and the UK.
3. What should I do next? Adopt a Google-certified CMP. In WordPress, install a plugin, search for: gdpr (EU and UK), and install the first plugin: Complianz – GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent. See Figure 2.
4. Then configure the Complianz plugin. Which privacy law or guideline do you want to use as the default for global visitors? GDPR (European Union). See Figure 3.
5. Ultimately, I decided against using this Complianz plugin. The reason is: Privacy Statement — Generate a comprehensive and legally validated privacy statement. This requires an upgrade, meaning it costs money. See Figure 4.
6. The cost for one website for a year is as high as $49. See Figure 5.
7. I selected the second plugin in the search results: CookieYes | GDPR Cookie Consent & Compliance Notice (CCPA Ready). Connect your website to CookieYes. Create a free account to connect to the CookieYes web app. Once connected, you can manage all settings and access advanced features from the web app. I chose not to connect for now. See Figure 6.
8. When selecting EU Countries & UK for the Geo-target Banner, an upgrade is required to unlock geolocation and other advanced features, and you need to connect to CookieYes. See Figure 7.
9. I ultimately decided to only enable the CookieYes plugin, leaving all configuration options at their defaults. The final result on the website pages is as follows, meeting expectations. See Figure 8.
10. Because it was not connected to CookieYes, the privacy prompt popped up for all regions when opening the website. I ultimately decided to disable this plugin.
11. I decided to use Google’s built-in messaging. Opening Google AdSense, a prompt appeared: Please create a GDPR user consent message before January 16, 2024. I selected: I want to use Google’s CMP to create a GDPR message in AdSense. See Figure 9.
12. It only takes a few steps to create a GDPR message. See Figure 10.
13. Select your website, choose the language, etc., and click Continue. See Figure 11.
14. Click Publish. See Figure 12.
15. Your message is one step away from being publishable. You need to add a logo to publish the message. You can upload a logo and link it to your website. When the website messages are displayed on your site, this logo will appear in them. See Figure 13.
17. You need to add a privacy policy URL to publish the GDPR message. Reference: Create a privacy policy page in a WordPress website. See Figure 14.
18. GDPR message published successfully. See Figure 15.
19. However, there was still a prompt: Please don’t forget to publish your GDPR message using a Google-certified CMP so that your website can continue to show AdSense ads in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK. If you do not publish the message before January 16, 2024, the system will publish one for you. There is no solution for now; I have to wait for the system to publish it automatically. See Figure 16.
