Optimising for adsense

who's change their content to get better ads

[DaveN]

Ok here's the deal I notice on one of our sites that has adsense running on it is been served differed ad's from the content, so we ran a test.

example data and domains

we registered three new domains and a_cars.com , b_cars.com c_cars.com

each are five paged websites liquid in design so the menus and footer follow through the the whole site

the content on each is exactly the same all about cars, all the internal links are graphics so the only thing that ad can read is the content.

site B we added 3 text links into the body text on the first page text links to a widget site using keywords as anchor text

site c we added 3 text links into the footer so they appeared on all the pages.

Results
site a ads all about cars though of whole site
site b ads first page ads about widgets the 4 other pages about cars
site c all widget ads.

Anybody else ran any other testing.

Dave

[Iguana]

Thanks for starting this discussion Dave - this will become one of the most important questions for this forum.

I've not done any testing but a bit of analysis of my current pages. My main pages for each type of widget are getting mostly public service ads but my 'widget keyword' pages are getting real targetted ads for the widget. I've been checking keyword density (not much influences but no conclusion yet).

However I shall check links out more closely. One really strange thing is when I look at my page from the Google cache then I get real ads (not for the widget but the more general area!).

[olias]

One really strange thing is when I look at my page from the Google cache then I get real ads

Interesting, hadn't thought of looking at the cache. It seems to me that the ads relate to whatever search terms you used. In fact, remove the search terms from the end of the url when you are viewing a cached page and you get the public service ads.

[DaveN]

You mean when you look at the google cache which if memory serves me right it with something like

This is Google's cache of [semconf.com...]

you mean that text link right at the top of the screen changes the contents of the adsense ad's displayed on your site ;)

Dave

[DaveN]

Try a page size test start a page with content about example only "CARS" say 150 words.

now backfill 300 more words with different content see what happens.

now top fill 75 different content words and see what happens.

Dave

[Iguana]

It appears to do that - the url is www.xxx.com/music/page1.htm and I get general music ads in the cache page.

[loanuniverse]

I also agree that the outgoing links and their "anchor text" is one of the most important things the mediapartners algo looks at in order to decide the ads to be shown.

I noticed that while the ads are targetted to the broad topic of my site, I only get highly targetted ads {subtopic related} when there is a lot of topic information that can overwhelm the links.

Unfortunately, in order for that to work, it would mean getting rid of my navigation bar links. Therefore, I would rather have the broad topic links and the ocassional subtopic links in the ads.

It might have to do with the amount of money paid for the link. I would suspect that the broad topic links pay more than subtopics and that might be a reason why they are showing. After all, why show a $0.05 ad, when you can show a $0.40 ad and still remain on topic.

Then again, I am probably wrong.

[DaveN]

it seems that the first 20 - 30 words are very important, by just placing a banner ad on a "car" site with keyword alt and title tags and linking to a keyworded domain it change the ad structure on that page.

Dave

[killroy]

That's one of the biggest flaws of the adwords system in my opinion and it really shows in adsense. It favours the advertisers and google rather then the visitor/searcher, which of course is short sighted, asd the final paying person is the visitor.

So if you have a hierarchy of pages like:

keyword1 links to "keyword1 keyword2" links to "keyword1 keyword2 keyword3"

now usually you'd have a big advertiser bidding $0.40 on keyword1, somebody else biddign $0.20 on "keyword1 keyword2" and somebody else bidding $0.05 on "keyword1 keyword2 keyword3"

Unfortunately adWords does not show the most relevant ad, but the highest bid.

so on the page for "keyword1 keyword2"

If will find available ads for $0.40 and $0.20 and will then choose the higher apoying ad, which is the less relavant. SImilatrly on the page about "keyword1 keyword2 keyword3" it will see ads for $0.40 $0.20 and $0.05 and will again choose the highest paying ad.

This seems ok, because google wants to make more money, but in the long run the ads are less targeted, CTR down, targeting down and ROI down...

I don't know how they can resolve this conundrum.

SN

[DaveN]

so what if keyword1 links to keyword2 links to keyword3

example again

pansonic links to dvd recorder links to DMR-HS2EBS and the pages are all adsense optimised

Page 1 would get the big boys selling anything from fridges to plasma TV's

Page 2 would get big and medium sized boy sell dvd's and recorders

page 3 would get the smarter investor

I agree that adwords is flawed but this flaw can be used to our advantage.

Dave.

[killroy]

Only if the most targeted is also the most expensive... otherwise the high bid wins.

Except if the pages i really light on keyword1 and REALLY heavy on keyword3.

So there is a threshold, I just think it's too far in favour of Google's pockets and too little in favour of visitor experience and ROI.

SN