Forum Moderators: martinibuster
When / How / Did you find the point when more ad optimization for the same site is pointless, and its time to move on and direct the majority of your effort into content or new projects?
In my first year with Adsense I tried every possible way I could think of to improve optimixe Adsense for my site. I even went so far as to completelyy redesign whole sections of the site to allow using ad formats that didn't fit on the original page layouts.
In that year I learned that the way I started out was best given the ad formats available then. The only positive change came from using a 250x300 vs a 468x60 adblock.
That single adblock out performed any other, or combinations of other adblocks. So I've stuck with it.
This year the only big change I've made on the largest section of my site was to add Adlinks to the pages. I use a 160x90 with colors that don't blend into the page. I did that in the spring of this year.
On smaller sections of the site I'm more likely to experiment from time to time, just to see if a change might help. So far, as a general rule, what I started with seems to work best in most cases.
In a couple instances I've made changes that worked out very well on a couple of pages where I moved the ad blocks to accomodate featuring an outbound link for sites I wanted to feature, but that may be another thread.
I don't think I'll stop trying different possibilties anytime soon, but I'm not making any big changes to Adblock choices or colors etc without real compelling success on a small sample of pages.
Nowadays I will still experiment as and when new features become available, but changes are watched very, very closely and dumped a lot quicker than I did in the past unless they show promise. I think I'm much more savvy when it comes to reading adsense statistics that I was.
All that is sidetracking from focusing on our sites, looking forward to hearing more experiences.
For me I have come to the conclusion that for all the tinkering you can do, only one thing matters in the end. Quality traffic.
Hmmm... you may not meant to have put it in such black and white terms, but that's a bit like saying the only thing that matters is putting petrol in the car - or 'gas' for those living in the Bushlands.
I would agree that getting quality traffic is very important, perhaps even the most important factor. But what you do with that traffic when it arrives is also important. Page layout, menu navigation, ad placement, etc. all need to be 'tuned' so the website runs most efficiently for you and the surfer.
Having been very scientific in our experimentation in early 2005, we don't make major changes now. But, in addition to adding quality content, we are constantly reviewing site performance. And that has paid off - eg: opting out of CPM Ads recently both increased our earnings per visitor and gave the visitors more relevant ads on most pages; making a small change to the layout on our main landing page reduced the number of very low EPC clicks and increased site stickiness dramatically.
So, to answer the original question, it took us about 4 months of intensive analysis to work out the best structure/layout for our site. Thereafter, we still monitor closely and make occasional, relatively small changes as we see fit.
Apologies, so you did.
When adsense came along in 2003, we decided to take another look at the potential of paying for the hosting using text ads. We added the large leaderboard to the top of the pages and it performed amazingly well, and didn't interfere with the content.
I did so much trial and error testing with Adsense during 2004, that I got really tired of testing. I didn't change the content of the sites, I was continually trying to find some place to put adsense into the site without it messing up the layout.
In 2005, I forced myself to learn css and includes to make testing easier. So I literally rebuilt all of our sites in css, and it's a good thing I did because adsense only displays one ad in the leaderboard now(which looks funky)
Once I changed it to the css 3 column, I stuck the skyscraper in the first column and that has seemed to work out better than the leaderboard. (I never have figured out how to use an ad block without it being tables, especially to align it right.)
So that's basicly it, After a year I got tired of testing and changing, and now since all the sites are rebuilt, I am only focusing on building. Did that answer the question? I didn't have to change my content for Adsense, I had to change the layout to accommodate their ad formats.
The point of diminishing returns happened only after they changed their ad pricing.
I just placed into my Little Book of Best WebmasterWorld Insights
Are you available to appear in one of our upcoming animated gifs...?
The important point is to keep the focus on why you started your site in the first place. If it is a quality site that is your passion, AS can sidetrack you. Sure the money is great, but you have to keep focused on your visitors as well as the financial aspect.
OCASO = Obsessive Compulsive AS Optimization
OCASO
Oh yes! Especially if it's a friend's site and they just don't seem to get why they should change it.
Actually there is a point of dimminishing returns it's best to give it a rest between optimizing.
But, It's a good idea to revisit it every so often. I have two sites and I was about ready to try Yahoo ads on the smaller one as it was doing poorly compared to the big one. But first I decided to take a new look at optimizing my AdSense ads. As a first step I changed the colors to make the background the same as the side column (dark with white lettering) I saw a nice jump with that but the BIG improvement in earnings was when I added link units in the upper left hand corner of the pages.
I'd tried link units early on and decided they wern't bringing in that much. Apparently they are paying out much better now. Proof that you need to revisit optimization of ads now and then.
Honestly dont think I can improve on that so Ill leave well alone.
The KEY is to find out how high you can take the CTR before your EPC starts to fall off.
