Is the heatmap accurate for you?

Home vs. internal pages & the heatmap

[farmboy]

I have always had the assumption that Google's heatmap was assembled as a result of all the millions of pages that display AdSense ads.

Last night I was looking at some of my data and noticed something about one of my sites. I then looked at other of my sites and found the same thing.

The heatmap seems to be accurate for the home page on any of my sites. But once you get to the internal pages of the site, results don't seem to follow the heatmap so much. Placement of content seems to be the determining factor - in some cases a significant difference.


FarmBoy

[Lame_Wolf]

Sorry Farmboy, I do not go with the heatmap. I decide where I want them and it hasn't done me any harm.

[ascensions]

Assuming we're going to continue to be cryptic.... I'll assume you're meaning either to the right of the content, or to the bottom of your content, since it's the opposite of the heat-map?

I've always ran float left, up till Panda. Panda seems to adore double column, ad-right, web formats- and the "best practices" guide was updated to reflect this, yet in every attempt I've made to adhere to their "new" expectations, I see less money.

So I don't know, perhaps you see something different, you'd like to share?

I'd much rather prefer right-aligned ads separated from content, but it appears as though "content centred" websites, are counter-intuitive of the adsense financial model but hearted by the Panda.

[Atomic]

I'd much rather prefer right-aligned ads separated from content, but it appears as though "content centred" websites, are counter-intuitive of the adsense financial model but hearted by the Panda.

This has worked very, very well for me. CTR suffered but eCPM, unique visits, return visits, time on site and bounce rate improved so much that earnings have climbed steadily since trying it.

[netmeg]

The heat map is a tad too aggressive for me. I use it as a general guideline, but only on some pages, and only where it makes sense.

[koan]

but it appears as though "content centred" websites, are counter-intuitive of the adsense financial model but hearted by the Panda.

The whole point of the heat map is to put ads on people's face so they can't ignore them and entice more clicks. Ads placed where people expect menus or content will be seen. So of course it runs counter to good user experience. A good web site need to find their own balance between user experience and marketing.

[explorador]

It was mentioner a long time ago that the more you push the ads to heat areas, the more your visitors will go away. There is a tendency of ADS = exit points.

I tried some configs with my webs but on some I just kept a non aggressive layout because my content was the thing I wanted to share the most, in fact that's what keeps my webs alive, ads being the second.

[ascensions]

@Atomic, did you have a time frame for the amount of time between CTR dropping and eCPM increasing?

A & B testing has proved to show no advantage in the short term (30 days or less) though I have done longer testing and I can't produce any results.

Which really confused me when they came out with the new "best practices". Why come out with it, if you don't program it into the algo?