Position of Banner Ad

[northweb]

It is true that google is targeting sites that have adsense above the fold. Is this Correct?

I run full page original content and run a adsense banner above the first fold. makes sense to me, basic advertising 101 layout.

Could I be risking a drop in serps because of position of the adsense banner?

thanks

[Lame_Wolf]

One block about the fold is okay. It is when people have 3 adsense (and possibly other adverisers as well) above the fold is when it is a problem, and rightly so.

[wa desert rat]

I have two banner ads... one in the header and one in the footer (it's a forum). I've seen far too many forums with ads everywhere... between the postings... in the private messages... even in the emails generated by the forum. All of that certainly annoyed me as a user and I don't want my users to feel that my site(s) are simply there to collect advertising clicks.

Google seems to think I could run more ads and every now and then sends me messages telling me how much more money I could make.

Right now I remain unconvinced. The most I could add easily would be a tower in one margin or the other, anyway.

WDR

[netmeg]

I have ads above the fold, but I also know people who lost rankings due to ads above the fold. It's a very fine line; you basically need to look like a quality site with a few ads rather than a bunch of ads with a little bit of site wrapped around them.

If you're not confident you know where the line is, then you might want to stay below the fold.

What AdSense tells you can be completely different than what the search quality folks tell you. They operate independently. Ultimately it's your site and your revenue, so you have to decide what your priorities are.

[tangor]

The page fold changes with device these days. I think it leans more to mobile/pad these days. Keep that in consideration regarding ad placement. So far we do not have a hard and fast rule as to what trips a downgrade but we do know that G has indicated there will be one. See other webmasterworld posts regarding that!

[Ironside]

I think one would probably get banned very quickly if e-mails appeared in private messages and e-mails, I'm sure that is definitely against the rules.

Ads placed above the fold are by far the best earners, followed closely by block ads placed at the very end of the content.

Having quality content is probably the most important thing if you want to be successful with AdSense. The way I think AdSense really works is it's not so much that ads on your sites are following the content of the actual website, it is more than likely that the ads are following the browsing history of the people who are visiting your website. So if you've got a bunch of people visiting your site, and most of the ads are following their browsing history them they are more likely going to click on them. This is exactly how it works for me. I like watchers and therefore visit lots of watch websites, nine times out of 10 the ads that show on sites using AdSense are watch related. Obviously I don't bother clicking on them, but people who are not really that familiar with AdSense or website development probably will.

[webcentric]

Ads placed above the fold are by far the best earners

While I generally agree with this statement, I have some below the fold placements that quite often run neck-and-neck with my best above-the-fold ad slots. How the ad fits into the layout of your page/content as you move down the page is a critical factor.

As for where Google draws the line, can't say but I start by asking myself if my above the fold layout is obnoxious to me because I'm highly sensitive to pages where I have to dig through a barrage of ads to find actual information. I hate having to design pages to accommodate ads because generally, I hate advertising (while accepting it as a necessary evil in my quest to earn a living). So, I may be more sensitive than Google where this subject is concerned. Perhaps that's a good quality to have, who knows?

[HowYesNo]

i had 2x300 above fold and i lost rankings, then i removed them and rankings were back, then i tested with 728 above fold and again within few days i lost rankings, so from there i only put ads in the middle or below content

[netmeg]

Well yea, I would expect an URL with (2) 300x250 above the fold to tank in the SERPs.

[DirtyHarry]

I have two 728x90 leaderboards above the fold and those two are my highest earning units. My global ranking has been up since the previous three months according to Alexa. It also has improved in the US also.

[Ironside]

As for where Google draws the line, can't say but I start by asking myself if my above the fold layout is obnoxious to me because I'm highly sensitive to pages where I have to dig through a barrage of ads to find actual information. I hate having to design pages to accommodate ads because generally, I hate advertising (while accepting it as a necessary evil in my quest to earn a living). So, I may be more sensitive than Google where this subject is concerned. Perhaps that's a good quality to have, who knows?

I couldn't agree more, websites that stuffed with ads just before the content do my head in. I think you've got to look at it two ways, you must have your ads placed where they are going to generate the most clicks. On the other hand, annoying your users will not do you any favours whatsoever. I used to put a 300 rectangle above the contents and just below the heading. However, it is ugly and there's no effective way to make it look pretty so I have limited these ad units to articles that are fairly short and cannot really hold my skyscraper, plus a side menu. But, these units are good earners so I would never say not to use them.

I'm intrigued what somebody said about rankings. Are you saying that Google favours websites that use AdSense in a good way? I know that my website ranks highly for many many keywords on my AdSense earnings have really increased in the last year. Mind you, that is the biggest advantage with having a very active forum, every time someone posts a new topic that is another bunch of interesting information on the website.

[avalon37]

There is no rule. Absolutely none. Recently I've added a second 728x90 above the fold - about a month now and my organic traffic has picked up significantly in the same time period. So that proves there are no hard and fast rules. Use common sense - that's the best advice for most things in life.