First time using AdSense, ads won't target.

[Shiznaught]

I'm using AdSense for the first time, and having put ads on my website very few of them actually target to my pages. Most of the ads served are public service ads. My site is fairly obscure, but I had hoped Google would be able to come up with something, anything for the ads.

Does this mean I should forget about AdSense, at least for this particular site? Why doesn't Google serve generic ads when it cannot target? Is there another service that would be more suitable to my website?

[maximillianos]

How long have you been running the ads? Sometimes it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for Google to crawl your pages and pick the right ads. Although sometimes they just don't have the ad inventory for your key words.

You can also try reviewing the design of your pages. For instance, are your pages mostly text or mostly images? Adsense works best with mostly text pages. Do you have a related/meaningful title to the page? Is your META page description and keywords setup revevant to your keyword(s)? This may all be used along with the text on the page to help Google figure out what the page is about.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[walrus]

It usually takes a few days to a week for the Adsense spiders to crawl your site.
You can check your logs to see if its been by and make sure your robot.txt file allows it to crawl the pages you use the ads on.

Theres lots to read in the faqs and tips in the Adsense pages and dont forget to read the TOS, very important.

Also browse past Adsense posts in this forum and you wil find lots of helpful information.

PS Welcome to WebmasterWorld

[Shiznaught]

Thanks Walrus.

My website is mostly text, and yes, I did just put them up. Only about 3 pages showed up ads. The thing is, my website is a parody/nonsense site, so I was hoping Google would serve some loosely related ads, as I have no other advertising on the site.

[AZEvil]

parody/nonsense site, so I was hoping Google would serve some loosely related ads

There may not be much ad inventory for anything that relates to your site. If Google only shows ads that are loosely related, it's probable that your CTR will be really bad and you won't make much money. It may be of value for you to find some affiliate programs that deal with humorous things that your users may find more valuable.

[Shiznaught]

Are there alternative affiliate programs that you might recommend?

[AZEvil]

See what competing sites are doing for revenue and trace back those programs. CJ is also a good place to start if you don't know anything about affiliate programs.

[Shiznaught]

I have no competing sites, my website is <snip> :). It gets 12k a month, so I wanna do something with it :).

[edited by: Jenstar at 1:11 am (utc) on Jan. 7, 2005]
[edit reason] No promotional URLs please, as per TOS [/edit]

[AZEvil]

ummm...you're not supposed to post URLs on here...

Anyway...You may never see any AdSense ads show up on your site because it's not really on topic for many (if any) ads. You probably want to look for an affiliate program with funny gifts or something like that to put on there...

[Shiznaught]

oh, no urls? sorry..

what about general type ads that do well overall, like mortgage/airlines/dating etc?

[valley]

I could be be wrong but I think it has to do with the words that are present on your website. Genitalia + related functions etc.
Give it a bit a longer, and of course you can also ask goggle support for the correct answer