Forum Moderators: martinibuster
With this in mind, I thought it would be nice to have one thread that puts all the best tips and advice together from old and new members - for the benefit of old and new members.
It's also my hope that we can put together a high impact thread worthy of being bookmarked and referred to, as well as to take the wind out of the sales (pun intended) of those who sell $75 overpriced Adsense eBooks that never deliver on what they promise. [And at the same time, hope those same opportunists don't violate the copyright on this thread and produce another eBook based on this information]. :-)
To start, here's 3 of my best AdSense tips.
1. Google's Heat Map really does work and deserves the full attention of those who've ignored it. It's really helped me improve my CTR. [google.com...]
2. When it comes to content, take the time write the best article you can. Don't write a bunch of rehashed garbage that's already been copied 100x before by lazier webmasters then you. Write something fresh and recent with new sources. Also, don't make the article short just because you don't like to write. Write until you've exhausted the subject. This will help you avoid duplicate content penalities, increase the stickyness to your site, and put out more 3,4,5, etc. keyword combinations that you can pick up traffic on.
3. Clear off the clutter, eye candy, bells and whistles and unnecessary links from each page. You want visitor's eyeballs to focus on 2 things: Your Content and Your Ads. Trimming the fat also reduces the low value places for visitors to go. You want them to either continue surfing your site or to exit through an ad. I've reduced the clutter and low value links off many of my pages which really helped my CTR and proved to be worth the time it took.
One Final Note: I think it's okay for members to repeat tips as it validates the importance of such tips and shows some priority as to what publishers can focus on.
Thanks,
Freedom
2. I second (or may be third) TJ's advice about pulling the highest paying ads on the location with the best CTR.
See this case study --
You have a vertical ad block in the left column under the nav menu, then an ad block in the center of the screen above the fold (below your headline). Now the left column block pulls the best ads whereas the center block gets the best CTR. So you lose a big opportunity, eh?
3. In my experience, wider ad blocks generally get better CTR but get more in the way. Vertical ads gets lower CTR but can be more off-the-way and low profile. So you can choose how aggresive you want to be with the ads on your content sites.
Of course, a lot depends on the site design.
If you have access to a dynamic script such as PHP, ASP or CGI and have access to the referrers before the page is built, you can GREATLY increase both the click throughs, targetting and the smart pricing value of your ads.
Here's how:
1) Find any referrer that is coming from a search engine (look at the referrer string to determine this).
2) Prune the search term that is a part of the querystring of the referrer.
3) Use this information to enhance your page's targetting on the fly.
Here's an example:
Automatically isplay to the visitor in BIG BOLD HR tags, right near the html where the adsense ads are stored: "You searched for widgets. Widgets are highlighted on the page below. For more information on Widgets please read on..." or something similar. Just get the search term in 3 times (in a non-spammy way).
There are other things you can do with this as well - i.e. only display google ads to Search Engine visitors to raise the ads ROI (and consequentally, smart pricing on your ads).
You may have noticed that Webmasterworld does something similar: they highlight search terms used when traffic comes from Google, which also happens to be very useful to search engine traffic.
The concept is simple - it's pull advertising, rather than push advertising. That particular visitor is actively looking for something, not just seeing a related ad on a page they happen to be visiting. It's the same reason why most Adwords users prefer to get search traffic, rather than content traffic.
My 3 tips:
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a) Develop good useful content. Impartial content works really well. Allow user reviews and submissions of information, a lot of people are glad to write a few paragraphs to get their views/tips/anything across, and it provides you with rich, honest, unique content a lot of the time. A tip: Keep it as raw as possible, don't correct punctuation or grammar errors except for maybe spelling (This makes the review look impartial instead of just written by the webmaster) Although sometimes picking up one those spelling error keywords is nice..
b) Read the heat diagram from Google. It's reliable.
Read up on Fittz design laws, user interface articles etc, even stuff on program design can help you design the optimal adsense positioning, as well as making your site as well organised for visitors, and search spiders.
c) Blend your adsense in with the page, and don't include it on irrelevant pages.
if you have a very productive website ( IE: making real amounts of money ) do the following
incorporate your website
change all contact information with your registrar and do not forget to mark it private.
have everything go to a post office box.
your revenuue websites should not be hosted at the same location where you have personal web sites ( ip back tracing to you )
You ask WHY?
real simple, everyone that has a successful web site is being copied, and they are using every trick to steal whatever revenue you might be getting.
I myself have a decent revenue website and I am sure that it's not traceable to most of any of my forum names unless you are willing to review corporate filing ( not even in my state ) and a few other things.
Also, DO NOT BE AFRAID to file complaints against content theft. I do it almost weekly and I have no problems to report it to Google and the others. Kill off those content copiers. I pay a lot for my content and I make sure that others don't have the rights's to it.
Filing the complaint with proper documentation ( copyright claim, author, date of content purchase ...) will also have the effect of killing the copiers advertising account and blacklisting them across multiple search engines.
You must protect your revenue stream at almost all cost. ( that's why you use a PO BOX to protect your physical home from someone knocking at your door ).
well best if luck too all, and this thread is a great one
MojoMike
After,I have average $0.5/click for 234X60 every page
and eCPM average $55-$100
Some time I have $2 at 2 impression 100% CTR
1) Find any referrer that is coming from a search engine (look at the referrer string to determine this).
2) Prune the search term that is a part of the querystring of the referrer.
3) Use this information to enhance your page's targetting on the fly.Here's an example:
Automatically isplay to the visitor in BIG BOLD HR tags, right near the html where the adsense ads are stored: "You searched for widgets. Widgets are highlighted on the page below. For more information on Widgets please read on..." or something similar. Just get the search term in 3 times (in a non-spammy way).
I'm not quite sure I understand how this achieves the desired results. Is it to draw the visitor's attention to the ads location or is it to get Google to display more relevant ads?
If it is the latter, I don't think Google will see the text since when the bot visits it will not see the searched terms the visitor used.
And, why repeat the keywords three times?
Can you explain your logic?
I'm not quite sure I understand how this achieves the desired results. Is it to draw the visitor's attention to the ads location or is it to get Google to display more relevant ads?If it is the latter, I don't think Google will see the text since when the bot visits it will not see the searched terms the visitor used.
And, why repeat the keywords three times?
Can you explain your logic?
It can be used in lots of ways. If you're concerned with caching you can have the page automatically redirect itself to the same page, but with the search terms appended to itself. (i.e. www.mysite.com/widgets.asp?search=blue+widgets). In that case, the adbot would perceive the url as new and display new ads for it (and all subsequent visitors for that search term).
As for repeating the keyword three times in close proximity to the ads, that's just to make sure it's more prominent than any other word in close proximity, while not being overly spammy. Three is an arbitrary number, but also seems the best compromise.
It won't effect your visitors' noticing of the ads directly (but it will improve their relevance, which will help).
2. consider <sniP>. we have had a 100% rev increase over adsense after trying sdsense for over a year. ad context is user-based not text-based.
3. Don't integrate your ads too deeply. I found people respond better knowing for sure it's a text ad then making them too much like your content.
4. consider using image ads they are often CPM not CPC which is nice ;>
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 8:11 pm (utc) on July 25, 2005]
[edit reason] please reread tos on link dropping. [/edit]
Turn low-paying keywords into higher-paying keywords by replacing ads with copy that routes the user elsewhere. An example:
/widget.html displays ads that are paying about .03/click, because it's a really broad term that advertisers don't want to pay much for. However, /widget-repair.html displays ads that are paying about .75/click, because advertisers have found that people who actually click on an ad for repairing widgets are likely to turn into significant paying jobs.
So, take the AdSense off of /widget.html. Instead, design your own "advertising" whose goal is to route the visitor to /widget-repair.html. Links like "Wondering how you would ever get your new widget fixed?" "Learn how much it might cost if your widget breaks." etc.
The attractiveness of this technique depends largely on the ratio between low-paying and high-paying clicks. If the ratio is big, you have little to lose by foregoing ads in favor of trying to route the user to a higher-paying page. Of course, as usual, your ability to write copy that serves the advertiser well and other factors can greatly influence the results.
The more general rule here is to be aware of the likely payout for each page of content you create, and look for opportunities to feed traffic from lower-paying pages to higher-paying pages. If you do this from the viewpoint of getting truly qualified prospects to the high-paying advertisers (as opposed to just looking at the payouts of each page), your results will be better and longer lasting.
It's mostly in the paying attention to the small details that makes the difference, as long as you have enough traffic.
Another point I want to make here is that you don't have to compromise your site design to make decent money with Adsense.
I wouldn't hold my site up as any kind of model of good web design, and I'm pretty sure I could pump up my Adsense numbers by placing the ads in "hotter" spots on the pages.
But I like my current page layout, I spent a long time getting it to where it is (before I joined Adsense) and I don't want to mess with the basic layout too much.
Fortunately I apparently don't have to in order to make Adsense work well for me.
For those of you who can't wait. Here's a few SEO little tips you might find useful.
1. <h1> tags once, <h2> tags twice, <h3> tags twice - yes, you can sytle them in CSS and still be effective/recognised.
2. Alt tags on images - change and adapt for different pages, particularly if it's the same banner/logo on all your multiple pages.
3. Page titles/(meta tags - still does good in Yahoo and other searches. Life isn't all about Google!) - as point 2. - change and adapt for different pages where necessary.
4. Content/copy - use keywords in page titles/meta tags/<h1> - and the main body of the page - particularly near the top.
Adsense placement? Horizintal Adlinks at the foot of the page right after the last line of text seem to be doing quite well for me :)
Oddly enough, it never occured to me to advertise my own higher EPC pages on my own site...
Time to get crazy with channels.
Thanks ronburk!
Freq---
Eg. on a site about "apple the fruit" you would want to filter out the advertisers for "apple the computer" so that they don't show. You simply get higher relevancy in the ads displayed because you know your topic better than the AdSense algo.
(Caveat: For some sites, the ads with the wrong meaning will add to the eCPM, not subtract from it, so be careful and never just block ads like that.)
- which leads me directly to tip two:
(2) Whatever you can do to get those ads more aligned with the true topic of your individual pages, do it. It will most likely improve your clickrate and eCPM. The way to do it is classic on-page optimization; make the topic of the page stand out clearly (there's no need to keyword-spam at all btw.)
(3) Don't think too much about AdSense. Don't spend too much time on it. Implement some changes now and then, then relax and forget about it for a while - follow up on changes a few weeks or a month later. Don't spend your time constantly tweaking and changing stuff, that will get you nowhere. If you absolutely need to do something, spend your time adding content or updating your existing content in stead.
Yes you can. It's called Adsense For Search.
