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Below, you'll find extensive information on leading
google adsense site articles and products to help you on your way
to success.
Google's Own Adsense Tips
By Richard Keir, Sat Dec 10th
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir Google is at least as interested as you are in having your adsperform well on your site. And they've gone to some work toprovide the information you need to optimize your AdSense. What's fascinating to me is that apparently not everyone bothersto read their tips. And even some that do, fail to apply it.
That said, you need to be aware that simply using their tipsdoesn't guarantee successful ads and decent CTR (Click ThroughRate). How many times have you heard this? You have to test. Youhave to try alternatives and see what really works best for you,on your pages, with your content and your visitors. Test, test,test some more. Track your results, analyze them, tryvariations. Too many of us don't test. We hear the mantra, butwe don't do the work. First, let's see if we can get an idea about location. (Thegraphic is included in the article on my site or you can take alook at it at the Google link included below) Generally, abovethe fold, at the top center of your content, below topnavigation is the hottest location. Not immediately below whichis good but not quite as hot. In a left sidebar, to theimmediate left of primary content or below the primary contentare also good. Most other locations are generally cooler. Again, you need to test and you need to consider your usersbehavior - and their behavior may vary on different pages withdifferent kinds of content. Google suggests that in some cases,such as articles, the best location can be at the end of thearticle. To quote Google, "It's almost as if users finishreading and ask themselves, What can I do next?" Well targetedrelevant ads right there can provide the answer. Don't blindly assume that sticking a nice big rectangle in thecenter above the fold will do it. It may, but depending on yourcontent, it may annoy or inconvenience your users. Users tend to focus on content, navigation and to a lesserextent graphics. Positioning your ads near these elements willoften work well -- if those ads are targeted to your visitorsneeds. The top three performers among the Google ad formats are the336X280 large rectangle, the 300X250 inline rectangle and the160X600 wide skyscraper. Google reports that the wider formatstend to do better than the taller ones. One reason may be thatthese are, perhaps, easier to read since they have fewer linebreaks and require less eye movement. But, you need to useformats that fit your pages well. Once again, you need to test,but redoing your pages to suit a particular ad format may not bea reasonable alternative
and you may discover that a differentformat actually gets better results. Now we come to color. Conventional wisdom says that colors whichtend to blend into your content do better. Some go so far as tosuggest that colors which make the ads look like part of thecontent are best. Personally, I think anybody really believesthose ads are anything but ads, but who knows. Google suggeststhat you may find that colors that standout from your content dobetter - or maybe the opposite. This is absolutely an area whereyou need to test alternative color schemes. Going with theconventional wisdom usually works fairly well, but withouttesting you could be leaving a lot of money on the table. Google allows you to have up to three ad units and one link uniton your pages. If you have long pages with lots of text, canonly use small ad units or are in a niche with a large adinventory, multiple units can pay off. Keep in mind that the wayad serving works is that the higher value ads are delivered tothe first ad unit block encountered in your code. Always makesure that this first ad unit is displayed in the best location(yeah - test). You want the higher paying ads to be in the primehot location on your page. Weaker locations can get the lowerpriced ads. And if none are available, then nothing will displayunless you've included an alternate ad URL in your Google code.To maximize monetization you should be including alternate adURLs, especially if you are putting multiple units on a page.The use of an alternate ad URL also eliminates the possibilityof being served PSAs (Public Service Announcements). It's yourreal estate, maximize your returns. Nothing here is secret. Except for using the alternate ad URL,all of this information is available from Google's OptimizationTips page -http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html . You can buy books and courses, visit a dozen forums and, inthe end it comes down to what your visitors do on your site. Thebest you can get is general guidance. This means averagedoutcomes over many sites, many types of content. If you areserious about doing whatever you can to really optimize yourAdSense returns, there is only one thing to do - test. Whetherit's AdSense, opt-ins, copy, headlines - anything with ameasurable outcome that you can track - then the way to improveis to test and keep on testing. About the author:Richard writes, teaches, trains and consults on business andprofessional presentations and eCommerce related matters. Formore information on eCommerce sites and eCommerce site buildingvisit http://www.building-ecommerce-websites.com - and you canfind more articles athttp://www.building-ecommerce-websites.com/articles.
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