Google Adsense Setup & Optimization Tips

If you operate your own website or blog then you will have heard at some point about Google’s Adsense & the possibilities of monetizing your site.

But just by the remote possibility that some one has been living in a cave for the last 20 years, then before going into Google Adsense Setup & Optimization Tips, lets just have a brief explanation of what Adsense is all about!

What is Google’s Adsense

Adsense is what Google calls it’s “Contextual Advertising”, in basic terms this means that the adverts they show on your site, should match & blend very closely with the theme of your site eg if your site is about landscaping, then the adverts that are shown should, in some way, be related to landscaping & not “WordPress Themes” or “WordPress Plugins” ! Yes you may well chuckle, but I once had adverts shown on this blog for “Surrogate Motherhood”, what possible connection there was is totally beyond my comprehension, unless it was simply that I had wedding tackle tucked away in my shorts !!!

Ok I digress slightly so lets get back to business, setting up a Google Adsense account is no great drama, just fill out the standard type forms, submit them & then just wait, when I applied for my account it took 2 weeks to get a response, but this can vary hugely depending on how busy they are, dealing with such applications, so under no circumstances should you RESUBMIT & duplicate your application!

Read The Terms of Service

In order to give your application as good a chance as possible of being successful, there are a couple of things you can do;

1. It is imperative that you have a valid & up to date Privacy Policy that is clearly visible & accessible to your readers. If you do not have one then by all means you may copy ours, but remember to change the website & webmaster details. You can access our privacy policy from the menu bar under the header.

2. Fully acquaint yourself with Google’s Program Policy & Terms of Service, there are endless hordes of disgruntled webmasters, only to keen to give you a sad story of how Google banned their account for no reason at all, yet in many of these cases the accounts were banned for contravening Google’s terms. Some of these transgressions may include click fraud, copyright infringement, pornography & spamming, these are just four of the more serious ones mentioned in Google’s T.o.S so please read & make sure you understand, because once banned it is very unlikely you will get your account reinstated.

Typical Adsense Code

As we can see this is rather a chunky piece of code for any newcomer to try and insert into his / her site. However when working with the sidebar, you do not have the problem of trying to fit a block of code similar to that above, in amongst the rest of the code for that particular page. All that is required in the sidebar is to place a text /html widget where you want the Adsense to appear & then simply paste the Adsense code into the text widget. The only real considerations would be that the advert is going to fit the width of the sidebar eg you would not put a advert that is 160px wide into a sidebar that is only 140px wide! So make sure you have the right sized advert for the placement you have chosen. Placing the Adsense code anywhere else within your site can be greatly simplified by using the Random Rotating Ads plugin  for WordPress.

Optimizing Your Adsense

Placing the code on your pages is one thing, but getting the best CTR (click through rate) is an entirely different story. Your adverts need to be optimized for colour & placement, plus it is a good idea to use what Google calls it’s “Adsense Section Targeting” this is basically 2 lines of code that instruct the Adsense bot to focus on the text within those 2 lines of code. This helps to stop the Adsense bot from focusing on words in your navigation / menu bar & also your sidebars.

Placing Your Ads

The best placement for your ads can vary from site to site, but by using the colour map below you can target what Google terms the hotspots (coloured orange). Blogs vary considerably and therefore you should take Google’s advice on placement as a starting point only, because your own site layout may not be ideally suited to Google’s hot spots & it is quite possible that you find a much higher click through rate in a totally different location, so by all means experiment yourself, but remember to give each location you try about two weeks of testing before switching to another location.

Typical Hotspot Locations For Adsense 

Note: The stronger the colour above, then the better the placement of your Ads

Dealing With Colour

The final part of your Adsense optimization would be your choice of colour & on this subject there is a huge range of ideas & intense debate. Some will say you should blend the colours to match exactly with your site, this I feel is very often done to trick your readers into thinking they are clicking a link on your site as opposed to an advert, this is a dodgy area & could be frowned upon by Google.

Always try to view your page from the eyes of a visitor;

1. Do your adverts draw your attention or do you scan right over them..?

2. Do the colours used feel like someone is trying to pluck your eyeballs from their sockets..?

3. Do the colours used blend nicely with the rest of the page yet still draw your attention..?

Assuming you use a white background on your site, you should, irrespective of your choice of colour scheme;

1. Use strong primary colours for the headings / titles

2. Use dark grey or black for the text

3. Use pale pastel colours or white as the background

Following these 3 simple rules will give your adverts high contrast yet at the same time your readers will not be reaching for their sun glasses because your choice of colour is inflicting radiation burns on their eyeballs  . If you happen to be one of the unfortunate people that has no colour sense, then don’t worry, the easiest answer to this would be to use Google’s default settings or perhaps their “Open Air” colour scheme which uses fairly neutral colours and is therefore unlikely to offend your readers. 

Optimizing your Google Adsense is not an exact science & therefore there is never one simple solution to fit all circumstances, trial & error is what will, given time, produce the best results & enable you to earn the highest possible earnings for a given number of visitors. Although in the early days you may feel that Adsense just is not paying enough or producing sufficient click throughs, this can change dramatically as your visitors increase month by month and should you ever reach the point where you have 20,000+ visitors per month, then you will be very glad you have fully optimized your Google Adsense.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. Adsense Earnings Crippled By PC Optimization Software
2. Section Targeting Boosts Adsense Earnings
3. Add Google Custom Search To Your Blog
4. Google Search Optimization & Marketing
5. Auto Blogging – Google’s Next Target!

Posted by Steve (Admin) on Oct 30 2011. Filed under Adsense Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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