How to Increase Your Google Adsense CTR

Many people think that they just have to copy and paste Google Adsense code into their website and start earning a huge amount of money from it. What a huge mistake! I also thought the same way two years ago. Later I realized that without optimization, that's impossible. Here I will share all of the tricks to increase my Google Adsense CTR that I found within the last two years.
Here are some tips to increase your Google Adsense CTR:

1. Make sure the ads that are appearing on your site are closely related with your content. This is the first thing you have to do because if your ads are not relevant, there's small possibility that people will click on them. Then, what should you do to tackle this problem? Here are the tips:
   
   • Create a keyword rich content. I suggest you creating one topic a page.
     
   • Check your keyword rich content and then mark some of your keywords as bold or italic. But don't do it too much, just do it 1 – 2 times per page. Otherwise, Google assumes you are doing spamming.
     
   • Use your keyword in your page title. For example: <TITLE>How to bake delicious bread</TITLE>
     
   • Use HTML Tag <H1> as your content title, and put your keyword in it. Don't forget to place this tag at the beginning of your content.
     
   • If all those tips still do not work, there is just one possibility: there are no ads that matched with your keyword! You can check this out by using this marvelous tool from the Digital Point Website. It is called the Google Adsense Sandbox, and located in http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/Adsense-sandbox/
     You'll be asked to enter your selected keyword and it will display every Adsense ads that's connected with that keyword. What if your suspicion is correct? Change your keyword! Do not worry; sometimes you just have to change one or two words.
2. Use wide ads (336x280, 300x250 or 250x250). Because these are the best performing ads.
   
3. Blend your ads with your website themes. For example, if your background color is white, change your ads border and background color to white as well. If your background color is dark (black), use bright color such as yellow as link color. This will decrease user ad-blindness.
   
4. Place your Google Adsense in these positions:
   
   • Above the fold
     Above the fold is the top position of your page that's visible without your visitor having to scroll down. This is the best location that works for me. I place 336x280 ad unit in this location and it works very well. Why? Okay, back to our example. Your article is about “how to bake delicious bread”. Someone finds it from search engine; when he opens it, he first sees ads about "baking school", "baking book" or "bread recipes". Who won't be interested?
     
   • In the middle of an article.
     This works well if your article is long (more than 500 words). People tend to stop for a while and look for something different while they read. I suggest using rectangular ads (125x125, 180x150, 300x250, 336x280, 250x250 ad unit) for this purpose and make it left justified. I usually put my Google Adsense code inside this code:
     <div style='float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 5px;'>
         <!—PLACE YOUR GOOGLE ADSENSE CODE HERE!-->
     </div>
     This code will nicely blend your Google Adsense ads with your content.
     
   • At the end of an article.
     Many people reported that placing Google Adsense ads at the end of their article tends to work very well. This is because when people finish reading an interesting article, they usually think "okay, what's next?" That's your chance! By placing Google Adsense ads at the end of this article, people will spend a minute to read it and then (maybe) click it. For example, you write an article about “how to bake delicious bread”. And at the end of it, there are some ads about "bread recipes". Who won't be interested?
5. Regarding the fourth tip, I don't recommend you placing three ad units in a single page. From my experience, the number of ad unit you place in a single page doesn't affect your CTR. In fact, I even found that placing three text ads in a single page make my ads "unblended". For example, I put 160x600, 468x60 and 336x280 ads on a single page. You know what? My 468x60 ads only showed 3 ads in it, whereas my 336x280 ads only showed 2 ads in it! My suggestion is: use 1 – 2 ad unit and a single link unit on your page (Google allows 3 ad unit and 1 link unit to be placed on a single page).
   
6. Always use Link Unit! Many people never realize that Link Unit is the most profitable format if put in the right place. Try to place it near your navigation menu. People will misidentify it as a navigation menu and automatically read it. If your ads are closely relevant to your content, there's big possibility they will click it. I move the top navigation in one of my websites to the bottom section and replace it with 728x15 Link Unit Ads. You know what? My Google Adsense CTR increased by 200%!
7. Place an image near your ads because user tends to look at this section.
8. Use channels to track your ads performance.
9. Include Google Search Box in your website. Though it will not drastically increase your CTR, it's still worth to be used. Around 3% of my monthly income comes from Google Search Box. What I love about this facility is that it shortens my development process. I don't have to develop my own search facility and let Google handles it!
10. Do not click your own ads, or ask people to click it. Believe me, Google will be able to detect those illegal clicks and they will ban your Adsense account if you do it. In fact, I even suggest you emailing Google if you find that your CTR is "abnormal" (above 20%). Ask them to investigate it, in case one of your competitors tries to ruin your reputation.
11. Increase your traffic. There are many ways to increase your traffic; firstly you have to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization), then submitting your website to several search engines, directories, free articles directories, doing link baiting, and many more. I will discuss all these techniques in another article.
12. Many people suggest targeting high paying keywords. But I won't recommend the same thing because I'm sure you will face bloody competition to reach the top position in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages). Believe me, there are thousands of people who also think like you do. I would prefer to use popular keywords that many people search in Google and there are not many competitors (let's say, 200 – 400 searches a day with total competitors below 500,000). These maybe are not high paying keywords (they usually only pay $0.1 - $1/click); but imagine if you can get 1000 page views/day with 3% CTR, you already get $3 - $30/day! (for a new publisher, this is a very good start).
13. Being specific. If you have many interests, do not put them into a single website. You better create several websites for each of them. For example, you like baking cake, cooking and gardening. Do not put them together into a single website because it will make it too general. You better create three different websites for each of them. This will make them more specific, has more targeted visitors and your keywords will not be diluted.
14. Learn what "masters" say. You will find many valuable tips by joining Google Adsense forum such as http://forums.digitalpoint.com.
15. Be patient. If you are a new Google Adsense publisher, please remember one thing: BE PATIENT. You won't become a millionaire within a night. Everything takes time (unless you already have huge amount of traffic).

9 Myths and Facts about Google Adsense

1. Myth: Since wide ads (336x280, 300x250 and 250x250) are effective in many websites, it must also be doing the same thing in my website. Fact: Not really. Every website has its own characteristics; you cannot just follow what people said and then hope that your CTR will drastically increase. Try to do your own experiments with various ads and placements. Perhaps ads unit that are not effective in another website are your most profitable ads.
2. Myth: It's profitable to develop website that's targeting high paying keywords. Fact: Perhaps, if you really are a Search Engine Optimization expert. It is correct that when these high paying keywords are clicked, you will get a huge amount of money. But do you realize how many people out there who also think the same thing? I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands; and you will face bloody competition to reach the top position in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages). Without top position in SERPS, there will be no visitor; without visitor, there will be no one who clicks on your ads. I have another suggestion for this approach, read it in How to Increase Your Google Adsense CTR.
3. Myth: High Traffic + High CTR = High Income. Fact: It is a perfect equation if only there is no smart pricing. High income depends of several factors, such as smart pricing and what type of website you run. Some types of websites (such as forum) have high traffic but they do not generate many incomes from Google Adsense. Smart pricing also affects it. I have seen many websites with high traffic, high CTR, but totally low income.
4. Myth: Be careful if your traffic suddenly increases (perhaps because a popular website features one of your articles), Google might think you are doing spamming. Fact: Nonsense. Google is able to detect your visitors from their IP addresses (if you are not net savvy, just imagine IP address as your phone number; every time you make a phone call, it will be recorded on your phone company). If you're doing spamming, there is big possibility that all these IP addresses will be exactly the same. Beside that, Google is able to detect who your referrer is (where your visitors know your website from). If they find out that a popular blog/website is linking to your website, they will surely understand. So, don't worry about this.
5. Myth: If Google suddenly bans your Adsense account, there is no chance you will be able to defend yourself. Fact: Some people agree with this, but some other give contradictory facts. Many webmasters complained that Google never gave them warnings and suddenly terminated their accounts. In fact, Google even didn't give them any explanations what their fault was. Strangely, some other webmasters gave contradictory facts. Firstly, Google always gives two warnings before they finally close an Adsense account. Secondly, if you can prove that you never break Google Adsense TOS (Terms of Service) such as doing click fraud, then they will reactivate your account.
6. Myth: Google Adsense will make you millionaire within a couple of months. Fact: Wake up! It's not time for daydreaming! You must treat Google Adsense as a real business. And just like another real business, it takes times and efforts to be successful. Darren Rowse from Problogger shares how long he took to get six figures check from Google Adsense in here: www.problogger.net/archives/2005/09/01/im-a-six-figure-blogger/
7. Myth: Repeating visitors will stabilize your Google Adsense incomes. Fact: Big mistake. In fact, repeating visitors even easily suffer ads-blindness. Since they regularly visit your website, they know where exactly you put your ads (except you rotate those ads everyday), and will avoid them. Getting new visitors everyday is more effective for your Google Adsense incomes.
8. Myth: The only way to monetize your Google Adsense account is by placing their ads in every website/ blog you owned. Fact: Fortunately, no! There are many ways to use your Google Adsense ID (known as “Publisher ID”) now. One of them is by using it for “revenue sharing”. What is that? There are some forums that ask you to enter your Publisher ID when you register in their websites. They will use this ID to generate Google Adsense ads that will be displayed in every thread you participate in. If these ads are clicked, they will split the income: 50% for you, 50% for them. One of the forum that provide this facility is forums.digitalpoint.com
   
9. Myth: People who got tens (or even hundreds) of thousands dollars from Google Adsense must own a single website that is visited by millions of visitors a day. Fact: Not all of them. In fact, many of them even admitted that they got those checks by developing many small websites. For them, it is easier to generate $40,000 from 40 small websites than generate $40,000 from a single website.

Common AdSense Mistakes

In my experience with thousands of my AdSense Gold customers, I've noticed that new AdSense publishers tend to make the same mistakes. I made them too when I was new to AdSense.
I've decided to discuss 3 of the big mistakes with you so that you can have a head start and avoid these AdSense pitfalls. They are:

1. Selecting the wrong topics
2. Having too many topics on the same site
3. Trying to make a quick buck with bad traffic

Selecting The Wrong Topics

When I first started out with AdSense, I was one eager beaver. I wanted to create as many pages as I could, and I didn't care what topic they were about as long as it wasn't adult or gambling.
I put up a site on Old Time Radio Shows, and I was excited to see that I made a few dollars a month with it. What I didn't realize at the time is that my $0.10 clicks were the bottom of the proverbial AdSense barrel in terms of earnings.
I didn't know then that it paid to research the good, high paying topics. So I just put up sites on whatever I could think of that seemed easy to rank for in the search engines.
I was shooting myself in the foot! Once I realized that I could do a little keyword research and find out how much the keywords were worth, then I started focusing on the higher paying niches and started seeing the $1, $2, $5, $10 clicks and up. I don't get that much with every click, but often enough to keep me very happy!
So research your topics first using the AdWords Traffic Estimator Tool, or a good high paying keywords list such as Keyword Explosion.

Too Many Topics on One Site

Another mistake I see newbies make very often (and I made myself when I was a newbie) is having too many topics put on one website. I've seen sites that target everything from alphalpha to Zoro!
That's a bad idea for two main reasons:

1. It makes it hard to optimize your site. You want your domain name to be targetted to the topic of the site (a great search engine optimization technique). If you have every manner of topic on the site, you can't do this and lose out on the power that a great domain name can have with the search engines.
   
2. Google's Smart Pricing doesn't like it. If you're not familiar with it, SmartPricing is what Google uses to figure out how much your page is worth in relation to the ads showing on the page. The more Smart Pricing likes your pages, the more you will get paid per click.
   One of the things I've seen with Smart Pricing is that it likes tightly focused, targetted sites. You might have a lot of pages on one site, but they need to be related to each other.

“But I can't afford more than one domain right now,” you might protest.
If that's the case, the best thing you can do is to create subdomains for each of the categories that your site targets.
For example, if you have a site that targets "alphalpha" and "Zoro", have two subdomains:
http://alphalpha.mydomain.com/
http://zoro.mydomain.com/
Do not have the subdomains link to each other either. That way Google seems them as seperate "mini-sites".

Be Careful What Kind of Traffic You Send To Your Sites

Not all traffic sources are created equal. There are a lot of sites out there selling "one hundred thousand visitors to your site for $49.95!" and the like.
What most of these sites do is use software to "simulate" a visit to your site. They are not real people. I've tested this extensively with a couple of vendors who sell this kind of traffic, and not once have I ever gotten any "real" people.
The problem is that sometimes those bots goof and "click" the ads by following the links.
Google sometimes sees those clicks as fraudulent, and many a new AdSense publisher has lost his account because of it.
So beware of shady or "too good to be true" traffic promises, they will only hurt you!
Focus on search engine optimization and link trading, that's where you're going to get the most bang for your buck.

Google Adsense: The Money Maker

If ever you felt you need more money to augment your current income, Google Adsense is your answer. To be sure, simply displaying Google Adsense ads in your website will not fetch you cash. Of course you need a website, preferably one that concerns a fair amount of populace, but that is just the beginning. It is important that you strive hard to bring sizable traffic to your site.

What is Google Adsense?

Briefly, Google Adsense is all about display of Adwords ads on content sites that are part of Google network. In effect, two things happen in conjunction with one another. First, PPC (pay per click) advertisers using Adwords ad campaign have to opt for placement of their ads in content sites (the other option is search sites). Second, individual website owners must enroll with Google to qualify for displaying Adwords ads.
Google Adsense is thus an interface whereby enrolled web publishers agree to place Google Adwords ads on their websites in return for revenue that results when those ads are clicked on. In other words, the money so collected by Google from Adwords advertisers is shared between Google itself and website owners where the clicks have occurred. Google Adsense is therefore a win-win situation for both parties at no additional cost to website owners.
Let us now explore how you can maximize your earning through Google Adsense.

How to present your Google Adsense ads

For an answer, we will turn to Google Adsense help center. There is a pictorial presentation, called 'heat map', that elucidates ideal places for locating Google Adsense ads. In short, here are main points to consider:

• Ads appearing above the fold tend to perform better.
• Place ads directly above (the hottest place) and below content.
• Place ads as close to content and navigational pane, left side being more preferable.
• Place Google Adsense ads on content pages, if not on all pages of your website.
• Combine multiple ad units on every content page, focusing specially on rectangular boxes and skyscrapers and even link units, the latter in case of space constraint.
• A big advantage with Google Adsense ads is that you can use any color combination to display the ads. Experts suggest it is better to merge ad background with background color of your webpage. Further, consider using same color for text and link as that of your webpage.

Maximize gain with Google Adsense ads

Like any money-making venture, you have to work incessantly to maximize your earnings from Google Adsense ads. After you have ensured proper appearance of Google Adsense ads on your webpage, the next thing to consider is organizing the ads in such a way that viewers are enticed to click on them. The main issue here is theme (or shall we say 'niche') of your content page and that of Google Adsense ads must coincide. For example, if the content page relates to the niche 'traveling in Himalayas', the Google Adsense ads shown need to center around this niche.
But all niches may not be popular. Therefore the trick is to discover those niche keywords that people frequently search for. There are many free and paid tools in the market that let you unravel popular search terms. None is more elaborate and helpful than the Adwords Keyword Tool. When you use the tool, try to dig out your niche keywords and build keyword-enriched content pages. Google Adsense ads appearing in those content pages are likely to be more successful in terms of visitors' inclination to click on them.

Adsense - Google's bounty

There are many tales that do the rounds as to how much Google Adsense will fetch you. A recent story (Google's hidden payroll, USAToday.com, March 28, 2006) cites quite a few examples of more than thousand dollars income per month through Google Adsense. Google itself flaunts success stories aimed at new publishers. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that web publishers can indeed reap rich bonanza with Google Adsense.

How To Get More Money From Google AdSense

Google AdSense can actually help you get more money online by simply displaying Google ads on your website. But you can maximize your online income by optimizing your website as you still push through with Google AdSense. Here are 20 ways to make maximize your website's potential online income with Google Adsense.

1. Focus on driving more targeted traffic to your website. The money this traffic will give you will be more than what Adsense can actually give.
2. Optimize your website to get only the most targeted traffic.
3. It is important that you know the Google AdSense Guidelines.
4. Keep in mind the Google AdSense TOS and follow it by heart.
5. Be familiar with the Google Heat map – you need this!
6. Submit posts on web content that you find relevant on – do this on high ranking websites closely related to your own website.
7. You can also post comments on forums about stuffs that are relevant to your website's theme.
8. Blogs are also a good option to join. They will help increase your website's popularity.
9. Your website certainly needs a Google sitemap, so have one!
10. Web Content must be first in the list of your priorities in your website.
11. Web Content must be relevant and useful to your target market.
12. Add more relevant content on your website whenever possible.
13. Make sure your website has a valuable source of information about interesting topics related to your website's overall theme.
14. Always have something interesting on your website to attract more site visitors.
15. Be familiar with Copyblogger – it makes sense.
16. Do not actually push your site traffic to click on the Adsense ads.
17. The Adsense ads can be reviewed – if you are unsure about its legibility.
18. Interesting and attractive yet relevant images can be placed close to the ads.
19. Quit the idea of animations on the website.
20. Integrate the ads with your website design – it looks coordinated.

Don't rely too much on the money that Google AdSense is giving you right now. You can have more money - legally. All you have to do is remember these tips and follow them by heart. These tips are proven effective in terms of increasing online income as you endeavor with Google AdSense. While you utilize Google Adsense on your website, be sure to find more ways to earn money without depending too much on AdSense.

Best Placement Format That Can Increase Your Profits

The google Adsense program is a fantastic way for anybody no matter his or her Internet experience or technical level to make significant, steady income on the Internet, almost as an autopilot.
For Example, some of google Adsense great benefits include:

• You don't have to sell anything and deal with customer complaints like in Ebay businesses our worry about payments or be forced to refund these payments for whatever reason.
• You wont have to invest countless hours trying to contact potential JV partners and dealing with possible rejections.
• You don't have to buy over-rated private label ebooks everybody else is trying to sell.
• Or spend lots of time researching possible profitable Niches, only to find that the seats have already been taken by savvy Internet marketers.

But how does the Google Adsense program work?
Simple, you apply to google using your website or blog and you get accepted. You can find details about this process at google's website.
Google places ads on your web pages. These ads are closely related to the contents of that page. For example, if you have a page on bad credit repair, google will only place ads relating to “bad credit repair” on that page.
This policy works very well to your advantage. It maintains the quality of your site by keeping a uniform content. Visitors searching for particular keyword information arrive at your site and click on the google adsense ads. You will make money as long as the visitor clicks through, whether they buy item or not. You can also profit from the cost per-1000 impressions or cpm.
The above explanation sounds simple, but why are many people disappointed by their google adsense earnings? Well. The problem can be narrowed to poor Ad placement.
According to google help center: you should ask yourself the following simple questions before designing your google adsense pages:

1. What is the visitor trying to accomplish by visiting your website?
2. What do they do when viewing a particular web page?
3. Where do you suppose they are focusing their attention?
4. How can you blend your ads into this area of focus without appearing to be selling them something?
5. How can you keep your pages clean, uncluttered and professional looking to captivate your visitors' attention?

In summary, most savvy Internet marketers agree on the following optimal google adsense ad format and strategies:

1. Concentrate on only one google adsense ad format - the large rectangle (336 x 280). Thus format has proven to attract a higher click-through-rate (ctr). Why, you may ask? Basically because these types of ads look like normal web links that your visitors are used to clicking on. They will automatically click on them, and of course you will make money.
2. Choose a google adsense ad palette that matches your site's theme. That is, if your site has a white background, then choose white color for your ad boarder and background.
3. Place google adsense ads at the top of your page, where visitors can see them-quickly.
4. Include 3 to 4 unique images that will make visitors focus on the adsense ad area. Best placements are beneath the images.
5. Remember to optimize your web pages with appropriate keywords. Observe the following basic rules as much as possible, as you build your website pages:
   • Choose 2 to 3 keywords per page.
   • Choose keywords with high-bid amounts as primary keywords.
   • Use the primary keyword in your title, and then repeat title in the body of your article, especially within the first paragraph.
   • Bold your primary keyword and other keywords about 4 times within the body of the article.
   • If this is a blog post, hit the return key a couple of times at the end of article, and finish with primary keyword all by itself.
   • Last but not the least, placing a google search box on your website can increase your adsense revenues dramatically.

Adsense Advertiser Alternatives

Many people have started using Google's AdSense program, but there are some who find it a bit too uncertain or simply not suiting their own requirements from an ad program.
But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.

AllFeeds

AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don't. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.

MarketBanker

MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There's also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense's and they're just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.

BidClix

BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it's also very flexible.

Chitika

RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there's an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn't. That means there's a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.

AdHearus

AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn't stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There's a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it's a breeze.

AffiliateSensor

AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There's integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA's (Public Service Ads).

Kanoodle Bright Ads

Kanoodle's offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.

TargetPoint

TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site's overall performance and better revenue. It's free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.

Clicksor

Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven't made that much, your earning roll over to the next period.