Best place for Google AdSense ads on your blog
Google AdSense is like driving in snow – just when you think you’ve got it, you realise you haven’t. Trying to nail the best positions to stick ads is a nightmare, but browsing the ‘net reveals many secrets about advertising that some bloggers just don’t take into consideration.
Here’s a bunch of theories for your consideration.
1. It isn’t about making another dollar, it’s about helping the visitor.
I know, it’s a hard concept to grasp for those bloggers constantly plastering keywords all over the page for a little extra keyword density – but advertisements should actually be helpful to the visitor. Given that you can’t force a user to click on an ad (within most agreements at least), the next best thing – depending on how you look at it – is to offer them something they would actually like to click on.
2. Advertisements offer content that might be what the visitor is looking for.
Following on from my first point: when a visitor lands on your site from a search engine, they’re looking for something. What they’re looking for doesn’t matter – what matters is that they find it. If your content isn’t quite what they were looking for, advertisements might offer an appropriate alternative. It’s a win-win situation. Does it mean you lose a visitor? Probably. Suck it up – you win some, you lose some.
3. Sticking advertisements on the side isn’t necessarily worth its while.
So, you feel bad about placing ads? Don’t do it then! If you’re going to place ads, place them properly. Some people have debate with themselves whether or not it is morally acceptable to place ads in their blog – you need to choose which side of the line you’re willing to sit! An advertisement on the side of the page that nobody notices IS AN EYESORE. It blocks out other useful content such as recent posts and comments, not to mention those helpful RSS feeds. Sticking the ads inside the content that it actually relates to is a pretty smart idea, don’t you agree?
4. Advertisements may only be useful to visitors from search engines.
You may find that most of your AdSense clicks come from search engine referrals. You may need to test this theory. But if most of your revenue comes from search engine referrals, why bother showing ads to people that visit your blog on a regular basis? Rewarding these members by making the site cleaner and quicker to load will help your blog in the long run.
5. “Not every dollar makes cents”
As in, not every dollar makes sense. Sometimes we make the mistake of trading a dollar for a friend we didn’t know we had. Not every dollar you earn is always worth the sacrifices it takes to earn it.
And with that, I leave you. I don’t really want to have advertisements on this blog, but I intend to make it my livelihood – so, for the moment, this is my only reasonable option. Perhaps in the future, that may change.