Making sense of google adsense

Chapter 2: One Step at a Time

The Next Step - How to get started

Joining the Google AdSense program is obviously a step you want to take. Getting involved in such a lucrative business is not quite as easy as the money you can make by using this service. Google has a process by which you must be approved to be a part of the AdSense program. The procedure to be accepted is not publicly available, but the policies that Google has in place concerning this program are. It is certainly to your benefit to know what these policies are as they are determining factors concerning eligibility, these policies are updated and subject to change so it is best to stay abreast of current policies to avoid a suspension from this service and thusly miss out on income. You can find these policies listed here: http://www.google.com/adsense/policies

What’s On Your Site?

The key issue to be considered is the content found on the webpage or sites for which you wish to have this service. Although the process of acceptance or rejection is not defined, it is abundantly clear that the nature of the site, the content found within must found to be acceptable according to Google’s specifications in order to qualify. The foremost issue concerning content, what the majority of websites get rejected for is simple: quality. This criterion is both quantitative and qualitative. Not only is it essential that you have good, informational content, but there must be enough of it to make it worthwhile. This does not constitute a site which is mostly fluff, the kind of content that consists primarily of keywords in order to attract hits from search engines, or links to other sites and is little more than a gateway to other sites. Google will not accept a site that has nothing to offer in the way of information and is self-serving in nature, meaning that the site is not a service to visitors but a location that has nothing to offer but its own agenda and “goods.” Considering the kind of company Google is, and what the nature of their business is, be sure that the standard for quality content is high.

Google specializes in information and can easily discern the difference between a site that offers good, quality information and one that has nothing more than junk. Sites that get approved are sites that have real knowledge to offer their visitors. The articles available on your site are the determining factor. Typically these articles are purely informational or analytical. Many online businesses that have goods and services to offer provide information besides this. Providing information about the industry helps build the website as well as educate the potential customer; the more information available besides the products and services for sale, the better.

Specialization

An issue that prevents many companies from qualifying for this program is their level of specialization. When a site is focused on a specific and specialized issue, something for which the market is very narrow, advertising aligned with this content would be self-defeating as the site would inadvertently be showing ads for its competition. This is an issue of redundancy; in a specialized market where there may be only a few companies, advertising for them your own site is not the way you want to make money. Having control over what ads appear on your site, these would naturally be blocked, and therefore you would have no ads showing at all; completely pointless.

The polar opposite of this is a site that is merely an internet revolving door that offers only links to other pages. This is not content, a site such as this is nothing more than a stepping stone because it has no information available to the visitor. The only thing a site like this has to offer is a high hit rate or a number of visits, but Google requires more than a high number of visits to qualify for the AdSense program.

Simply put, to have your site seriously considered for an opportunity like Google AdSense has to offer, make sure your site has at least 30 to 40 informational articles with a minimum of 400 to 450 words each. Information should be updated on a regular basis to ensure visitors are getting appropriate information. The content of this magnitude does not have to be written in-house. There are countless websites that offer free information in addition to all the agencies that specialize in writing the content of a professional caliber that will be tailored to the Google AdSense program to make it as profitable as possible.

Maximize Your Potential

After your site has been found fit for Google’s AdSense program, it is now time to take this tool and make it work for you. Like any other tool, you have to know how to use it in order for it to be most effective. There are a few basic steps you should take in order to optimize this opportunity.

First – Subtle Ads Work

Google AdSense automatically selects advertisements that are in line with the content that is on your page. As the publisher of the site, you are the one in control of what appears on your site and what it looks like. This is an issue that should be addressed and used to its fullest advantage. You get to choose what ads are displayed on your webpage and you can customize them to be visually in sync as well as contextually aligned. This is a great advantage as the commonly accepted opinion on the effectiveness of an advertisement and how it relates to the rest of the page it is on is that the less the ad stands out, the less foreign it appears to be on your page, the more likely it is to be clicked. Points to consider how effective you can make these adds by having them as uniform as possible with the rest of the page are few but very important. Most basic is the color scheme. Make sure the color scheme of the ad most closely resembles what your page looks like. Ensure the size of the font, and the actual font of the ad is the same. Remove everything you can that differentiates the ad from the rest of the page, like borders. Keep the appearance of your site, the entire site, the same across the board, it makes a visitor feel more comfortable and thusly more likely to click on the various links found on the site, which in turn becomes revenue.

Text links are an entity unto themselves and are uniform throughout the internet. These links are blue; this is what makes them identifiable as a text link. If you change this feature, you are basically hiding your links; not a good idea. There is some debate as to what kind of ad is better, a pure text ad, or an image ad; something that offers visual stimulus. Text ads are generally more effective, but this is not something to struggle over as Google’s AdSense program recommends whichever type of advertisement is more akin to your content and which ad will generate the most money. Considering Google has at least as much of a stake in the success of these ads as you do, and the computing power behind these suggestions, there should not be too much of a debate.

Second – Placement Equals Profit

Placement of the ad on your web page is as important as any other aspect concerning your success using the Google AdSense program. It is understood that the ad will appear on your web page, but the question is where on the webpage? Again, this is time to consider the overall look of the webpage and how well the ad is incorporated into the site. You want the add to look less like an ad as you want it to look like a part of the web page that is supposed to be there.

When working with the Google AdSense program, you are basically dealing with a real estate situation on your website. Depending on how your page is set up in the first place, you may need to do some rearranging if not add pages to organize all the content shown on your website. Adding pages to keep all your content orderly, efficient and easy to look at gives you an opportunity to have more ads displayed.

In general, text-based advertisements are easier to work with, but consideration has to be given to how your page is set up and what would be most effective in terms of getting people to click on the ads on your page. For example, if your site consists mostly of text, you can provide visual relief by having image-based advertisements. People tend to “look” with their mouse as much as their eyes, so having ads that draw their attention will most likely get the ad clicked.

Considering how a webpage loads, it is advisable to have the advertisement be viewable immediately, making it easy to find, easy to gain interest in, easy to click. Having a banner across the top of the page ensures the visitor will see the ad immediately. The alternative to the banner is a column, also known as a “skyscraper.” This can be placed on either side of the web page but is most successful when placed to the right of the primary content table, due to how the English and most other languages are read. The will tend to come to a rest at the end of a sentence, conveniently right where the ads will be. Ads on your website should be arranged in such a way that they are congruent with the other links found on your page. If other links on your site are all localized in one specific area, then the AdSense links should be included in the same area. This is common practice, and perfectly acceptable according to Google’s own standards.

Be aware of what part of your website gets viewed the most and is updated the most, as this is the best place for the ads displayed. If you have the ad showing on some other secluded part of the website, then the ad will not get the exposure it ought to, and basically you will just be losing money. To find out what part of your website has the most traffic is not difficult, usage logs can be provided by your hosting provider.

There is a serious distinction between Google’s AdSense program and most other affiliate marketing programs. There are a number of marketing ploys that will intentionally ask internet surfers to click on a link. This is simply not allowed as a part of Google’s AdSense method. This is a somewhat controversial tactic if not counter-effective to the goal. Directly asking for a click on a link is unprofessional and can be interpreted as immoral. For these reasons, Google prohibits pandering for clicks or any dishonest means of gaining clicks. Make the content the heart of your site. Be wise in arranging how the ads will appear on your site. Give serious thought to how you will use your web page in conjunction with Google AdSense, as these two things will become one; and they should compliment each other. These things, in the end, will not only improve the overall quality and experience of your website but will make it more usable and profitable.

Third – Keywords are the Key

Once the first two steps in this process have been accomplished, you are in a position to choose the best keywords possible for your website. Keywords are, well key, to how visitors will find out about your site, who will come to your site and just as importantly it has everything to do with how Google AdSense operates with your site. It is common for a website publisher errs by selecting a keyword based on its price with the frame of mind that if it costs more than it will generate more income. This is when it is most important to remain goal-oriented and remind yourself of what you are trying to achieve. Expensive keywords do not exactly translate to lots of revenue from Google AdService.

Think about what your web page is about, consider the adds that will be displayed there, and why; for people to click as a source of income to you. You want keywords that are specific to what your site is about and will attract visitors
that are most likely to follow the advertisement links. This is why you signed on for AdSense in the first place, to create a source of passive income. Buying a key that has a high ranking does not mean that it is applicable to your website and that visitors directed there will be wasting their time, and in return, you will lose money over it.

There are several ways for which you can search for the best keywords for your site:

· If you have an account set up, Google AdWords is a highly effective tool for determining the popularity of all kinds of keywords and it provides information concerning the cost and returns concerning each keyword.

· Google AdWords contains a feature called AdWords KeyWords Tool which can identify synonymous keywords or other different possibilities

· Keyword Analyzer is a generator of key phrases that internet users type in different search engines.

· Having a WordTracker account is also a good idea. WordTracker has a feature that suggests the premier 1,000 choices for keywords. Such a tool will help you list keywords that have to do with your website. Spending money on an item like this can help you immensely when it comes to finding appropriate keywords that will end up generating revenue.

· Search is another tool that will list the most popular 100 keywords, which will give you examples of valuable keywords again.

Choosing the appropriate keywords for your site and the ads found there will dramatically increase your clickthrough rate. Keywords found in the advertisements themselves will populate directly to the Google results page for the word searched. This is an added benefit of choosing the right words to direct people to your site, and to attract people to your money producing ads. You should see how important having the best keywords possible associated to your site results in the more effective use of the AdSense program with Google. Don’t ignore the importance of the URL for your web page. The URL you have is not just important for finding your page on the internet; it is just as important in how the Google AdSense program works for you. It is generally accepted that the keywords found in your URL as at least as valuable as the keywords found on your webpage. Including good keywords in your URL can potentially increase not just traffic o your site but the clickthrough rate as well, you could as much as double this rate by making sure you have a URL that has solid keywords.

Domain names that contain keywords having to do with the website are about can be costly, but certainly an option. There are also domain names that are no longer being used, this is also a good option to look into and might save you money, if not actually make you money.

Fourth – The Content Counts

We have covered the importance of having solid advertisements, using good placement and how to ensure you get the traffic you deserve to your site. There is still one more aspect of your site and how effective it can be in generating income. You need to ensure that you have quality content on your site, the kind of content that will magnetize people to your website. This can be affected by redressing your content in order to have your content work harmoniously with the Google AdSense program.

This does not mean that you should insert as many keywords as you can think of into the text of your content. This is counterproductive. You want to make sure that you draw a focused group to your page, people that will find what they are looking for in what you have to offer in addition to the fact that this group of people will be the most likely to click on the ads found on your site because these ads are focused and specific to the content on your site. Having a large number of people visit your page that is wondering why the search the created brought up this site, hence people that have little to no interest in what your page is about, I not going to increase your click-through rate.

Marketing is not a random numbers game. This tactic will cause your pages productivity to dip, or more plainly cause you to earn less than you could by attracting the right people to your page. The goal is to have your site produce money by displaying ads that are in the same vein as your content. When a visitor has a gets a good feeling by finding information they are looking for, it makes hem wonder what else they might find on such a fabulous web page, which means they use their mouse to explore the site, and thereby click on ads found on your page which have to do with what they are interested in. The end result is you just made some money because a person just clicked on an ad they found on your site. The reason they clicked this ad is that they found your site to be useful and informative due to the content they found which had everything to do with the keywords they used in
the search they created.

Content is the heart of the Google AdSense program, as it should be for your site as well. The content should be useful, real, meaty knowledge-based articles that can answer questions or point a person in the right direction. You can have articles that are interrelated to each other on the same site. This offers some variety of information available and the kinds of ads that will be seen on your site, but don’t let this spin out of control. The content should be limited or focused so that it is useful. You absolutely do not want a sit that covers all kinds of topics and provides very little to no information on any or very few of these topics. This is frustrating to visitors, as well as ineffective for drawing a group that will click on the ads they see on your site. Focused, informative content creates a click-happy visitor. Meandering, shallow, widespread empty content makes a visitor confused and unhappy, one who will probably never come back to your site again, ever.

The importance of managing the content of your site cannot be stressed enough. Using the Google AdSense program to any degree of success depends on this. Before including the Google AdSense code anywhere on your site, be sure you address these two chief aspects:

1. It is important that you have sufficient textual content to at least make Google AdSense productive for you. Having a solid foundation of textual information is what Google requires just to make the AdSense program operate. Remember that Google uses your content to decipher what ads should be displayed along with it. Without enough content, Google will not be able to display ads that have to do with anything, in their place only public service ads will show which do not generate any income for you.

2. The various pages on your site should be titled appropriately to reflect the information that will be found there and hence the ads as well. Nondescript titles have nothing to offer, so make sure each page is labeled in a way that makes your page more useful and easy to navigate. These titles should be short and effective so that all search engines will pull them up when searched, as long, verbose titles may be excluded by some search engines.

Fifth – Use the Tools

Use the reports and tracking tools available to you through Google AdSense. These tools are there so you can see how effectively you are using the AdSense program and thereby make any changes that can increase your productivity and swell your income. Of the tracking features available through Google AdSense, there are two kinds of “Channels.” These channels are used to track your ads according to URL as well classify ads based on type, keywords, location on the internet, etc. In addition to these channels, there are server logs available as another tool to evaluate your use of the AdSense program.

URL Channels
URL channels allow you to track how well your web pages are executing without adjusting your ad code. To use this device, simply input a URL either partially or in full. A complete URL will track a specific page, to track the entire site you use the top-level name for your domain.

Custom Channels
Custom channels track specific information on your site, the items in question are chosen by you. Pick the component you want to know about and adjust the channel to search for the according to information. A customizable channel allows you a great degree of focus for specific information, there are up to 50 customizable channels at your disposal. With this tool, you can compare various aspects of the ads on your page, like the performance of an ad on one page compared to an ad on another page. Custom channels can identify where clicks originate by creating a channel for each page.

Server Logs
Server Logs are an external tool included in the Google AdSense software. This allows you to check local usage of information outside what Google tracks. Third Party software is not Google software, many of these third parties guarantee to work according to AdSense guidelines, but the responsibility is yours to ensure proper use. Tracking software can provide information on users and how they got to you like:

· Referring website
· Web browser used
· Origin of ad clickers
· Keywords used

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Lesson Intro Video

Chapter 1: AdSense in Depth (Prev Lesson)
(Next Lesson) Chapter 3: Use it well
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