Making Money with Google Adsense: Best Practices to Maximize Visibility

Placement is everything with Google ads; wise placement is even better. Previously, you learned the importance of incorporating your ads with content on your site. Be careful not to over-saturate your content with ads. In short, do not put in a new AdSense block with each new post or update to your site. The trick is to decide on the best locations based on your high trafficked areas.

If a certain area on your site seems to generate more traffic than other areas, that should be the main spot for the Google ads. It doesn’t have to be the only place, but it should be your main focal point. You also want the ads to make sense with the content. If you just placed an article on your site about the benefits of buying the right wireless network equipment, then it would be beneficial to have Google place ads about available wireless network equipment in that area. You’ve sparked their interest; now let Google bring home the sale.

Note: Google AdSense uses the surrounding content to generate ads on the site. You can't specify what ads will appear when you place in the code to generate them. In the next installment of this series I will go over how you can control the ads that are generated.

In order to find the prime real estate within your site, you need to know the patterns of your visitors. First, determine where your site traffic is coming from. This is good to know for your own advertising purposes. Then, track where your visitors go once they get to the site. Learn their patterns for browsing your site, and what they are looking for. This is the best way to determine exactly where to place the ads. If there is a specific page that draws in more traffic from search engines, that page is your prime spot for ad placement.

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Try out the free Google tool that helps to identify the hotspots on your site at https://www.google.com/support/AdSense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html.

Visitors will most likely spend most of their time in the top part of your website. The area of the website that a visitor can access without scrolling down is called above the fold. Placing ads in this area is more beneficial to you, and your visitors, because it will have more visibility. Again, when it comes to utilizing your above the fold area, less is more. Don't try to overpower this area with ads hoping someone will click on it. Keep the ads concise and clutter-free. Google sorts ads in descending order by their click-through price. For this reason alone, you really want to limit the choices your visitors will have in the above the fold area.

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This screenshot shows a perfect example of keeping the ads above the fold clean and clutter-free. This is the best location for ad placement on this site.

Finding your site's hotspots and utilizing the above the fold area are essential AdSense tools for increasing your click-through percentages. Like anything in life, being successful at Google AdSense takes work. It is not a get rich quick scheme. I know it sounds cliche, but you will actually get out of it what you put in to it. The beauty of Google AdSense is that you don't have to work hard or work long, you just need to work smart.