Is Your Web Site Too Good for Adsense?
I touched on this topic in another post and it seems to have gotten considerable interest, so I'll discuss it in more detail here.
Let's assume for a moment that you have a popular web site containing great content with Adsense ads. It gets high traffic - thousands of unique visitors a day - and has perfect Adsense ad placement and blending. Displayed ads are highly relevant and enjoy high revenue-per-click (RPC). The perfect Adsense site.
But you're not making any money. No one is clicking your ads. Why?
The problem may be that your site is too good - too satisfying - for your visitors to want to click on ads. Let's look at a couple of real examples:
Here's one example. The subject web site offers downloadable games - some free, some for sale. It displays Google Adsense ads. The site is popular because it offers unique games that can't be found anywhere else. Visitors to the site usually find the site by searching on Google or another search engine. They typically search for a specific game, and usually find it here. Because visitors almost always find what they are looking for, they download the game and leave. They have no reason to click ads about other game sites since they have been completely satisfied.
Is there a solution to getting ad clicks for a site like this? Not really, unless we are willing to compromise visitor satisfaction and site quality. For example, we could reduce the number of games we offer so that some visitors would not find what they are looking for, making them more likely to click on Google ads for other sources for the game. Of course, with fewer games, traffic would fall off, offsetting any revenue gain achieved with additional ad clicks. This is not a good strategy for most sites.
Although this site is a games site, it could just as easily be any site with high-quality content that fulfills the expectations of its visitors. It could be a blog, a forum, a how-to site, a dating site, a NASCAR fans site, or any of a thousand other types of sites.
Let's look at another example. This site uses Adsense and discusses how to be a smart new-car buyer by getting competing price quotes from dealers through online services such as Edmunds and Autobytel. The content is well written and contains excellent advice, but also contains a comprehensive list of helpful links to such services. Visitors love the site and appreciate the compiled list of links. However, because of the links, visitors have little need or desire to click on Google ads since most of the ads are for the same companies in the link list.
The solution is this case is a little more palatable than in the previous example. If the link list were removed (or simply made into non-links), visitors would more likely click ads for car price quotes. This could be done without seriously compromising the quality of the site.
In summary, visitors to your site must have a reason to click on ads. Most visitors don't click ads just because the ads are there. Perhaps your site is so good that it leaves your visitors without a reason.
http://www.stackpoint.com
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The topic of this article is "improving Google Adsense CTR" through awareness and control of page content. High quality web pages may suffer from low ad click-through rates if visitors are completely satisfied.
Let's assume for a moment that you have a popular web site containing great content with Adsense ads. It gets high traffic - thousands of unique visitors a day - and has perfect Adsense ad placement and blending. Displayed ads are highly relevant and enjoy high revenue-per-click (RPC). The perfect Adsense site.
But you're not making any money. No one is clicking your ads. Why?
The problem may be that your site is too good - too satisfying - for your visitors to want to click on ads. Let's look at a couple of real examples:
Here's one example. The subject web site offers downloadable games - some free, some for sale. It displays Google Adsense ads. The site is popular because it offers unique games that can't be found anywhere else. Visitors to the site usually find the site by searching on Google or another search engine. They typically search for a specific game, and usually find it here. Because visitors almost always find what they are looking for, they download the game and leave. They have no reason to click ads about other game sites since they have been completely satisfied.
Is there a solution to getting ad clicks for a site like this? Not really, unless we are willing to compromise visitor satisfaction and site quality. For example, we could reduce the number of games we offer so that some visitors would not find what they are looking for, making them more likely to click on Google ads for other sources for the game. Of course, with fewer games, traffic would fall off, offsetting any revenue gain achieved with additional ad clicks. This is not a good strategy for most sites.
Although this site is a games site, it could just as easily be any site with high-quality content that fulfills the expectations of its visitors. It could be a blog, a forum, a how-to site, a dating site, a NASCAR fans site, or any of a thousand other types of sites.
Let's look at another example. This site uses Adsense and discusses how to be a smart new-car buyer by getting competing price quotes from dealers through online services such as Edmunds and Autobytel. The content is well written and contains excellent advice, but also contains a comprehensive list of helpful links to such services. Visitors love the site and appreciate the compiled list of links. However, because of the links, visitors have little need or desire to click on Google ads since most of the ads are for the same companies in the link list.
The solution is this case is a little more palatable than in the previous example. If the link list were removed (or simply made into non-links), visitors would more likely click ads for car price quotes. This could be done without seriously compromising the quality of the site.
In summary, visitors to your site must have a reason to click on ads. Most visitors don't click ads just because the ads are there. Perhaps your site is so good that it leaves your visitors without a reason.
http://www.stackpoint.com
---
The topic of this article is "improving Google Adsense CTR" through awareness and control of page content. High quality web pages may suffer from low ad click-through rates if visitors are completely satisfied.
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