Massaging Ad Placement To Increase Click Through Rates

I provide a variety of SEO services for my clients, but most of these have first been hatched on my own sites and blogs before being exported. After all, can I really recommend something that hasn’t been tested and tried by me?

Maximizing CTR

One area where I seem to get more calls for help than others involves the placement of Google ads or similar type advertisements. On static HTML pages you go with Google’s recommendations and hope for the best, but when it comes to blogging, trying a number of different approaches seems the best way to go.

Admittedly, this blog is my worst example of ad placement, simply because I haven’t approached the blog all that seriously as far as its set up goes. MK|SEO exists primarily to provide SEO for other sites and to showcase some of my work. I realize that this is a poor excuse, but AdSense just isn’t a biggie here for me here.

Google Lends A Hand

Getting back to ad placement, if you are using AdSense you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the Adsense Help Center where Google has set up optimization essentials and strategies to help you succeed. After all, if they click through while on your site and at greater numbers, then Google can prove to customers that AdSense works (and they make more money, ‘natch!) Whether sales are converted or not is a different discussion.

A Nifty Plugin For AdSense and YPN!

My most recent strategy is to test a WordPress plug-in which allows ads to appear within the body of the article. I’ve tried this in the past, but was always dissatisfied with the results until I came across the All In One AdSense and YPN plugin, which makes configuring ads a snap. What I like best about this particular plugin is that it serves ads where you want them — left, right, center, upper, lower, random, etc. — lots of choices and places for them to appear. YPN, btw is Yahoo! Publishers Network. The plug-in can be used for other CTR programs, not just these two.

I’ve only used the plugin for two days on three different sites, but I am already seeing an increase in CTR which spells more money for me. This is especially good news as AdSense lost its sheen for me me three years ago when my income suddenly dropped. Though I don’t expect to make a bundle off of AdSense again, there is room for growth and I plan on optimizing my blogs to take advantage of my discovery.

In conclusion, I can tell you that massaging your ad placement from time to time makes good business sense. I’ll know better in a week or two whether the AdSense/YPN plugin consistently brings improved results, but for now it is off to a good start.

Making money through your site is more difficult than a few years back, but if you update your mindset you can succeed and make money online.

I Wonder If They’re A Rip-Off Too?

If you want to create controversy in this business, then alleging that companies who provide SEO assistance are a rip off is a good way to accomplish that feat. Heck, why not go all the way and name names and specific bad practices?

Ticked Off At SEO Pros?

I’m not about to get involved in this argument which seems to be cropping up on the internet more and more. Someone posts an article to their blog,  a commentary appears in a newspaper, or an advertisement is featured through Google AdSense or some other type of ad aggregator. I haven’t checked every single one of these sources out as the ones I have looked at typically carry the same theme — if you pay someone to help your site with search engine optimization, then you probably got ripped off.

Granted, there are some companies whose fees seem excessive — I seem to recall reading where a company dished out some $20,000 to get bumped up in the SERPs for three or four keywords. Well, they got what they wanted, but the spike in business they were seeking didn’t pan out. Like I tell my clients, I may be able to do “X” or “Y” for you, but I can’t guarantee how your customers will respond. My thinking is that the site was at fault because if you get more traffic and your conversions don’t increase, then your sales pitch needs  to be tuned.

I’m not a marketing expert, but I do know that people make quick decisions when they visit a site — you have to give them a reason to stay and to take some sort of action.

Never Overpromise

One thing that I see some SEO experts do is to over promise. Specifically, they say that a certain result will be achieved, e.g. a jump in SERPs from eighth place to third (or anywhere else above the fold) or that a site will increase in PageRank or Alexa rankings, etc. While you can “game” Alexa rankings, saying that you can move a site up in PageRank seems like promising something you cannot absolutely deliver. I wouldn’t blame anyone for being mad — exaggerating results serves to create doubt, mistrust, and could even bring forth a lawsuit.

In some ways SEO is an inexact science.  There are some tried and true practices which almost always work, other methods which usually can work, while there is this grey area where results may only work if certain “grey” or “black” hat practices are employed.

Pity the customer who falls for a trap and what a shame it is when an online professional misrepresents what he does.