List of The Great Google AdSense Tips

Tip #1: Don't put ads on empty pages.
When I reworked my site, I built a skeleton set of pages that had no content, just titles and some meta tags. I displayed ads on those pages, however. Although all you see are public service ads at first, the very act of displaying ads on a page causes the AdSense web crawler to quickly fetch that page for analysis. A page with good content will thus begin showing relevant paying ads fairly quickly.

If you don't have any content, then, Google will have to guess as what your page is about. It may guess wrong, and so the ads that it displays may not be relevant. You'll have to wait until Google re-crawls the site for the ads to correct themselves. Here is what Google had to say when I asked them about how often the AdSense crawler updates a site.

Tip #2: Don't be afraid to ask questions
If you're wondering about something, don't be afraid to ask Google. So far, they've always responded to my questions within a working day. There are two email addresses to use, depending on the type of question.


Tip #3: Avoid non-English characters on English pages
This one is a bug, to be honest. My surname is French, and I prefer to write it out correctly with the accent grave on the first "e". Every page on my site would then include at least two accented letters, because my name shows up twice in the footer. On some pages my name shows up two or three more times.

Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. But on some pages the presence of the accented characters is enough to cause AdSense to display non-relevant ads in French. This happens whether the browser indicates a preference for French or not. When I reported this to Google, this is the answer they gave me:

Tip #4: Check your keyword density
Although Google doesn't release exact details as to how they determine the ads to serve on a given page, they do tell us that it's the text content of the page that matters, not the meta tags. Before serving ads on a page, then, you might want to check its keyword density. A good, free tool for doing this is found here:

http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

This lets you fine-tune the page before exposing it to the AdSense crawler.

AdSense will serve ads that are generally very relevant to the content of a particular page. Here are some tips based on my experiences so far with the AdSense program.


ANOTHER TOP ADSENSE TIPS

1. Niche Sites
Targeted niche sites that have a clear theme, tend to generate more advertising revenue simply because it is easier to achieve decent search engine placement. Be warned though, you want to chose a niche where there is a sufficient number of advertisements available.

2. Target Keywords
When determining the site's focus, consider how much the advertisers pay for the advertisements. If the site is focused on ringtones, like Ringtone Central , the payout per click is going to be very small. Because ringtones are not high ticket items, advertisers will not spend a lot on pay-per-click advertisements.

With less obvious markets, use Overture to determine how much advertisers pay per keyword. The cost will usually be similar on Google. Search Overture for a keyword then click "View Advertisers' Max Bids" in the top right corner. This will show the Overture inventory and how much is paid per keyword. Because the market has become very competitive, it will be difficult to rank well in search engines with a new Web site that is optimized for the terms that have the highest payout. Consider targeting terms that are moderately priced.

3. Aged Sites / Time
Over time, as a Web site is spidered by Google, advertisements will generally increase in relevance. In general, older Web sites will rank better in search engines. The closer the advertisements relate to the Web page's content, the higher the "click-through" the publishers will see.

4. Coding
In order to minimize a Web site's maintenance, place the Google generated AdSense code in the Web site template or an "include" file. This will allow you to easily experiment with different advertisement sizes and ad placement, and keep the Web maintenance to a minimum.

5. Tracking Channels
In order to know how effective a specific Web site or ad placement is, use distinct channels and subchannels within Google. This will allow you to discern what performs best on a specific Web site. Using channels will tell you what sites are making money, what advertisements are making money and what ad position is the most profitable on a specific Web site. Keep in mind that you should run an advertisement for a full week, in order to properly test its effectiveness, different days of the week will vary the Web traffic so comparing one week to another will give the most accurate reflection of how effective a campaign performs.

When testing different advertisement sizes, placement or color schemes, be sure to leave campaigns in place for one week. Different days will often result in Web traffic fluctuations. Comparing Web traffic week to week will give a clear indication of what ad formats perform the best.