AdSense: What is the best way to earm more from existing pages?

[rodderz]

Hi

We've just been looking for a site [non-ecomm] for sale that appealed to us, which wouldn't need much attention but one that we could improve and earn more from, compared to what it earns currently. This proved to do be not very fruitful. We concluded that it would be better/quicker to give attention to pages on sites we currently own as follows:

• Identify pages with highest eCPM [need to increase traffic to these]
• Add a bit of original content to existing content
• Add more content on a regular [4-6 weekly?] basis
• Include authority external links

What do you think? There are more things I hear you shout - so, what other things would you recommend? And in what order of importance?

Thanks

[hooperman]

I would test different ad formats and placements to get the best CTR. Have you got all the ads you are allowed on each page? If not you could add some more.

On the subject of new content creation, I would find what search terms are bringing traffic and write more on those topics? Also, if you have a search facility on your site, look for what people are searching for that you haven't written about. You already have an interested audience right there.

[Dave McM]

If you've got the wherewithal, then I'd say a bit of time spent on server optimising would be well spent - Google likes pages that load quickly. The Page Speed add-on for the Firefox plug-in is a pretty handy tool from that point of view. (As you might expect, dealing with the warnings it raises will be helpful in reducing your bandwidth, but the process may well also reduce the load on your server's CPUs and memory.)

[crabfoot]

On the subject of new content creation, I would find what search terms are bringing traffic and write more on those topics?

I might mention that this is where Google Webmasters really comes in handy ...

[grynge]

Try putting the advertising on pages with a high bounce/exit rate, and leave it off the pages that have low bounce/exit rates. I find you tend to get more clicks by doing this. The thing to watch is what ads display on those pages if they are low paying rates try adding a bit of targeted content to change the ads being displayed.

[hooperman]

Another idea is splitting up lengthy pages into two to get more advertising opportunities. Banzai!

[hooperman]

[*]Include authority external links

Crabfoot's mention of Google Webmaster Tools made me think about how to decide what pages to get links to and what anchor text to use, if these are in your control. GWT is good enough to tell you how many times your page ranks at #1 for a particular phrase, how many times it ranks #2 etc. For each of these placings you can see how many people click on your link and visit your page. This data might help you decide which pages to get links to, and what anchor text to use.

For example, I've got a page that performs like this for a particular search phrase:
gwt.gif

For 130,000 times, my page appears between #6 and #10 and the CTR is only 1%. It looks like if I could just move the page up to #5 I could double the CTR. If all those 130,000 page impressions suddenly occurred at #5 (bad assumption), then the 1,540 clicks would become 3,080! That's an extra 1,540 Adsense generating page impressions.

When I look at another page/search phrase on the same site, the CTR is 38% when it ranks #1 for a different phrase. If I assume that the CTR will be similar if I could get the first page ranking #1 for its phrase, then a CTR of 38% on those 130,000 appearances means 49,400 visits.

Dangerous maths

EDIT: the Adsense RPM for that site is £8.51, so moving up to #1 represents an increase in Adsense revenue of (49,400 - 1,540) / 1000 * £8.51 = £407 / month. Link buying spree, here I come!

[Clinton]

Test, test and test. Compare before and after. Subscribe to the Adsense blog.

[rodderz]

Thanks all for the GREAT responses.

Dave McM: good tip – led me down the road of CSS Sprites (using one large image instead of many little ones and using CSS to display the bit that you need). Sounds like a bit of a job, so it’s on the back burner. But if anyone is interested, then there’s a good explanation here: http://css-tricks.com/css-sprites/.

crabfoot: Yep, already have a Google webmaster account.

grynge: Never considered ‘and leave it off the pages that have low bounce/exit rates’ – did you discover this or read about it? Definitely will look into this.



hooperman:

1. haven’t got ALL the ads possible displayed (don’t want to give ppl the ‘made for adsense’ feeling!)
2. ‘Dangerous [I agree] maths’, is the best way to prioritise the different things that need to be done.

Clinton: Good tip - will spend more time on the blog.



All:

1. As a priority have decided to refresh/add content on said existing pages with good previous earning
2. Have added a few sites to Google Analytics to see where money is being earnt (with AdSense you could miss tracking important pages) – will review earnings over time.

[grynge]

grynge: Never considered ‘and leave it off the pages that have low bounce/exit rates’ – did you discover this or read about it? Definitely will look into this.

It's something I discovered but I am sure other people may have written about it. The idea is if the page keeps people on your site why give them some reason to leave. The pages with high bounce rates usually have little or not specific content so sometimes you need to change the content and then use section targeting that content for some high paying content. I find usually between 1 and 3 sentences will suffice for adsense section targeting other ad programs either don't have section targeting or can be more simply targeted using a couple of keyword/keyphrases