Need advice on google adsense positioning

[ClaireH-184886]

Hi my site www.in2town.co.uk gets a few thousand visitors a day but i am having trouble making any money from google adsense and this is because i am no good at advertising or understand it.

I have tried many formats and i just cannot understand the correct way to do it and would really like some help and advice in what i am doing wrong.

Would really love to see some magazines that do google adsense to see where i am going wrong.

Here is one page from my site with google adsense

http://www.in2town.co.uk/news/health-women/nearly-one-in-four-women-risk-skin-cancer-by-not-wearing-sun-tan-lotion

and here is another example

http://www.in2town.co.uk/latest-business-news/business-expert-says-franchise-opportunities-are-a-great-way-to-start-a-business

If anyone can please help me understand what i am doing wrong please, then that would be great.

[zigojacko]

What are we looking at? I can see Adsense ads on your website so how are they not displaying as you're expecting?

Personally, I would say your website contains too many ads too. This will likely affect your rankings in search engines but also lower the value of your pages plus deter visitors.

[ClaireH-184886]

i have studied so many different sites that have lots of ads so i am not sure what i should be doing, i do not know how many ads to display to a page.

I want the site to be user friendly, i want people coming back and we must be doing something right because our traffic is very high but we are not getting clicks on the adverts.

i have played around with the adverts so many different times so i am not sure what i am doing wrong. as mentioned, i have no experience with advertising

[zigojacko]

Firstly, the first thing to do is try to keep all advertising below the fold (that means below the visible section of your page when you first land on your website).

If you're already offering advertising in the side menu and header, is there really a need for Adsense within the content body as well... twice? If you wanted to utilise both an independent ad network as well as Adsense, I would extend your onpage content, ensure the non advertising content is of a much larger ratio than your ads.

Typically, ads are seen a mile off and won't be clicked on that much these days, you may find that switching to image ads rather than text ads within Adsense delivers a higher clickthrough from your visitors - at least these aren't as obvious as the Adsense text ads.

Subtlety is the key here, play around with colours, layouts and formats until you find an approach that works best with your website content and your target audience. Never try and trick your readers either (by disguising ads).

There is no right or wrong way when it comes to website advertising but don't expect it to generate a large revenue stream overnight, you need to keep content extremely on topic and relevant to maximise the relevancy of displayed ads from the ad network(s).

[ClaireH-184886]

many thanks for this. do you agree with google adsense where they show the layout as having a google adsense add above your heading as i have not found this to work.

how many google adsense adverts would you have within the content. i am going to try and use images and text, and see which works but i think the images will work better as per your advice.

many thanks for this

[zigojacko]

You're welcome.

Ad positioning and strategy really is dependant on your intentions. Personally, I won't even stop to read content on a blog that inserts ads within the body. I perhaps would think one Adsense block at either the top or the bottom of the article body would be deemed bearable but anymore than that, you run the risk of getting flagged at Google for low quality / poor ad to content ratio potentially.

[ClaireH-184886]

i have been trying to find a good example of a blog or online magazine but even though i have been through lots of them i cannot see a good example

[zigojacko]

Check out this. Hopefully should help.

[ClaireH-184886]

thanks for that. still researching to make the page look good for people reading it and making it so people can see the adverts, very bad when you have no experience in advertising

this is my latest two attempts

http://in2town.co.uk/latest-business-news/pay-day-loans-company-wonga-are-to-target-small-business-owners

http://www.in2town.co.uk/celeb-news/prince-harry-drops-saturday-girl-and-goes-back-to-chelsy-davy

not sure what people think, if i am moving in the right direction

[KeriMorgret]

Diane,

I suggest you work on the content and make it more readable. The first paragraph is likely to turn off some readers and make them leave the site without clicking on any more articles or any ads. Take a step back and read the following out loud and see if it's something you think will encourage a reader to stick around.

Payday Loans company Wonga who have been at the centre of a lot of controversy since they launched their pay day loans company are now expanding their business to target the small business owner where they are going to target small businesses who are struggling and offer them instant cash.

Also, that article just doesn't seem to fit in. When I look at the header of your site, I see LIFESTYLE in all caps and a picture of a woman. Subheads are about health for men and women, gastric band hypnotherapy, gossip, holiday reviews, etc. One of the articles on your sidebar appears in numerous places on the web (duplicate content).

You need content that people will want to read long enough for them to even notice the ads. If the content turns people off, they're going to close that browser tab, and all the positioning in the world won't make a difference.