The next few pages walk you through some optimization strategies designed to get your Web site working harder for you. I start out with some site-building basics and then move pretty quickly into some AdSense-specific recommendations. Remember - Don’t think that all is lost just because your site exists already. Some of the optimization strategies I cover can be tweaked in ways that let you transform an already existing Web site into a site that gets more mileage from your AdSense efforts. A great idea, I’d say.
Site-building basics
Site design is critical to increasing your AdSense revenue. Both Google (the Brains Behind It All) and AdSense users (Average Janes and Joes working in the Web trenches) have tested different combinations of content, ad placement, and ad design to see what works best. There are some clear leaders — site design is important, and it all starts with the site name.
Name and address, please Okay, it’s time for the Obvious Tip of the Week: The name of your site should be closely related to the topic of your site. There’s also more to your name
than just a name; a well-designed site has a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) — fancy talk for a Web site address — that reflects the site name. The URL is the address that you see in the address bar of a Web site. For example, you don’t want a Web site named TheKittenPalace.com if your target topic is dogs or tropical fish. If you look at Web sites, you’ll find that
the content on the site is usually closely related to the site name. Domain names come in two flavors: free and premium (or not free). A free domain name is usually used with Web pages that are hosted in a Web site community, whereas a premium domain name is usually hosted all by itself. Think of domain names like a neighborhood. An apartment in a complex at the
end of the street usually has to share the same address as several other apartments (those in the same building), the only difference being the apartment number. Houses, on the other hand, have the luxury of their own address. Free domains are available from a number of sources, including
* Google Pages: (www.pages.google.com): A free service you can use when you create your Web pages with Google Page Creator.
* Geocities: (http://geocities.yahoo.com): This free Web hosting provider has been around for a while. If you don’t mind someone else controlling the ads on your site, it’s a good option.
* Homestead: (www.homestead.com): Another free hosting provider, Homestead offers templates that make creating your Web site fast and easy.
* Free WebSites: (www.freewebsites.com): This service hosts your site for free, but requires that you allow them to advertise on your site. The ads are small, but you don’t control them.
Most of these services provide a Web page creator tool that lets you design your pages in minutes. You can literally sign up for an account and have a Web site online in less than an hour, and that’s if you’re being very creative about putting your site together. The problem with pages like these — pages that are part of a community — is that you don’t have a direct URL. The URL for the site — which, if you remember my advice, should reflect the actual topic of your site — is usually something quite generic, like www.yoursite.community.com. Nothing’s wrong with being generic — if you don’t mind ending up buried in search results — and nothing’s wrong with being buried in the search results if you don’t want to generate income with AdSense. Oh, and one more thing. These pages are usually free because they’re preloaded with advertisements from which you make no money. However, that would make it even harder for you to generate an AdSense income with these pages. If you do want to generate income with AdSense, your Web site address should reflect your site name and it should be a direct address. A direct
address states www.yoursite.com loud and clear and nothing else. I don’t know about you, but I’m much more likely to type that than to type http://www.example1.com/ Search-Engine-Optimization /dp/0470175001/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208363273&sr=8-10 if I’m looking for a particular type of Web site. Getting set up with a premium Web site that provides you with a direct address is a little more involved. You first have to purchase a domain name, which you can do from the following companies:
* GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com): Offers regular sales on domain names. You can also purchase your domain name, hosting, and other Web site services through GoDaddy.
* Register.com (www.register.com): Also offers domain names as well as hosting packages and other services. You can order domain names online through Register.com or by phone.
* NameSeek (www.nameseek.com): This company strictly sells domain names. It might even be more accurate to say this company negotiates the sale of domain names between current owner and purchaser. After you have a domain name in hand, build the site and upload it to the
Web. Many of the companies that sell you a domain name (or URL) will also offer to host your Web site for a monthly or yearly fee. (Hosting is like having land on which to put a house. You host your Web site on a server somewhere or on your own server.) You don’t have to host with the company you purchased the domain name from, however. Any hosting company that you’re
comfortable with will do. I use GoDaddy.com because their pricing for domain names is good and they offer the convenience of Web site hosting as well. However, you have plenty
of options out there. Prices vary from one company to another, and what’s included with the domain name also varies. With some companies, you’re purchasing the name only. With others, you might be purchasing the name and security, the hosting, or any of a hundred or so other services. Review each company to find the one that suits you and ask others what
company they use. Find one that you like and then stay with it. That way, if you purchase multiple domain names, you can manage them all from one location. (For more on Web site hosting, check out the “Selecting the right Web host” section, later in this Pages.)
Getting with the plan Before you register your site, put some thought into what you want the content of the site to be. In fact, it doesn’t hurt to write a short plan for the site.
It doesn’t have to be a formal document, but getting your ideas on paper will help flesh them out and will also help you stay on track while you’re working through the site design and implementation. Some of the details to include in your plan are
* Site name: Remember, don’t get too cute, here. Make the name fit the site.
* Topic: You do know what your site will be about, right?
* Subtopics: Each of these will be a separate page or section of your site.
* Hosting: On what real estate will your site sit? You can use your own server or pay someone to host the site for you.
* Design: This includes the look of the site, the navigational structure, and even the kinds of images you want to include.
* Types of content: Will your site have only text, or will you also have video, audio, or downloads on the site?
* Special considerations: Do you plan to offer products for purchase? If so, include e-commerce capabilities. You may think of other aspects of your site that you want to address in your
site plan. If so, by all means, add them. Write it all down in as cohesive a format as you can and then put it away for a day or two. Come back to it after it’s had time to season a little and re-read your plan to see if it’s still as good an idea as you thought to start with.
Selecting the right Web host Web sites need a place to park. Like the land your house or apartment sits on, a Web host is the physical place on a network where the files that make
up your Web site are stored. This physical place has an address (the URL) that makes it possible for people to find the Web site, like a street address When you’re looking at Web hosting, the whole idea of parking your Web site somewhere can get a little complicated. How much space and bandwidth do you need? What about things like managing the domain, security, and having
an e-mail address to go along with the domain? These are all aspects you should consider when examining your Web site hosting options. In most cases, a domain hosting company has several tiers of hosting packages. The basic package usually gets you enough space on the server to
house a few dozen pages of text and light graphics. You may even be able to slide a video or two into the mix. From there, packages get progressively more involved until you have every
service imaginable for your Web site, from e-commerce and content management
to download capabilities and streaming audio and video. What’s right for you is determined by your needs, and you can always start with a smaller package and increase hosting capabilities if you find you need them at some later date.
One thing to keep in mind when you’re selecting your Web host is the way in which your Web site will be designed, technically speaking. If you’re writing your site from scratch with HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or some other programming language, you have less to worry about. But if you’re using an HTML editing program (like FrontPage or DreamWeaver) to design your Web site, you may need to have special extensions installed on your
site to allow file transfers from your computer to the server. These additional extensions usually add a few dollars extra to the cost of the hosting package. Knowing what you need before you get started could save you a few headaches and maybe even a little money.
Smart site design After you come up with a name for your site and figure out where it’ll be
hosted, it’s time to begin actually designing your Web site. You can deploy a few strategies that will make it easier to optimize your Web site for AdSense purposes.
First and foremost, keep in mind that the layout of your site will dramatically affect how your AdSense ads perform. This ain’t rocket science, by the way. All you really have to do is picture what most people do when they surf the Web. In general, a user nearly always uses a Web site in the same fashion. When a user clicks into your site, his eyes first take in the heading of the page, travel down the right side of the page, and finally move to the middle. The exception
to the normal state of affairs is when there’s something flashy in the middle of the page that catches the visitor’s eye first. The left side of the page is where most Web sites include the navigational structure, so users are less inclined to look there until they’re ready to move on to another page on the site. In Web site design, flashy isn’t usually a good thing. Neither is Flash-y. Flash is a Web design protocol that animates objects and allows designers to embed
video into a Web page. The problem with Flash is that it tends to hog a lot of resources, so it slows users’ computer performance down, which users hate. The fastest way to lose visitors is to bog their systems down with your Flash (or flash). Make your pages attractive, but also make it possible for those pages to load quickly even with (gasp) dialup service.
Because visitors nearly always approach a Web site in the same way, many designers have discovered that the most important information on a Web site should go in certain places. That’s why you often see that Web sites have a navigation bar on the left side of the page. Some sites include text links at the top of the page, and the most important content on the page is nearly always above the fold.
Above the fold is a newspaper term used to designate the placement of the most important story in the day’s news. Newspapers are folded about halfway down the page. When a reader picks up the paper, she always turns it so the title of the paper is on top. (This is human nature; we don’t like things displayed upside down.) So, the most important story of the day gets in the top
half of the page, above the fold. The same term can be used to relate to Web sites as well, though the orientation is a bit different. Because no fold is on a Web page, you have to think
in terms of a browser window. Essentially, the fold on a Web page lines up with the bottom edge of your browser before the page has been scrolled. (Scrolling a page involves using the page’s scroll bars to move the page up and down so you can view content that’s not visible when the page appears in your browser window.)
Figure C1 illustrates where the fold is on the page. The figure also includes labeling for other important elements of the page. A site visitor clicks your page and, in many cases, makes a determination about the value of the page before he ever scrolls down or moves the page in
any way. Essentially, you have only one shot to make a good first impression: Whatever a visitor sees when that browser window loads is, for all intents and purposes, what he gets. So, the most important elements of your site should be loaded into that area above the fold. Information that’s not quite as important should be placed below the fold.
For your AdSense strategy, this means placing ads smack dab in those sections of your site where a visitor’s eye is most likely to land, which are
* At or near the top of the page (either immediately above or immediately below the title of the site, depending on how well the ads integrate in that spot)
* Above the content, or at the least, imbedded in the content above the fold
* On the right side of the page, blended with the other content that usually appears in the sidebar
* On the left side and the bottom of a page (only effective when the ads blend well with the other elements of those sections) Figure C2 shows one of the most popular (and most effective) ad layouts. While you’re designing your pages, keep in mind that the areas shown in Figure C2 are most desirable for ad placement. That doesn’t mean that ads should dominate those sections or that ads can’t be effective anywhere else. It only means those sections are optimal for ads. Also, ads should be integrated into the content in those sections without being overpowering, and
they should logically fit with your Web site design.
Figure C1
Figure C2
