Just a bit about search engine optimization.

You have heard the claims of individuals making a living on Adsense revenue. Personally, I find Adsense to be a nice way to supplement my income but it certainly is not generating enough for me to retire a millionaire. Ive definitely learned how to increase my Adsense revenue over time and Ill share with you what Ive learned.

Making money via Adsense is based on a number of different factors including which ads you display and where they appear on your website or blog. Here are some key factors to consider before placing your Adsense ads. The first is ad placement. Certain locations on your page are more successful at generating click through than others. Google has even documented the ideal placement of ads and determined that ads located above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold. Ads placed near content blocks and navigational items tend do well because users are focused on those areas of a page and take action.

While this information about ad placement is useful as a guide, I strongly recommend that you consider your users first when deciding on proper ad position. Think about user behavior on different pages and what will be most useful to them and their navigation of your website. You’ll find that what you think is the most optimal ad position isn’t always what you expect.

On pages where users are usually focused on reading article content, ads placed immediately below the end of the content generally perform very well. It is almost as if users finish reading and ask themselves what they should be doing next. Ads that are targeted can answer that question and get them clicking.

Ad format. Some types of ads do better than others depending on your content and layout. In my case, large rectangles in the middle of the content are best, while leader boards do not generate as much as income. Sky scrappers are the worst performers for me especially if they are on the right-hand side of the page. This is somewhat counter-intuitive to what I had originally thought. Experiment and measure the results via channels and see which formats work best for you.

The color of your ads. When ads blend into your content, click through rates can be improved, but sometimes ads that contrast with your web site colors work best. To improve your results, test a variety of ad colors to determine if different palettes generate better results. Short of testing the actual palettes offered by Adsense, there is really no other way to determine ad effectiveness.

Number of ad units. Websites are generally permitted to display three ads, a search box, and a set of ad links. Keep in mind that you don’t have to display all available ad units. In fact, you should focus on placing ads in a way that do not clutter your web page. Users going to your page and reading your content may respond to a single ad placement if it is in the right place on your web page.

Experiment with the factors above and see which combination works best for your particular website. Remember that not all sites do well with Adsense ads. Even if you get lots of traffic but your visitors are not interested in looking for ways to spend their money, they won’t be interested in your ads and won’t click through.