Adsense tips and tricks

Many webmasters have made very successful websites by using Google's Adsense and for some, it is now their sole job. When you are running a large site, a small change in the way that the Adsense code is placed on your site can make a substantial difference in your income.

The best way to find out where to place your Adsense banner, what colour and what type of banner to use is to try different combinations. Though it does not harm if you start out with the methods that another webmaster find good.
Never click your own Adsense Banner

If you can see the Adsense banner, it will work. Do not test if it, as Google is quite against this.
Never explicitly encourage Adsense Banner clicking

Do not ask friends or family to click your ads. Google not only dislikes it, but it can sometimes confuse the intelligence used to select advertisements.
Ad placement

The best location for the ads are within the content, but still visible without scrolling down the page.
Color

Adsense banners perform better when the border and background are the same colour as your page.
Blend with navigation

As an alternative placement, Adsense ads do well if they are blended in and look like your normal site navigation.
Size

The large 336x280 rectangle banner or 160x600 wide skyscraper seems to perform best.
Drawing the eye

Placing images next to ads or above ads helps in attracting user attention.
Ad overload

It is often said that more is less, and the same goes for placing ads on websites. If a website has too many ads, the user just ignores them and they all perform poorly. If a website has a few well placed ads, they can get a better click through.
Search Box

If you are going to use the search box, place it on the top right corner of every page. This is where people expect it to be.
Focus on content

Don't forget why users are visiting your site. They are there for the content and only the content. Why spend a week improving your Adsense click through then you can spend a week improving your site content and number of clicks as a result.
Be different

If your site is similar to many other sites, users will be used to ignoring your Adsense banner.
Moderate to low priced keywords

Do not create a site that targets the highest paying keywords as they often have the worst click through rates. Find a niche topic and don't care if your ads are getting $0.03 or $0.50. It all comes down to getting more traffic and a better click through rate, not more per click.
Whitespace

Make sure that your site is not cluttered and there is sections of your site with clear space. This can be achieved just by having a wide margin between page items. With skill, whitespace can be used to guide the users eyes to the Adsense banners.
One topic per page

If you have only one topic per page, it will help Adsense find the best ads to show
Simple design

Keep the design of your site simple. It will give the user less design elements or eye candy to look at.
No moving / blinking page elements

All moving and blinking pages elements attract the users eye and stop the user from seeing the Adsense ad. No matter how small it is, if it moves it will attract the users eye.
Monitor your website statistics

Watch your website statistics to see what pages are attracting the users and what is not. Create more pages similar to your high traffic pages.
Experiment

Try many different styles and methods of placing your ads. Never settle on just one style until you are sure it is the best.
What to do next

Create more content. Content is the biggest key to create a site that earns good money with Adsense.

Written by Mary Nicole Hicks