Chapter 2: Getting Started with GOOGLE ADSENSE

The first step in getting started is to join the AdSense program. As we mentioned earlier, you must be approved by Google in order for your account to be created and begin earning money.

The next question for most people is what do you do to get approved? You can find out by visiting the policies that Google has published on their site at http://www.google.com/adsense/policies.

The primary element for being approved by Google involves the content on your website. Almost all websites that are not approved are ultimately rejected because of their content. Either they did not have any or not enough content. Or, in some cases, they did not have good content. This means that the content was not informational, that it was primarily based on attracting search engines. Google has achieved its level of success by being able to easily and quickly discern junk content from quality content. Do not try them on this. Take the time to ensure that you have good content on your site.

As a result, websites that are approved by Google are those that have a decent amount of real content on them. This content could take on a variety of forms and might include many different topics, but the key point is that the content must be present.
There is another reason why some websites will not be approved. If your website is highly specialized then it would be difficult to find ads to place on your site. In this case, usually the only ads that would be available would be from competitors so it just would not make any sense to put AdSense ads on the site.
Other sites which are typically disapproved include those that exist for the sole purpose of creating search engine content. For the most part these sites usually do not have any real content, which leads us back to the primary reason why many sites are not approved.

So, now that we have discussed the importance of having content on your site, how much content is enough content? That is a good question. One or two articles is usually not going to cut it. You need at least 30 articles on your website and each article should be around 400 or so words long. You do not want to go above that because anything above 450 or 500 words is just wasted effort.

Also critical is making sure that you update your content on a regular basis. It is not enough to place three dozen or so articles on your website and then leave them there forever without updating them. If this seems like a daunting task to you, especially with all of the other tasks that you need to handle, keep in mind that it can be made easier by simply hiring someone to create quality, original content for your website. The cost is really quite negligible when you consider the benefits that you receive in return by ensuring that your website remains updated, such as more quality ads, increased traffic, etc.

What Comes Next
After you have been accepted by Google the next step is to make sure that you take every opportunity possible to maximize the program for the best results. One way to do that is by formatting your ad blocks. You may recall that earlier we discussed the fact that Google will allow you to choose the types of ads that will go on your site as well as how you want those ads to be displayed. The ultimate goal is to make the ads seem as though they are actually a part of your site. Under no circumstances should your ads be jarring to the rest of the site or overtly stand out. This may be surprising to you at first, but you have a greater chance of having a visitor click on the ads if you situate them in such a way that they blend in with your content. There are many different ways in which you can do this, including using elements such as font type and size, color scheme, etc.

We do need to point out here that Google AdSense does make graphic or image ads available. For the most part, text ads are going to produce better results because they do not look as much like ads, but just in case you are curious, they are made available by Google.

Ad placement is another critical component. In addition to determining how you want the ads to look, you also need to determine the best place on your site to place the ads. There is an old real estate adage that says the most important thing is ‘location, location, location.’ In terms of online advertising, it could be said that these ads are much like virtual real estate. It all depends on where you place them as to what kind of results you are going to receive.

Remember that the more an ad stands out as an ad, the less likely it is that a visitor will click on it. So, your goal is to make ads look less like ads. You really need to analyze your pages on an individual basis because what works on one page may not work so well on another page. For example, suppose you have a lot of text on a particular page. This is one instance where you might find that an image ad will actually perform more effectively. This is something that you will need to decide on an individual basis.

In terms of exactly where the ads will be noticed the most, it is generally best to place ads as close to the top of the page as you can. Why, you may ask? This is the first place the visitor is going to look and in the event that they decide to exit the page without going all the way to the bottom you avoid the chance that they may not ever even see the ad at all.

Another option would be to place them on the side of your webpage. In this case, most people place the ads on the right side of the page because most people read from left to right.

Another factor to consider is pages that you update on a regular basis. Ads should absolutely be placed on those pages because it is those pages that most visitors are likely to visit first as well as bookmark. Even if it’s not the home page, it can still be tremendously helpful to place an ad there if it is the most popular page on your site.

At this point we do need to cover something quite important that you may not be aware of if you are just starting out with Google AdSense. Under no circumstances should you directly ask your visitors to click on an ad. It is inappropriate, unprofessional and even unethical. Your visitors will very quickly become annoyed and you could even be at risk for losing your acceptance to the program as Google expressly prohibits this.

Keyword Research
After you have decided where you want to place the ads on your site, there is still some more work that needs to be done. This involves a bit of research. You will need to do some research to determine the appropriate keywords for your website. This is actually very important because it will impact the types of visitors that arrive on your site as well as the way in which AdSense determines the ads that will be assigned to your site.

Most people who are just getting started make the same mistake. They assume that very expensive keywords will generate more income for them. This is actually not the case. It can be quite tempting to go this route, but when you choose keywords you need to keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to get the most clicks possible. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Suppose you choose a keyword that has a pay rate of $0.80, but it is not highly focused for your website. As a result, you receive only a handful of clicks. To make matters even worse, traffic to your site begins to drop.

Now, let’s suppose that you choose a keyword that has a pay rate of $0.30 and it is very targeted to your website. Your traffic begins to pick up and receive far more clicks. Even though the pay rate for the keyword is actually much less you come out farther ahead because you are receiving more clicks.

The important key is to make sure that the keywords you select are relevant to the content on your web page. Suppose that you have a webpage with content about heirloom roses. Good examples of highly relevant keywords would be heirloom rose seeds, heirloom rose varieties, heirloom rose catalogues, etc. Bad examples would be gardening catalogues, rose bouquets, etc. The keywords you select should be highly relevant and highly targeted.

How to Research Keywords
There are many different ways in which you can research keywords for the AdSense ads that will be placed on your site.

One method that you can use is to research different keyword popularity through your Google AdWords account. This is a particularly good method because it will not only help you to research keywords but will also help you to research cost as well.

AdWords Keywords Tool is an excellent tool that can be used for researching keyword variations and alternates.

Keyword Analyzer is another helpful tool that will give you a variety of different key phrases that have been entered by users on different search engines.

WordTracker is considered to be one of the best tools on the market. Their tool will suggest the top 1,000 keywords. It is also a great tool for discovering the most relevant keywords for your particular site.

Keep in mind that selecting the right keywords really is very important. When you select the most relevant keywords you will notice that your clickthrough rate increases accordingly.

Good content goes hand in hand with good, relevant keywords. If you already have a website with existing content then all you need to do is to fine tune that content in order to maximize your potential profits. One of the most common mistakes that many people make is to lavish keywords on their website. There is no doubt that optimizing your website for search engines is a good idea but you do not want to run the risk of overdoing it. Your website should not be so cluttered with keywords that they overshadow the content of your page. The whole idea is to provide a good experience for your visitors so that they will be encouraged to click on ads, not so that they will be so offended by your site that they immediately choose to exit it without even looking around.

The content you place on your site should be informative and useful. It should make sense. Everything should also be relevant. In addition, you need to make sure that you have enough content on your site that Google has an easy time of placing relevant ads. They should not have any problems determining the focus of your site.

Furthermore, you need to make sure that each of your pages has a different page title. The title of each page should be specifically based on the content for that page. You should never have page titles that are vague or generic, such as Page 2, etc. Page titles should not be long, but should instead be precise and descriptive.

Tracking is Important
Another mistake that is commonly made is failing to track results. The only way you will know if you need to make adjustments in order to increase your profits is to track your results. Fortunately, Google offers a really good tracking feature. Even better, it’s free. This tool can be used to track the ads that appear on certain sites. This tool is known as Channels.

URL channels offer you the ability to track your web site’s performance without changing any of the code for your ads. The only thing you need to do is to enter either the full URL or even part of the URL in the channel.

Custom channels offer the opportunity to track your site’s performance according to the criteria that you have specified. The factors that you specify are entirely at your discretion. This is a very flexible tool that will allow you to track exactly what you are interested. You can track literally dozens of channels at the same time.