Posts Tagged ‘SEO’

This is a very sensitive topic for many people considering that most of the people reading this make little to nothing with their adsense or other ppc program. There are many many factors that can play in to this from the content to browser issues. I am going to talk about ad positions and how the mind of the reader reacts to a website and the most logical places to place adsense ads or any ad for that matter.

You may notice the adsense and ads all around this blog and if you are really nifty you might have noticed that there is not one place that you do not see an ad while scrolling through an article. This is the most important part of ad placement. I don’t mean just shoving ads in where ever you want. There is a science to this and a way to break your layout down to where you are not being intrusive but still putting ads in front of your visitors eyes.

People view a website much different than when they actually read an article or book. You will notice that most people, even yourself, will scan a page to see if you can get the info you want faster or to see if there was anything that catches your eyes. This is a big reason why titles, bold words, and pictures are extremely important to your website, and not just for SEO. The way people view a site is similar to the picture below:

Ad Positions

As you can see this is the most common way someone will view a website, from top left corner to bottom right corner. This is most likely how they will scan through the page and then come back and read or click on something after they have viewed most of the page. If you check out the picture above as a whole you can see that there is an ad in view almost the entire time. After i viewed this picture i actually saw the perfect spot to place another ad without being intrusive. Obviously under the sidebar, the perfect type of ad in this position would be an affiliate banner or paid banner.

You may have noticed that i do not actually put ads in posts themselves. This is a very highly read and seen place but it is intrusive and confusing for most people. Although you want people to click on your ads to leave your site, you also want to provide an inviting environment and provide a place that has useful information. That will give people the impression to come back at a later date, basically converting readers at this point.

You also want to make sure that your adsense or whatever ad network you use blends in with your site. This is a debatable topic because it has worked both ways for people but most will say to make sure it blends in. Also it will make the ads look like another part of your site, thus making people think they are finding something else on your site. That alone is another reason to make sure that your content is good and your site is inviting.

With these tips you should be able to break your layout down and find great places to put ads. Take advantage of your top left corner for sure since this should be your most prominent ad regardless if you use these tips or not. If you need any help with this feel free to contant me and i will help you for free.

I was just over at Mark Fulton’s DotSauce and i saw this amazing post about Matt Cutts telling all about blogging and SEO. I had not seen this slide show yet and was pretty amazed by what Matt has presented everyone with. About the only thing that is different with my blog and what he suggests is my link structure. I use the category in my link structure along with the post title. Other than that i am good to go according to his slide show, which he presented at WordCamp San Fransico this past Saturday. God i wish they would bring one of those here to Idaho or any domaining/internet event LOL. Matt even straight out suggests wordpress to get you started and says that it already has 90% of what you need for the mechanics of SEO. On top of that he shows you what plug-ins he uses. Here is the slide show with out further ado:

Mark made a list of highlights from the slide show:

Highlight Slides from the Presentation

• Slide #12: Use WordPress to get a head start!
• Slide #13: Basic but essential WordPress Plugins.
• Slide #21: SEO Tip – Choosing content keywords.
• Slides #22-#23: Ask yourself, “What will my visitors type?”
• Slide #26: Tweak your titles, URLs and content.
• Slide #27: Use keywords as categories and use dashes between words.
• Slide #29: Be passionate, write often, but don’t over do it.
• Slide #34: Be useful, creative and informative.
• Slides #36-#39: Use Google’s free Webmaster Tools to optimize.
• Slide #46: Save the Internet! Support net neutrality.
• Slide #48: WordPress Security – Block access to wp-admin with htaccess.