If you have a WordPress blog that you want to monetise with Adsense, then this post is made for you. Here are some pointers on how to do that and on how to maximise your revenue. Don't fret, because it is very easy. However, you just need some basic guidelines to get you started. After adding Adsense to a few WordPress blogs, you'll find that it becomes second nature. Or third, or something.

Anyway...

To have any kind of success with Adsense and WordPress, one big factor is traffic levels. Like many things, Adsense is a numbers game. Let's consider a CTR (click through rate) of 2%. That means that 2% of your visitors are likely (not guaranteed!) to click on your Adsense ads. It goes without saying that the more traffic your site receives, the more clicks you'll get and the more revenue you'll generate.

So, the obvious factor you need to address is traffic. You must always strive to increase the traffic to your site. To tackle the traffic issue, you can use Google Analytics to target search phrases that are already bringing traffic, you can buy some good links that bring traffic, and you can do some keyword research to generate new content. There are lots of ways to boost your traffic. Get clever!

Let's assume you already have good traffic levels. The next factor you can address to increase Adsense revenue is your CTR. This is an art in itself, but it's easy to learn the basics.

What things affect how visitors respond to your ads - i.e. what affects your Adsense CTR?

1. relevance of adverts to the content of your page
2. the colour scheme used on your Adsense block
3. positioning
4. how the text on the page flows around your Adsense
5. how many other adverts are on the page
6. size of the Adsense block

Testing Your Changes

Before we have a closer look at the above points, it's important to say a word about testing. You should be thorough and make a note of the changes you make and the effect your changes have on CTR. I create a document for each site I run titled "Adsense Tracking For XXXX", in which I have a dated entry for each change I make. I record the date of the change, what the change was and the previous CTR. This means that after making several changes, I can review my notes and determine what the size/colour scheme/positioning/etc were for the highest performing Adsense blocks.

To do this properly, you must use channels to track your different Adsense blocks. I name my channels like this, for example: "spgazette - 300 x 250". At the moment, that channel represents all occurrences of that block on all pages, but if I wanted to get super rigorous I could create a channel for every page and size. I don't need that amount of details at the moment (and I'm lazy ).

Adsense Relevance

This is important: make your content clear. Signal to the Adsense machine very clearly what your content is about by using headings wisely. Using the HTML editor in WordPress you can assign your headings by wrapping them in <h2> and </h2> (or <h1> for the first one). You must do this to appropriately title sections of your content for your readers' benefit too. You can also use other signals like bolding and italicising - appropriately - to emphasize keywords.

If the Adsense engine can determine more accurately what your content is about you will get adverts displayed that relate to your content and that your visitors are really interested in. And adverts targeted to your visitors mean higher click through ratios.

Adsense Colour Scheme

Take a screenshot of your page and paste it into a graphics editor (I use Fireworks). Sample the colours currently in use on the page and use those colours in your Adsense. Doing this helps to blend the adverts in better.

Positioning

Where your adverts are located on the page affects CTR. My favourite and most successful place is top left. My thinking is that people read from left to right, so the very starting point of where visitors start reading is the most prominent position. The further down the page you go, the more readers you lose. Position your ads where most readers are.

Note: test this. It may not always be the case, so play around with positioning to find the most successful place.

Start with top left.

Text Flow

If you can embed your Adsense actually into the content so that text flows around the adverts, you will probably increase CTR. You can accomplish this using floats in CSS. I'm going to publish a case study very soon where I show you how to embed some Adsense in WordPress and force the textual content to flow around the adverts - as though the adverts were actually a part of the content. Fancy a video tutorial?

Adsense Saturation

You know as well as I do that the more adverts on your page, the more blind your visitors become to them. You need to find the optimum number of ads your page can display, beyond which you start making your visitors run for the back button. You don't want visitors clicking away immediately on finding your clumsily Adsense loaded page because they couldn't find your content!

Size Of The Adsense Block

Not all Adsense shapes and sizes perform the same and there is no strict rule that guarantees that a 120 x 600 skyscraper will perform the best on all pages. The size of your Adsense is a factor you can change, so start varying it and record the results. If you haven't tried skyscrapers in your sidebar, then do that now.

In Summary

OK, this post turned out to be more of a general overview than a "how to" tutorial. It's helped me realise that an Adsense case study is required - so stay tuned for that. It will probably be the next post I make.

I'm excited because we're going to learn a lot about increasing Adsense CTRs in WordPress!