Building sites around adsense is a skill in itself and something that can be done repeatably. There are many “make money from adsense” schemes that you can buy into but as if I’ve said throughout this site, there is nothing particularly secret about doing any of this.
If you…
- Read through this site thoroughly
- Work at creating good content that people will be interested in reading
- Stick at it
…you will be able to build a nice portfolio of sites capable of generating a long term future income. Remember this How to Build a Website guide is not about flash in the pan instant money making schemes. If you are looking for that kind of information then feel free to head off somewhere else, there are many site’s geared up to taking your money in exchange for the secrets of an instant fortune – so good luck with that. But for those of us who realise that most things in life take a bit of work – read on!
In this article we look at how to maximise your earning potential by targeting search engine traffic.
Adsense SEO Guide
If you are looking to fund your site using Google’s Adsense then it is important to think about how you are getting your visitors. Clearly there is little point buying in traffic using PPC campaigns as you will find it hard to impossible to make a profit. If your site is not highly relevant and has a low quality adwords score then the cost of running your pay per click campaign is going to cost you much more than you will ever get back from the adsense ads.
It is critical that you are able to get free traffic through natural search engine listings. The profit you are making on your site is essentially generated by that you are getting search engine traffic for free that you are then selling on to to other sites who are able to monetise it by selling those visitors other goods and services. This is why you must get your traffic as cheaply as possible (ie for free!) and then sell it on for the maximum price.
Targeting your Site for Adsense
Regular readers of this site will not be suprised to learn that there is no secret to Adsense SEO techniques, and our own beginners guide to search engine optimisation will cover the basics that you will see repeated all over the web, including on Google’s own webmaster guide.
When working with adsense you will need to research your keywords carefully, here are some top tips to getting started:
- Investigate keywords and phrases that you have a realistic chance of ranking for. Use Google’s adwords tool to conduct basic research, you won’t need anything more sophisticated than this to begin with. Look for lower volume keywords that will have lower competition yet still have a decent average cost per click value. You want to look for something that will pay out a dollar or so else it isn’t worth chasing.
- Target phrases that are related to action, you do not want people who are just surfing around randomly coming to your site. These people are not looking to transact and are unlikely to click through your ads. Look for traffic that has some kind of goal or destination. Perhaps they are looking to buy something, or answer a problem. Think about “How to…” or “Should I…” type questions.
Pack your site with content. It might be tempting to try and provide incomplete information but in the long run you are better off building good articles that will hopefully become an authority on that specific question. This will provide much more traffic and if you get it right your visitors will have their answer but will then need a further site to buy their product from to solve their problem.
Through adsense you will be giving advertisers the opportunity to have their product right in the middle of your content which is being read directly by people who are good quality leads – just the kind of people they want clicking through their ads. So you then get a click through and they get a great lead – everyone is a winner!
Remember to read the adsense terms and conditions carefully, it is important to follow their rules and avoid getting cut off. Don’t be tempted to play the system as you will get caught out eventually and all that work is wasted. Follow the simple goal – make good content for real readers – and you can’t go too far wrong.
High Adsense Conversion Rates
By getting this kind of targeting right you will find that you achieve high ad conversion rates. This means that you can confidently target low traffic keywords and know that your site will rank at number one in Google for them and although you will not see 1000′s of visitors streaming through your site this won’t actually matter as you will find that a high percentage of your traffic is actually converting.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that high traffic rates is the key to making money with adsense! I see many beginners spend hours and hours trying to build a high profile presence on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and although these sites can be useful this should be down on your priority list. Good content and backlinks is the key to long term success.