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Web Ad Layout and Placement Strategies for Maximum Clickthroughs

Oct 14, 2005

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Don't Entice Your Visitors to Click
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You've optimized your keywords — what else can you do to ensure people are clicking the ads on your page (and making you money each time they do)? There are no absolute rules about placing advertisements and which layout options to choose, but Eric Giguere has some general guidelines to follow to maximize your site's potential.

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Keyword optimization ensures that the right advertisements are shown on your pages, but even well-targeted ads won't make you any money if no one clicks on them. After all, the fundamental premise behind pay-per-click advertising systems like AdSense for content is this: You get paid only when ads are clicked on. Ad layout and placement are therefore extremely important to your earnings as an AdSense publisher. Although there are no absolute rules about how to place advertisements and which layout options to choose, there are some general guidelines to follow—and that's what we're going to discuss.

Don't Entice Your Visitors to Click

First, a warning: Enticing or confusing visitors to click advertisements on your pages is specifically against the AdSense terms and conditions. Google's ad program depends on its capability to deliver well-targeted traffic to advertiser sites, and having people click willy-nilly on ads with no specific intention of actually seeing what the advertiser has to offer undermines the whole AdSense program. So don't ask visitors to click on your ads. In fact, Google says you can label them only as "Advertisements" or "Sponsored Links."

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