The internet is filled with advice about optimizing your blog for increasing subscription, social media sharing, number of comments etc. However no optimization works in isolation. So when you optimize your blog for maximum RSS subscriptions, it has got an impact on other aspects like number of comments you get or your adsense income. The mistakes that I talk about in this post, were committed by me while trying to optimize the blog for something else.
1. Too many adsense blocks in the page
Most people believe that more is better. They try to put as many adsense blocks as possible in the hope that it will increase the probability that the user will click at least one of the blocks.
3 adsense blocks will mean close to 15 text link ads. Not all niches have 15 advertisers fighting for a place on your page. If there are not enough relevant advertisements for your page, then the remaining advertisement is filled up with irrelevant advertisements that tend to pay way lower than other advertisements.
If you have a decent Click Through Rate (CTR) but much lower earning per click compared to the average for your niche then you may be suffering from this issue.
2. Using the same adsense account on new blogs
I hope you have already heard of the issue called “smart pricing”. This is a situation where Google decides that the quality of your visitors is not good enough for the advertisers and hence lowers the bid amount for your pages. While no conclusive proof is there (same as for most other aspects related to adsense), most experts believe that smart pricing is an account level issue.
So when you place adsense blocks on a new blog that does not have enough content, it may result in a lowering of earning from your more established blog due to smart pricing.
3. Too much distraction for the user
Each outgoing link on a particular page is a potential competitor of the advertisements in your adsense blocks. All those facebook like buttons, retweet button, links to your own pages and links to your friends blogs are competing with the adsense block for a click from your user. The user can either click on one of the advertisements or he can click on one of the several other options that you provide him. So all those announcements regarding a free giveaway or the extra large subscribe to rss buttons may be reducing your CTR and hence your adsense earning.
I am not suggesting that you should not link to your own posts or attract the user to your subscription box. But please be aware that they are reducing your adsense earning for the current month (hopefully the long term benefits will compensate it) and hence make the change after weighing the pros and cons carefully.
4. Too much confusion for adsense bot
This issue happens because of our eagerness to write catchy headlines. Please do not forget that the ads to display on your website are determined by a bot with the help of an algorithm. All those smart jokes that you use in your post may be confusing at best or misleading at worst for the adsense bot. That is what gives rise to complaints about irrelevant advertisements.
A little thought before publishing the post can greatly reduce this problem. So if you were going to write about “gifts that I think are cool for your pop”, then you may try “best father’s day gift ideas”. Trust me adsense bot is going to love you for being so nice.
I shall love to hear your thoughts and learn some more tips from you. Please share your thoughts on the topic in the comments section below.