1st page of Google but no clicks

[CatherineMay]

The site in my signature is on the first page of Google above the fold (at least it's above my fold.)

It's never been a big money earner in terms of adsense (I've yet to have the luxury of knowing what that's like), given that there's only 880 local searches per month. When I bought the domain, the searches were shown as much higher. But now that I'm on the first page (I've been all over the map), I'm surprised that I'm not getting more clicks. In the last few days, maybe I've had one or two.

I'm wondering if the way the ads look is the problem. The text of the ads seems small to me, although I've set the setting to large. I don't like all that white space between the ad block and the title, but don't know how to fix that. On another forum, one related to the theme, someone with much more knowledge than I have said there's a paragraph tag above the ad, but he didn't know how to remove it, and I sure don't. This other person also said to try using negative numbers to reduce the padding without telling me how exactly to do that.

Is the text small because of all the white space that is taking up room?

I'm on the outer limits here of my website expertise here, and would appreciate some help/feedback.

[IM Ash]

Bunions ... it must have been a lot of fun creating that site... lol!

Anyway, from what I see your site is in the 5th position, which means you not going to get much traffic. With such a low search volume (880) you will need to target related terms and create more pages on your site, and you will have to SEO each page as though it were a new site (that's what I do).

But first, you should try and get your main term to the top of Google, that should bring you 10-20 visitors/day.

The problem with your ad on your site right now is that it is the wrong ad type. You are using a "728x90 leaderboard" which needs the entire length of your header to display correctly (maybe more).

You should remove that ad and replace it with a "300x250 med. rectangle" or something similar. And keep the links blue to start of with!

[MattAdamo]

Hey Catherine,

I would think about it like this: if you were someone who was interested in buying a bunion related product and you went on your website what would you do?

In my personal opinion, i think you should change to a 300x250 or 300x300 box and left justify it in your content. Also, like Evela8 said, i would make the links blue. Even though their ads and you want them to blend in. If you hide them too much than they wont ever get clicked.

But as always, no one can give you better advice then testing it for yourself. Test the placements to 1000 visitors and see which one makes you more money.

Hope this helped -Matt

[DPM70]

Hi CatherineMay,

BTW, you're in 10th place for Google UK (as far as I see it).

You need a word in here: "It is this enlargement that is you see as a bump "

There's a "n" here; "n Another genetic predisposition is flat feet" not sure why?

All in all your page is very informative - but it seems a bit bland.

I think you need to decide on the monetization method. Is it Amazon or google adsense? Maybe trying a bit of both?

I would put the Adsense links (above the article in Blue text links rather than black - the actual title links)

I would also try putting another adsense box in the top right area where your links to the rest of the site posts are. (again - blue links)

[CatherineMay]

I have already tried a rectangle ad block, but the links weren't blue. I thought the ads were supposed to blend in with the text. Also, when I did the 300 x300 block it was on the right, not the left.

I guess I just need to test some more.

[seoguru1]

is that 880 exact or broad match?

If you assumed you would get 10% of the traffic in the #1 spot, then that's 88 visitors per month, about less than 3 visitors per day. You are currently in the #5 spot, so you should be luckly to get maybe a couple of visits per week for a keyword with that kind of search volume.

If you were expecting more, consider it a lesson learned. Keywords with less than 1k searches per day delivery practically no traffic... even in the #1 spot. On a keyword like that and with a 1% conversion rate, you might get 1 conversion a month. If you look at things that way, then you just need to duplicate what you did 30 more times on different keywords to generate 1 sale per day. Do it 300 times and you will get 10 orders a day!

If this is the 1st time you have ranked a keyword, my advice is take it as a win and now test you skills at a more competitive keyword with more search volume. Keep upping the challenge and eventually you will be tackling keywords with 100k or more search per month. That is where you will really search the traffic roll in and generate a sustainable income

good luck!

[Josh MacDonald]

Honestly the ad placement and ad formats are not that good at all.

[CatherineMay]

Thanks, DPM70, for the proofreading. I've corrected the mistakes.

I do make some Amazon sales from other sections of this site. Each post targets a specific bunion aid product, and I usually make a couple of sales a week, so all is not lost. Before "panda" I was making a lot more sales. Yes, these are inexpensive products, but this was my first try at creating a "real" website. I can't even remember why I ended up with this niche. But I can tell you that now I'm very conscious of the kinds of shoes I see women wearing, especially the shoes my young adult daughters wear. They wish I would shut up about it!

I purposely do not have adsense on the product pages.

[IM Ash]

Originally Posted by CatherineMay

I have already tried a rectangle ad block, but the links weren't blue. I thought the ads were supposed to blend in with the text. Also, when I did the 300 x300 block it was on the right, not the left.

I guess I just need to test some more.

There are no set rules with Adsense. What works for one site may never work for another site. As you said: you need to test more, but to test effectively you will need to generate more traffic.

[CatherineMay]

The 880 searches is exact. Again, when I bought the domain, the Google Search Tool was showing around 3,000 exact.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by seoguru1

is that 880 exact or broad match?

If you assumed you would get 10% of the traffic in the #1 spot, then that's 88 visitors per month, about less than 3 visitors per day. You are currently in the #5 spot, so you should be luckly to get maybe a couple of visits per week for a keyword with that kind of search volume.

O__________O

10% for the #1 position on Google on page 1... Try again.

Originally Posted by CatherineMay

The 880 searches is exact. Again, when I bought the domain, the Google Search Tool was showing around 3,000 exact.

Yeah that's unfortunate. Even if you see the local search trend on google keyword tool, there was a huge spike months before. You still get 1900 exact matches globally though, and like another warrior said, you're also first page in the UK.

[esdavis]

Originally Posted by CatherineMay

I have already tried a rectangle ad block, but the links weren't blue. I thought the ads were supposed to blend in with the text. Also, when I did the 300 x300 block it was on the right, not the left.

I guess I just need to test some more.

Hi, Catherine.
When they say to blend the ads, they mean to blend the text color of the ad to be similar to the plain text color of your content and the title of the ad to the title type wording on your site. It's pretty much always been the recommendation that people expect links to be medium blue, so if you want them to know it's a link, you need blue. If the words are black, they don't see a link there. Black or grey links, underlined or not, won't make viewers think LINK.

Regarding that paragraph tag, if you go to View Source in your browser, and look just above the spot where your adsense code is inserted, there are two tags (<p> and </p>) Those represent an empty paragraph, which adds an extra set of spacing above the ad.

I am seeing that set of paragraph tags on other pages in the same place, so my guess is that it is incorporated by accident in the theme. If you're using Wordpress, send me a PM and let me know what theme you are using. Maybe I can help.

[DPM70]

Originally Posted by macdonjo

Honestly the ad placement and ad formats are not that good at all.

Yep - another useful comment.

[CatherineMay]

Susan...thanks...sent you a PM.

[ureshii]

You should DEFINITELY use large rectangle (336x280) ad block instead of 728x90 there. And use blue color for the links, blue has better click through rates for a link, maybe because people have associated "blue" with "active links" since the beginning of the Internet.

[ljanak1]

I am on the first page of both Yahoo and Bing, but not on Google. Help! Site in signature

[friedman]

Originally Posted by ljanak1

I am on the first page of both Yahoo and Bing, but not on Google. Help! Site in signature

My dogs have sites on page 1 of bing and yahoo... That's easy...Backlinks and spun articles...Won't work for google now though with Panda...

You need good, fresh unique content and social natural appearing backlinks - lots.

[SergeyZ]

I would change the focus of the site. Someone searching for "bunions on feet" already knows what bunions are and is looking for a way to treat it. I would change the headline to something like "Bunions on Feet - A List of the Best Treatment Options" or something similar. People with bunions have a problem and your site should provide the solution.

I would also recommend putting the Amazon links in text. For example, you can reference a product and state how its use can help treat this painful condition. Thus, if someone is interested they'll click the link and you'll make money.

[indoiklanbaris]

First of all..It's so weird..In my opinion..Maybe your site's description is not interesting enough so people don't eager to click your site url..in other words your site CTR(click through ratio) is very low..

[MTLSEO]

With such a low monthly searches (800) don't expect to make much from AdSense even if your in 1st place on Google

[alanross]

A web site with 880 exact monthly searches , with say around a typical 1% conversion rate, the site ranked no.1 would get say 50% of that 880, so they would typically get 4 sales a month.

If your site is lower down in the page, you wont get any sales im afraid
You need a stronger keyword to go for, look for exact match with at least 3000+ searches month.