Left Sidebar vs Right Sidebar

[That Guy]

Where do you guys put the sidebar on your sites, left or right? I've been experimenting using the left sidebar with ads on the side bar but my traffic is limited and I feel like I'm not getting a very accurate picture of what works and what doesn't. So if anyone has actually tired this before, which one will get you a better CTR?

I'm asking this question mainly because I made the switch back to the right sidebar for one of my sites and today I actually got a couple clicks opposed to getting one or two a week. I'm thinking it might be a coincidence but I'm not too certain.

[yukon]

I try to keep a right sidebar, only because when the page is crawled by the Google bots, my sidebar (not important, zero content) is loaded last & will be at the bottom of the text only Google Cache page.

For me it's more of an seo thing, than it is for live traffic.

[Joesorrell]

I have a right sidebar
I think it's better for adsense (under post title) because people naturally look left to right

[Scott Henderson]

Why not run an A/B test and see for sure? Go look up Google Website Optimizer and run 2 different versions of your site, one of each type.

[JimmyRose]

I was just about to make a post about this. I just started going over my sites and optimising everything I can. I chose my biggest earner and swapped from a left sidebar to right. The adsense block is in the post after the first paragraph - none in the sidebar. So far it's been around a 30% increase in earnings!

Crazy huh?

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by Joesorrell

I have a right sidebar
I think it's better for adsense (under post title) because people naturally look left to right

Yeah, I was looking at the heatmap and it looked like people would generally look to the left, around the left sidebar region. So I thought I'd put some ads there since that's where people would look, plus most sites go with the right sidebar and though the change in scenery would make people click more.

Originally Posted by JimmyRose

I was just about to make a post about this. I just started going over my sites and optimising everything I can. I chose my biggest earner and swapped from a left sidebar to right. The adsense block is in the post after the first paragraph - none in the sidebar. So far it's been around a 30% increase in earnings!

Crazy huh?

Glad to see someone else has gone and done a test! But you said that your earnings have increased by 30%. What I'm wondering is how long have you actually been doing this test. I did it for two week with very poor results. My traffic would be increasing as well as my bounce rate, but I I got 2 clicks the first week and 1 click the second week.

Yesterday I changed it back to the right sidebar and woke up this morning to my highest paid click: $2.58! I also got two more click throughout the day. So in one day I actually surpassed the amount I made in those two weeks of testing.

Maybe my time period was too short, or maybe this was a coincidental, but how long was your test for?

[saladflorida]

for some reason i always have sidebar on the right. I am not sure why

[JSProjects]

If you're following the Google Adsense heatmap then it's ads on the left, content / links on the right.

[NestZone]

Do keep a right sidebar. Most users are more comfortable with a right sidebar than a left.

[JimmyRose]

Originally Posted by That Guy

Glad to see someone else has gone and done a test! But you said that your earnings have increased by 30%. What I'm wondering is how long have you actually been doing this test. I did it for two week with very poor results. My traffic would be increasing as well as my bounce rate, but I I got 2 clicks the first week and 1 click the second week.

Yesterday I changed it back to the right sidebar and woke up this morning to my highest paid click: $2.58! I also got two more click throughout the day. So in one day I actually surpassed the amount I made in those two weeks of testing.

Maybe my time period was too short, or maybe this was a coincidental, but how long was your test for?

I changed mine maybe a week and a half ago. But there was a steep increase in earnings overnight. It has stayed that way ever since. Literally nothing else changed so I put the increase down to sidebar alone. Traffic has remained consistent before and after, and so have click values

[johnweyer]

Love that google heat map. If that was accurate, wouldn't google place all Adwords ads on the left of a search results page? People have been trained to click on ads in the right column. just my opinion. no proof.

[premiumlinks99]

I would say people most of the time prefer right sidebar from my experience. However, recently I have placed a left sidebar on one of my site filled with ads and my CTR has increased, so I guess you can also consider this option, maybe it will work out for you as well.

[Rough Outline]

A right sidebar has always been most effective for me.