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Starting to get traffic, but ad CTR is absolutely terrible

by DCudmore
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi Warriors,

I have started ranking on the first page for several of my terms which I am very happy about. Unfortunately for the first just over 400 visitors that I've had to my site my CTR is <<1%.

The site in question is the one in my signature, if you could navigate to any of the pages and take a look at my ad set-up I would appreciate any advice you could give me to improve the layout.

Thanks!
#absolutely #ctr #starting #terrible #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author RutledgeGroup
    You might want to consider putting an opt in form on the home page above the fold. I didn't see any opt ins forms with out clicking to another page.
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  • Profile picture of the author DeskCoder
    Do some split testing ... I always had better CTR with the ads on the right of the content.

    Also, go find Joel Comm's Adsense guide ... It should still be somewhat relevant. He details all the top ad positions.
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      You need to test, and the first thing I'd test is ad link color.

      There is a reason all of Google's links are blue. Don't over think things. People like clicking blue links.
      Signature

      Nothing to see here

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  • Profile picture of the author lovboa
    Banned
    Why not make the title of that 336x280 ad block a different color other than black so it stands out?
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  • Profile picture of the author DCudmore
    @ DeskCoder
    Thanks for the recommendation, I'll look into it. I plan to do some split testing once I get a few #1-3 rankings that'll give me a few hundred UV per day or so to play around with.

    @ packerfan and lovboa,

    Thanks for the responses, maybe this is a misunderstanding I have. All the resources I have read have said to 'blend' the ads in with the content to achieve the best CTR, is this not true?

    I really struggle with this part of having a website just because I don't understand people who click on ads, maybe I should ask my parents if I can just watch them browse the internet for a few hours lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      If it were me I'd make all the links on my site blue, that way your ad links would blend in. People are used to clicking on blue links.

      You're not trying to trick people into clicking your ads. You want them to see them, if they're interested they know it's a link they can click.

      Right now yours just look like text. I have no way to know that I can click for information about what the ad is offering.
      Signature

      Nothing to see here

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      • Profile picture of the author DCudmore
        Originally Posted by packerfan View Post

        If it were me I'd make all the links on my site blue, that way your ad links would blend in. People are used to clicking on blue links.

        You're not trying to trick people into clicking your ads. You want them to see them, if they're interested they know it's a link they can click.

        Right now yours just look like text. I have no way to know that I can click for information about what the ad is offering.
        I totally agree they blend in...lol, seems like I was very wrong to think this way. In the process of reading adsense secrets 5 as we speak.
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  • Profile picture of the author mrgood
    Yes, they say to blend the ads, but you can even "overblend" it, like in your case. Take a look how it looks like in my page : hxxp://no1tutorials.net .
    Even with a site and ads like this, it is impossible for me to achieve CTR over 1 %.
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    • Profile picture of the author GGpaul
      First of all the top page with the pictures and what not. It's overlapping some text so that looks very tacky. Try having the link ad units at the very top of the page as well.
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