Adsense Clickthrough Rate

[jrowlinson]

Hi,

We have noticed a steady fall off in Adsense Clickthrough rate from April this year to date by about 40%. I can't discuss figures but it's been a big fall off. Anyone seen the same? PM mail me if you have experience or to [email protected]. We have a lot of sites (list at PTS: Unique Content Written By Experts....).

Thanks


John Rowlinson

 

[tifosi]

Hi,

We have a lot of sites (list at PTS: Unique Content Written By Experts....).

I wonder if that's part of the problem. Google are starting to consider interlinked networks like this in a less favourable light IMO, especially if a lot of them are hosted on the same C subnets. Even if they're not linking to each other.

It's all fuzzy logic and difficult to fathom. But that's google. I also think people are just getting used to seeing google ads on a site... maybe there's a name for it 'gOOgle blindness' especially for the standard 300x250 block.

S

 

[Skinner]

I have posted a few times over the last month with a few observations.

1, Ad Revenue going down.

2, Overall Traffic rising at 2x-4x the % of revenue drops.

3, Non Physical Referals / Affiliates are Down marginally each month.

4, Physical Affiliates are stable if not tiny growth.

 

[jrowlinson]

I wonder if that's part of the problem. Google are starting to consider interlinked networks like this in a less favourable light IMO, especially if a lot of them are hosted on the same C subnets. Even if they're not linking to each other.

It's all fuzzy logic and difficult to fathom. But that's google. I also think people are just getting used to seeing google ads on a site... maybe there's a name for it 'gOOgle blindness' especially for the standard 300x250 block.

S

but traffic is growing steadily and ecpms are actually growing (falling is dollars but that's down to exchange rate). Our traffic is up 2% a week at the moment. It's only the CTR that is falling.

I am going to see if I can get the Adsense bot to recrawl - maybe the ads are off target.

I can understand the interlinked networks falling but we have a really strong link presence from quality externals that are all genuine links from great sites. I doubt that we'd get penalised. If we did it'd appear in the SEPRS and it isn't. We are #1 for say 'sewing' etc.

I'll see if it's the targetting or blindness to the ads. I did think about using a random number generator to determine ad positions. I can float right, left and adjust vertical position easily using an algorithm. It would make you less blind if it changes all the time. In fact I think I'll do that this afternoon with my middle block and see if it works.

Thanks for the great feedback.

 

[ScottJ]

Do you not expect ad blindness to be a factor, after all Adsense is not an uncommon sight today, looks very easy to avoid clicking on if you know what I mean, your layout looks like it could be improved for better ctr.

 

[jrowlinson]

Do you not expect ad blindness to be a factor, after all Adsense is not an uncommon sight today, looks very easy to avoid clicking on if you know what I mean, your layout looks like it could be improved for better ctr.

Scott, how would you lay it out differently? I think the targetting is shocking on lots of pages.

Animal Testing in Asia - About Animal Testing (UK) is a silly example. It's about animal testing and they (google) thinks it's about offshore computer testing. There are lots of clues in the site, page and text as to what it's about.

It used to do OK and now it doesn't. I'll see what Google says.

 

[ScottJ]

Wow that is bad targeting, not good at all, if you have a rep ask if you can use google hints to help improve relevance I had to do that on one site that didn't work well.

 

[tifosi]

You might want to look at the typography a bit as well. The paragraphs are shockingly painful on tired eyes after a while. Not condusive to staying on the pages. I'd reduce page content by 40% - better for keyword density, increase font-size, change font colour to a mid grey to contrast with the white, and increse line-height to get a better line spacing.

Maybe try inline ads with someone like chikita as well

S

 

[jrowlinson]

Wow that is bad targeting, not good at all, if you have a rep ask if you can use google hints to help improve relevance I had to do that on one site that didn't work well.

I am not (unfortunately) a premium publisher. I have asked for hints. At one point I figured that the person at Google I was 'speaking' to was actually a computer. To every question - "The computer says Nahhh".

I have increased the font size and changed the colour to a dark grey - if you get a moment do you think you could let me know what you think?

If anyone has any bright ideas as to how I could make money along the lines of:

1. Directory listings
2. Affiliates in niche markets
3. Sponsored pages (not selling links for passingf PR though)
4. Classifieds
5. Questions forums - did think about user questions and answers though we have an ask an expert and get about 1000 questions a day. I think we'd get lots of questions and no answers.
6. Anything else....

I'd be happy to pay consulting etc for any bright ideas. You can mail me at [email protected].

Thanks again for your thoughts.

 

[retired_member32]

don't google frown upon that kind of expanding toolbar on the left hand side,if you miss click you accidently press a google ad???

mark

 

[stender]

don't mean to hijack the thread but can anyone tell me why his site is in google ok yet my site Noise consultants goes from page 1 of google 1 minute to delisted the next?

 

[tifosi]

don't mean to hijack the thread but can anyone tell me why his site is in google ok yet my site Noise consultants goes from page 1 of google 1 minute to delisted the next?

Potentially, content & keyword usage. Noise consultants is used a little too frequently, and is borderline keyword stuffing. Use the axiom... if it doesn't read well to a human, don't use it.

The ration of content to google ads is a little biased. Don't quote me on this but I get the impression googles page content algorithm will be checking this.

S

 

[stender]

It's funny that i have about 6 sites using that template and all were deindexed suddenly after ranking well previously so I don't think it's keyword stuffing. I can only think they blocked them all either by IP (all on same host) or i might of had them on analytics/webmaster tools. I think im going to have to redo the sites and stick on another host and do a reinclusion request.

 

[jrowlinson]

You might not like this greatly but:

1. I doubt that it's a hosting issue. if you see this video: Some SEO myths Matt Cutts kind of says that 5 sites is not a problem. My 400 might be though

2. I am hoping that my bacon will be saved because we have expensive content with each page having over 500 words of high value content.

3. Our sites are popular and well linked to.

So I would say that your issue is one of low quality content having negligible value to the visitor. This is what Google wants out and I guess they a check in their algorithm for content to ads. You site would fail.

If it was me I would not focus on moving server and asking for a reinclusion. It would make no difference. I would write (or have written) some great content of 300+ words for each page. Run that content through Copyscape.com and then request reinclusion.

Google wants to rank the best content highly. We always do our best to create great content. The day Google doesn't think our content is great we are out of the game.

Hope this isn't too frank.

 

[tifosi]

It's an important question, and maybe a new direction for the google algorithm in an effort to increase the value of google ads.

Raises a different set of question though, and maybe something for another thread:

How many unique sites are sensible for a single IP... important for virtual hosting and resellers alike. How many web developers/designers host their clients sites on a reseller account on the same IP/subnet, potentially sharing that with other reseller accounts? Do google have a limit?

How many 'unique' sites within a network of sites do google allow before penalties? Is it an argument that each site should be forcibly standalone, and not be linked to each other in any way - even potentially to the parent/source page that shows the listing of sites. Goolges way of penalising FFA's & link farms?

S

 

[tifosi]

You might want to look at the typography a bit as well. The paragraphs are shockingly painful on tired eyes after a while. Not condusive to staying on the pages. I'd reduce page content by 40% - better for keyword density, increase font-size, change font colour to a mid grey to contrast with the white, and increse line-height to get a better line spacing.

Maybe try inline ads with someone like chikita as well

S

Just be careful if reducing content that is doesn't potentailly gross google's invisible line of adsense blocks : content : keyword density ratios.

It's a part of the algorithm I'm pretty sure is now part of the page check.

S

 

[stender]

I have no doubt google binned them due to no value to the index, but it must of been a change of algorithm as they were ranking page1 or 2 for months and regulary being crawled. Im just concerned that all went at once as if someone looked into my sites and manually deindexed them all?

 

[jrowlinson]

I have no doubt google binned them due to no value to the index, but it must of been a change of algorithm as they were ranking page1 or 2 for months and regulary being crawled. Im just concerned that all went at once as if someone looked into my sites and manually deindexed them all?

Not so sure - you might have been reported as spam through websmaster central and then got a 10 second site review. I hear that people report sites higher in the rankings as spam. My betting is a human did this and not an algorithm. To fix it you need to create valuable content. You probably just got lucky for a short period and in fact Google was probably right to drop it (as I am sure you'll agree).

Created a new thread on the SEO forum for the maximum number of sites on a class C subdomain. It's something that I am concerned about.

 

[stender]

Yes may of been reported as spam but not all the sites. One may of been complained about but someone must of then worked out which other sites I had either by IP or analystics or webaster tools.

Thing is we're all guilty of publishing minisites which are just a page or 2 of text and adsense but you dont hear on here of them being de-indexed.

 

[Skinner]

If google have got whois tech, and they certainly have ip tech, maybe one gets reported and do they some sort of PRSS-a-like (a tool that checks within google not nom) on you ?

Was the sites using the same template and layout ?