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HOW TO INCREASE YOUR ADSENSE CTR AND EARN MORE
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I don’t usually write about the behind the scenes part of blogging, but if you are not a blogger or website developer, there’s a good chance that you’re unaware of how many hours goes into preparing a blog post. For a DIY blogger like myself, there is the time spent creating new projects, which for me is pure fun. But then you have to try to get great photos of your finished product. For this non-photographer, I usually have to take dozens of pictures just to get a few good ones. Then I need to sort through them all and pick out the half way decent ones. And since I have such a crappy camera (yes, I’ll blame it on the camera instead of the user), I end up spending endless time editing the photos so that the colors in my pictures actually look like my project. Finally, I need to write up my post and edit, edit, edit before it goes live.

So in order for bloggers to support their habit, most blogs run ads to earn a few extra dollars. One of the most popular ad networks is Google Adsense. Bloggers who use Adsense get paid when a reader clicks on one of the ads. So it’s important for bloggers and website owners to do everything they can to increase the click through rate, also referred to as CTR.

I was pretty unsatisfied with my CTR. I can’t actually quote my stats because it’s against the Adsense user policy and doing so can cause an Adsense account to get shut down by Google. But believe me when I say it was lacking.

So I reached out to my fabulous tech guy, Max (not my brother…different Max) from A1WebsitePro.com, to see if there was anything that could be done to increase my CTR. Well, he came up with a slew of website adjustments and since implementing them, my CTR has at least doubled and on occasion tripled. Yes, TRIPLED! I wish I could quote the numbers, but I don’t want to get into trouble. But what I will do is share the updates that Max made to my site  so you too can benefit.

Now, I am not a technical person, so while I will explain to you how Max sped up my WordPress-based website, I do recommend having your own technical person make sure that these updates are appropriate for you (or you can also consult with Max). Make sure to back up your site before making changes…just in case.

 

1. Robots.txt

The robots.txt file affects how Google crawls your site or lets media partners crawl your site to serve relevant content to visitors.

Here’s how my robots.txt looked BEFORE Max’s update:

 

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

Here is my robots.txt AFTER Max’s update:

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

What does it all mean? I dunno. But my CTR is up so I’m not complaining.

2. Increase Page Speed

We are a society of little patience so if a site takes too long to load, many people will simply click away. And if you’re content loads before your ads then a reader can scroll right past your ads before they ever get a chance to see them. So you definitely want to maximize your page speed.

You can check out your own page speed here: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

You can also download YSlow for insights into your page at yslow.org.

So now that you have an idea of how fast (or slow) your page loads, here are the updates Max made to speed up my page…

a. Optimize Images. Images take up a lot of space, so you want to reduce the size of your images for faster load time. To do this, Max installed a the plugin: EWWW Image Optimizer.

I am including the settings that Max used to set up all the plugins that he installed because I hate when I read a recommendation for a plugin and then I open it up and I don’t understand all the mumbo jumbo and then don’t know what to check off. Even though I still don’t understand the mumbo jumbo, hopefully these settings will help you if you choose to use these plugins.

EWWW Image Optimizer Settings:

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

b. Optimize WP database. There’s a lot of unnecessary data that gets stored on your WP site. Max installed the WP Optimizer plugin to address this. WP Optimizer helps reduce load time by removing: post revisions, unapproved and spam comments, kismet metadata from comments and other stale metadata, trackbacks and ping backs, and post trash among other things.

Optimize WP Database Settings:

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

c. Minify CSS and Java Script. In layman’s terms, CSS and JavaScript are languages that give instructions to your website. It is necessary to compress/minimize these, just like it is to optimize our images. To do this, Max loaded the Better WordPress Minify plugin.

Minify CSS and Java Script Settings:

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

d. Leverage Caching. Caching is the temporary storage of recently used information. Basically, “when a user returns to a Web page they have recently accessed, the browser can pull those files from the cache instead of the original server because it has stored the user’s activity. The storing of that information saves the user time by getting to it faster, and lessens the traffic on the network.” (citrix.com)

I already had the WP Super Cache plugin loaded to my site, but I had everything set on the default settings. Max adjusted my settings for better performance.

WP Super Cache Settings:

INCREASE ADSENSE CTRINCREASE ADSENSE CTRINCREASE ADSENSE CTRINCREASE ADSENSE CTRINCREASE ADSENSE CTRINCREASE ADSENSE CTRINCREASE ADSENSE CTR

e. Now that you’ve added some speed enhancing plugins, remove all unused and unnecessary plugins. Having extra plugins slows down your load time and I had a bunch of inactive plugins loaded to my site that I had tried at one time or another. So I deleted those and also went through my active plugins and eliminated the ones that weren’t really doing much for me.

3. Set Up A CDN

CND stands for Content Delivery Network. In simple terms (because I only know simple terms), it is a network of servers located all over the globe. When you set up a CDN, your content gets delivered to the viewer from the geographically closest server. And the closer the server, the faster the upload time. So say a viewer is in Australia, if they get served the content from a server in Australia, the page will load a lot quicker than if the content was coming from a server in the United States.

Max set up my site on a CDN. I don’t have instructions on how to do this, so I recommend having your tech person handle it or you can call Max…just don’t be hogging his time when I need him.  ;-)

So how did all these changes affect my site speed?

Here’s my load time BEFORE:

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

 

Here’s my load time AFTER:

INCREASE ADSENSE CTR

My current load time is four times faster. Before, my site was 49% faster than all websites tested. Now, my site is 93% faster than all websites tested. The effect on my Adsense CTR? My CTR is now consistently 2-3 times my prior CTR. Nuff said.

So I hope you find all this info useful for speeding up your blog or website. And I’d love to hear what some you have done to improve the performance of your web page.

Now check out some fun DIY’s…

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Cheers!

Jenise

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for email alerts and follow me on Pinterest Here!

 

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39 Comments on HOW TO INCREASE ADSENSE CLICK THROUGH RATES (CTR) & EARN MORE

  1. This is great I am saving it to have on hand because I really want to do more of this with my blog! I appreciate all the super information, you really went into depth and it is going to take me a while LOL!

    • Thank you Erika! It’s been really helpful for me so I expect you’ll get great results. Feel free to pin it so you can easily find it later on. :-)

    • Thanks Michelle. I’m glad it’s helpful. I always hate when I get a plugin recommendation but then I never have a clue how to set it up. So I wanted to give as much detail as I could. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with!

  2. I appreciate the fact that you took time to make screenshots of all the settings. Most people just recommend a plugin without going into any of the behind the scenes details. Thanks for making it clear!

    • Thank you Carrie. I’m glad I could help. But I know what you mean. I mean just the fact that I already had the WP Super Cache plugin loaded based on a recommendation that I had read. But I was under utilizing it because I didn’t understand what all the settings meant, so I never touched them. I hope the info helps!

  3. Wow – lots of great info in this post – I am going to have to read it again to understand some of it. I didn’t realize there was so much to know about the AdSense and optimizing it. Thanks.

    • Thanks Kimberlee. I didn’t know either. I’m so glad though that I found out. It’s really helped. If you make any of the updates, and do a before and after speed test, I’d love to hear the results!

    • Thanks Beverly. I don’t know much about blogspot, but I would guess that since it’s run by google that they would probably have it pretty optimized for their ads, although I could be wrong. But I have to say that I am very happy with wordpress and all the options it gives me to customize.

    • Oh my goodness, that’s awesome Katy. I’m so glad I could help! I hope you get some fabulous results. If you do the before and after speed test, I’d love to hear how much it increased!

    • Oh my, that’s too funny Margaret. But I have to admit, I don’t completely understand it all. Thank goodness I have my fabulous tech guy, so I don’t have to. :-)

    • Yep, that sounds like a good place to start, Melissa. like you’re much more tech savvy than me. I hope it works out and gives your Adsense a nice boost!

    • Thank you Lauren. Tell me about it. It makes my brain hurt too! I know for sure I couldn’t have done it by myself. But I hope the screenshots help everyone.

    • Thank you Denyse! Haha, I wish I understood it too. Lol. I wish I could help more with the CDN, but I’m sure there’s got to be a good CDN tutorial out there somewhere to help. And thank you for hosting each week!

    • Thanks Amanda! If your husband has any more recommendations, I’d love for you to come back and share here! Thanks for stopping by & I hope it’s all helpful, even though neither of us knows what it all means. (I have to admit that it’s comforting to know I’m not alone. Lol.)

  4. Thanks! I don’t currently use Adsense, but thank you for de-mystifying it a little. I pinned this post for future reference in case I decide to incorporate Adsense. And thanks for the tips on increasing load speed–something I need to work on even if I don’t incorporate Adsense into my blog!

    • You are so welcome! Load speed is definitely important for any website and will definitely make your readers happy. I hope the tips make a difference!

  5. Jenise,
    its a really good article..I read this before and I read almost every week..when I try to optimize adsense on my blog..
    http://www.ghoststoriesworld.com this is my blog. can you look the inner pages..
    it have 1200 pageview but clcik is 7-8 per day. Also CPC is very low..avg CPC is $0.5 per click.
    Can you look and give me a little suggestion.

    Thanks for your reading..
    Subhas

    • Hi Subhas, Those are low numbers. I took a look at your site. The load time doesn’t seem particularly slow. But you do only have two ads on your homepage and some pages only have one ad. Adsense allows you up to three ads, so you may want to take advantage of that.
      The CPC is based on what the advertisers are willing to bid and since your site has such a specific niche, that may be the going rate. I don’t know anything about your niche so it’s hard to give a more specific answer. Your CTR is about .56%, which is also pretty low. Sites that have advertisements specific to the niche, i.e. contextual ads, usually get more clicks because it’s specific to whatever info the reader is looking for. None of the ads that showed up on your site were contextual. I clicked through a few times and what came up was web hosting, a few for a technical college, and then Target. You can try narrowing the ad categories on your adsense, but I’m not sure there are too many that will fit your Niche. One thing I would recommend is trying to keep readers on your site longer. When I click past the first page, the interior pages have sidebar menus. Perhaps get those side bar menus up on the homepage so readers can immediately get a sense of what else they can find on your site. The more pages they click through, the more opportunity there is for them to see an ad they may be interested in. I am not an expert in the area, so I would suggest reaching out to a web developer who would have a deeper breadth of knowledge on the subject. Hopes that helps a little bit.

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