Introduction to AdSense

Adsense is a broad affiliate type service run by Google. The idea is that rather than you getting involved in an affiliate program with hundreds of companies that don’t have any relevancy to your site, or having to dig to find just a few relevant affiliates, Google does the filtering for you.

If you do your SEO right, you will be also optimized for the Google AdSense program.

The first step, after registering an up and running site with Google, is to fill out your application. Upon approval you can insert the javascript into your site.

Public service ads run first, while Google scans your site to see what relative ads they should show. This is where your SEO comes into play – Google is basically determining what your site is about by the content, keywords, tags and titles.

Middle center and upper left have proven the best placement spots for ads. You can also tinker a little with the color and background, so they blend nicely with the rest of your site and don’t immediately jump out as an ad.

You can have other affiliates on your site, but what you can’t do is make their ads look like the Google ads in any way. You also can’t have AdSense on a site that promotes tobacco, firearms, pornography or other such things.

A handy add on to your site is the option to place a Google search box on your site. Why would you want to do that? If a visitor searches Google from your site, all the Ads that pop up on the SERPs get tagged back to you, so you earn off of those clicks as well.

You can configure the Google search box to search your own site. You can customize it to blend smoothly as far as color etc. goes, and you can even track what people are searching for from your site, which gives you a chance to add even more relevant pages!

The amount of money you can make from AdSense varies widely. Some fields have higher advertiser costs that others, so ads dealing with finance, health and other such fields tend to pay out fairly well. However, any site can do well if the SEO is done efficiently, resulting in a high number of clicks.

AdSense can pay anywhere from a nickel up to a hundred bucks for a click. Of course, this info is strictly kept under lock and key, but you can get an idea of major keywords to optimize for by checking out advertising competition with the keyword tool – and the rest is just trial and error.

Which brings us to click fraud. Google can tell if you are clicking crazily on the ads or getting others to click for you, or even setting up a clicking robot, so don’t even go there. It’s really not worth it.

If you do, Google will shut you down and you won’t be allowed to participate in the AdSense program. If you are serious about monetizing your site, set up the AdSense program then focus on providing solid, fresh content that will bring you the best ads.

Just SEO, really, with a bonus for doing it right.