Index of Riches: Ad Section Targeting for Adsense Publishers
The World Wide Web is an increasingly crowded, noisy marketplace, filled with people promising everything from weight loss to a plot of land, to businesses advertising everything from glasswares to glass globes. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to make your voice heard in the multitude of sounds that make up the Internet. How can you speak out, be heard, and still make a little cash on the side?
There are many ways to promote your site and earn money through the Internet. You can ask friends to link to your site, hoping that you can increase your popularity in the search engines and get more people to notice your site. You can sell your crafts and products, hoping that people will happen by and give you something to laugh all the way to the bank for.
These methods, however, are long shots compared with a direct, straight-to-the-cash-register way of AdSense. Google’s answer to pay-per-page-portion print advertising, AdSense enables individual website owners to earn money every time their visitor clicks on ads posted on their site.
How does Google AdSense work? By registering with the program, Google picks up relevant keywords from your site, then uses these keywords to select ads that are relevant to your site content. These ads will be placed in a particular place in your site, where they will be most noticed by your web visitors. If your visitors click on the ads, you will get commissions.
When you get into the AdSense program, you become an AdSense publisher. To do so, all you need is to apply once online. When Google approves your application, it gives you a chance to set up your account, then gives you a block of HTML script to add to your website. This script will allow the targeted advertisements to appear on your website, and will instantly give users the chance to give you revenue.
Google AdSense has thousands of advertisement contacts, so that you have no shortage of possible ads that can make it to your site. Moreover, since Google maintains a working relationship with the ad owners, ad publishers do not have to worry about taking care of or nurturing the publisher-advertiser relationship. Google AdSense, moreover, is smart: it can recognize word meanings from context clues, and can thus add ads to your site without you having to specify that you mean a cup of Java coffee, and not Java the programming language.
The most attractive feature of Google AdSense is that you do not have to pay to participate. You can even choose which ads you want your site to have, simply by employing a variety of filters that can classify ads and keep out those that do not match your site language and style. You can even change ad colors and fonts to make sure that they fit with your website’s theme.
What most people don’t know about Google AdSense is that it is a smart program that gives the AdSense publisher all the power to choose and tailor ads to suit their tastes. One such aspect is called Ad Section Targeting.
What is AdSense Ad Section Targeting? In a nutshell, Ad Section Targeting allows you to emphasize what keywords Google AdSense will pick up from your site. This emphasis makes sure that Google leaves out unnecessary, but often repeated keywords that you might not want to have ads for.
For instance, if you are running a site for planting flowers, your keywords might include “fertilizers,” “soil,” and “seeds.” The Google ads that will turn up will therefore be from companies selling fertilizers, soils, and seeds. However, if you would like to concentrate only on companies selling fertilizers and seeds, you can also “ask” Google AdSense to emphasize such companies when choosing ads for you. You can also “ask” Google AdSense to exclude, or downplay certain ads.
How does Ad Section Targeting work? As with most other Google AdSense tools, Ad Section Targeting is accomplished by adding a block of HTML code to sections of your website that you would like Google AdSense to emphasize or skip. This HTML code can contain the “Ignore” function, which keeps Google AdSense from using keywords in the specific section of the website when choosing ads for you. The HTML code may also contain an “Emphasis” function, which Google AdSense can use when choosing ads.
The changes, however, will not be immediate. For instance, if you are using Google AdSense for all of your site’s keywords, and you suddenly wish to shift to Ad Section Targeting, the changes may not be made at once, as Google’s crawlers take time to revisit and reevaluate websites. The sections of your site that need to be emphasized, moreover, also need to have as much content as possible. This makes it easier for Google AdSense to add the ads to your website because it will have many keywords to choose from.
By Google AdSense’s rules, it should also be remembered that Ad Section Targeting should be used only to emphasize parts of your website that are relevant to its content. Ad Section Targeting should not be abused to gather sites that are irrelevant to your site. Such a habit is common practice among webmasters who want to make easy cash fast. The practice, however, can be annoying to your site’s visitors, and can even make you lose them.
When used wisely, however, Google AdSense and Ad Section Targeting can earn you the money you need, and make your website shine. Sign up for AdSense, learn the tricks of the trade, and obey the rules, and you’ll hear your virtual cash register ringing in no time.
How Can I Make Sure That My Account Will Not Be Disabled?
Google Adsense Program Policies make no allowances for deceptive practices. The most important thing a publisher can do to ensure the integrity of their site is to be aware of what is happening on your site.
Google has made it abundantly clear not to click on your own ads or ask others to do so. But what about practices a publisher may not purposely carry out?
Make sure that ads associated with Google never appear in an unrequested pop-up. Don’t be talked into purchasing traffic for your site that may contain adware.
Respect the Google trademarks. Don’t use any Google trademarks or logos without their consent.
Don’t change the Adsense code. If you’re a pro at html, don’t assume you can add your own code. If you’re new to html, simply copy and paste the offered code. Don’t mess with it.
Provide a good environment for advertisers and a positive user experience. Don’t try to be deceptive in any way. Google’s rules may sound strict, but believe me, protecting the integrity of the Google Adsense Program is in your best interest as well as Google’s. After all, a positive, honest Google Adsense program means more money for all of us.
Useful Books About the Google Adsense Program For Users of All Stages
Do you need to buy a book to use Google Adsense? Not necessarily. Google’s support page has a wealth of information. But you might consider it if you want to read a personal account of an Adsense wizard such as Eric Giguere or say, if you want to learn more about HTML. ‘Who Let the Blogs Out: A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs by Biz Stone has a lot of information on blogging as well as information about Google Adsense. The following is just a few books you can find at amazon.com on the subject:
Make Easy Money with Google: Using the Adsense Advertising Program By Eric Giguere
The Google Adsense Handbook By Angus McLeod
Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with Adsense, Adwords, and the Google APIs by Harold Davis
Top-Paying Google Adsense and Adwords Keywords for Pharmaceuticals (In Digital Format) [Download: Adobe Reader] By W. Frederick Zimmerman
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Growing Your Business with Google By Dave Taylor
Recommended Reading
- Google Adsense: Why Do I Need Google Adsense?
- Google Adsense: Don’ts for Using the Google Adsense Program
- Google Adsense: Having Multiple Sites For One Account and Buying Google Adsense “Secrets”
- Google Adsense: Understanding Image Ads and Making Google Adsense Dollars with Writingup.com
- Google Adsense: Google Adsense Themed Ad Units Can Brighten Up Your Holidays
