How to Increase AdSense Earnings the Honest Way

If you have an AdSense account, know that you are lucky to have one. There are many who don't get approved at all, or have their accounts terminated for using dishonest methods to boost their revenue. Wanting to see your earnings improve is natural and, indeed, you should look at optimizing your revenue; however, what you should not be doing is to look for shortcuts to achieve that goal. I would advise those using AdSense to stick to honest methods of optimizing their revenue. Trying to circumvent the system would get you banned for sure, so it isn't wise at all to go down that path. Stay honest and you'd be the winner in the long term. These tips are written for those who have websites/blogs as opposed to revenue-sharing sites like HubPages, where things such as placement of ads, optimization, etc. are taken care of. Some strategies that have worked for me on my personal websites and which I'd recommend to you are:

• Utilize link ad units on your websites (if you don't already ) along with the standard ads. Link ad units don't take up a lot of space and offers visitors to your website/blog a better user experience. As with normal ads, these link units are closely targeted to the topic of your articles and generally monetize quite well.
• Utilize Google search boxes on your websites and harness the power of AdSense for Search (AFS).
• If you use Google AFS search boxes on your site,
  1. Place them in a location that is prominent and visible to your visitors, preferably under the header of your page or on top of the navigation panel.
  2. Extend the width of the search box - doing so can potentially double the number of queries performed on your website, which can result in more clicks and more revenue.
  3. For content-rich pages in particular, it is a good idea to place 2 search boxes on each page - one at the top and the other at the bottom of the page.
  4. Customize the colors on the search results page to match the colors of your website.
• Do not fill up your website with too many ads (just for the sake of it), but specifically target certain locations. Ads placed above the fold and ones integrated within the content of the website tend to perform better. A general optimization rule is to place your ads higher on the page, than lower, and to the left of your content than the right.
• Opt in to "Text and Image Ads" if your existing settings are set to only "Text Ads." The default option is set to Text and Image, so unless you have changed these settings, you don't have to do anything new. The "Text and Image Ads" default setting increases the number of ads competing to appear on your website and this drives up the potential revenue you stand to earn.
• Blending the colors of ads to match the background colors of the website. However, ads that contrast can work for some just as well. The best option is to try out both and see which one works best for your website/blog.
• Utilize bigger ad units such as medium rectangle (300x250), large rectangle (336x280), leaderboard (728x90), and wide skyscraper (160x600). Personally, I've found the medium and large rectangles and the wide skyscraper ad formats to work the best on my websites.
• Create channels to monitor performance of individual pages on your website and then choose the best-performing ad sizes/placements for your website.
• Utilize the Category Filter option available in AdSense Setup to block certain categories that aren't relevant to your site's niche or those which aren't performing as well compared to other categories. You can find this feature by following this path. Go to your AdSense account (the new interface) ---> Allow & block ads ---> General categories and Sensitive categories. You can block specific categories here, but if you choose to play around with these settings, make sure you monitor your revenue post any changes, and if it doesn't quite work well for you, to revert back to the default settings.
• Check the AdSense Blog (the official weblog of GA) often to update yourselves on the latest news, updates, features and optimization tips. I've utilized some optimization tips found there to great effect.

In closing, I'd once again emphasize on sticking to honest methods of boosting your AdSense revenue. Follow optimization tips such as the ones above, which are recommended on official Google AdSense blogs and forums. Watch out for tips that sound suspicious to you. If in doubt, always check if a particular optimization tip is allowed by writing to Google AdSense support or by searching official Google AdSense blogs/forums.

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