Ranking Factors In Google October 2012

madoctopus said:

It is more important regarding ads, to have a paragraph of text above the first ad. Also, if you have a big banner ad in the header remove it because Google doesn't like it and it doesn't perform well either. Personally on AdSense-only sites/MFA I have like this:

Code:

+----------------------------------------+
| header with logo and search form       |
+----------------------------------------+
| main navigation bar                    |
+-----------------------+----------------+
| Post Title            | Sidebar        |
| Paragraph             | with           |
| --------------------- | site link menu |
| BigRectAD | BigRectAd |----------------+
| --------------------- | LinkBlockAd    |
| Rest of content       |                |
+-----------------------+----------------+

So I have a post title, followed by one paragraph, followed by two ads (largest rectangle ads) side by side, followed by rest of content. In the sidebar I have a link list as categories or whatever and below it an AdSense link unit styled the same way as the links for my site but with text that is 2px larger so it attracts the eye.

One little secret I have is in the first paragraph (which by the way is written to lure them in and increase their interest, I will say something which will make them expect a listing - of products, of resources, of whatever. Many will mistaken the links in the textads for the listing. The real listing will be actually 2 paragraphs below. Sometimes I have to tone this down a lot because it gets me some huge CTR in certain niches and on certain pages. I even had a page with 60% CTR and luckily I spotted it in time to kill it and get it to 7%.

Click to expand...

I just read this post. Sneaky, I love the idea of luring them in with a promised link! Haha, that is brilliant.

I don't have any adsense sites right now. I had one that was #9 and it was doing AMAZING. Then it got slapped into oblivion. It converts well CTR wise because of the niche. Lessons were learned from that site though. When I have time, I have plans to set up an authority adsense site. But one project at a time, once project at a time.

I have another non-adsense site that I plan to put adsense on for a little extra revenue, and I will use your layout tips. Thanks

Oooohh.. I need to read it again. Thanks for sharing TS!

got to love what you say, for it looks so true! Thanks!

ivanpenev said:

Off topic
I have heard an interesting statement in the past and it just came up in my mind know. Somebody said that sites which have Google Adsense on them or sites that are being advertised in Google Adwords are ranked better in the serps, does somebody share that opinion ?

Click to expand...

I've heard this - and I really wish it was in the testing.
I asked that this (and a couple of other points) be looked at for the next update due out in January 2013.
The effect of adwords on adsense has been talked about for years. I have ZERO firm facts - just guesses and hunches.
Not saying this will get in the testing - just saying I'm asking for it.

Scritty

Thank you Scritty for this wonderful post,

I knew about The ads above the fold thing a while ago, Matt had wrote that putting too many ads above the fold may lower your ranking.

Here's the post from the webmasters tool.

h(tt)p://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

I don't know if sites with Adsense rank slightly better but I strongly feel it is not the case. Why? there is not reason to rank them higher to make more money. May appear so but actually it is not. Google doesn't care about a 3page site with ads on it. It cares about a 10,000,000 page sites who are huge authority sites and get shitloads of traffic and make shitloads of money from AdSense. When you're such a big site you do not rank high because you have adsense, but because you're an authority site.

I obviously have no proof for that but is how my logic is.

Now, regarding proof and experiments, I can tell you as a fact because I tested it that Google loves it when a fresh site doesn't use AdSense or any form of ads and affiliate links from the beginning. Or to frame it from the opposite perspective, Google s very suspicious of fresh sites with ads and seems it doesn't like to rank them as fast. This is not strange, because it just happens that the footprint for MFA sites happens to include those two metrics. That doesn't mean every site will perform worse if it gets adsense on it, it just means that from all the observations I have made, it is a good idea to add the ads/aff links after your site has gained some authority. Also, chances that a garbage site (e.g. autogenerated, unreadable) will survive longer in the SERPs increase if you don't add any ads/aff links to it.

i didn't understand this
Title Character length > 48 characters
is this for domain or the actual pages
this mean the character should be more than 48 or less than 48 character

I remember seeing a similar post back then, he set up a lab to testing the factors on-page mainly. way to go forum, sometimes, I really wonder just WHY you guys put out such great stuff FOR FREE! WHY?! Seriously, why?

so i moved my header 720x90 down the page and bam



a slight recovery, lets see how it does in the long run!

you say great, thank you

"Adsense blocks in first 720 pixels"

so where exactly is "720 pixels"


and i thought it also included a calculation of content to advertising ratio
(as well as penalties for above the fold ads - especially adsense.)
i.e. the more space taken up by ads compared to content then the bigger the penalty.

Mid 2013 update due in late June.
I'm hoping (and expecting) it will include the ramifications that Penguin 2.0 have added.
It isn't possible (despite what some seem to imply) to make a call on Penguin 2.0 yet - the algo is out, but the shuffle will last a good few days more yet before the dust settles.
You can't tell what hand you will be dealt while the pack is still being shuffled! ( A metaphor for those guru types pretending they know all about Penguin already while the Google index is still in flux)

Once I have the details - then BHW will be the first place that gets them.

Scritty