Website Monetization Tip #3: In Text Ads On and Off

In Text Ads – Not on Every Word

When you add in text ads, a smart algorithm analyzes the content on your web pages and highlights the keywords and terms with the best match to the page’s content and the potential advertising. But smart as this algorithm can be, no one knows and understands your own content as well as you do. And with some help, the in text algorithm can improve its performance and the results will show up in your website monetization reports. The nice surprise here is that it’s very easy… all you have to do is recognize areas and terms which are better left alone and not highlighted as in text ad links.

Website Areas to Avoid

Some areas on your web pages are just not suitable for in text ads. Here are some examples:

1. Fixed content areas – headers and footers, navigation bars.
2. Fixed content pages – the About and Contact pages.
3. Repeating sections – the details area in a forum, the add comment paragraph in a blog.

Let’s face it, when your visitors read the Contact page or actually review the footer, they’re not likely to actively choose to get exposed to an advertisement. If they do click an ad text link there, they usually would be doing so by mistake, hit the back button, get annoyed and generally lower your chances for future visits and revenues.

Moreover, since the number of hooks – the in text ad links – on a certain web page is usually limited to a set number, highlighting terms in areas where visitors will not regard or click them, is a waste of hooks. Such misplaced hooks replace better placed hooks and reduce the potential monetization.

Specific Terms to Avoid

In addition to unwanted areas, there are also specific keywords and terms that you’d better leave out of the in text ads algorithm’s way.

First, there are repeating terms. You know which terms appear repeatedly in your pages but are not relevant for ad text links. Think about it. Here a few examples:

1. Automated Text – mostly in blogs and forums you will find “posted by”, “date”, and other terms that are automatically added very often.
2. Names – people’s names, places, subject matter names, and names in general are sometimes used very often but are not good candidates for ad text links.

Second, there are specifically problematic keywords. A friend of mine runs an informational website about protecting children on the web and avoiding different online risks. On a certain page, the term pornography can appear several times when the page’s subject is how to filter it out and protect children from exposure to it. In certain cases, an in text ads algorithm can recognize pornography as the subject of the page but disregard the negative context. In others, the context could be picked up, but still, even if the ad would be for a filtering software, my friend would prefer not to highlight pornography on her pages.

Another example for keywords to avoid is misleading ad links. If your website promotes an ebook, video or software for downloading, your page probably includes descriptive words and sentences like download here. These sentences are not the actual download links but they are part of the page’s content. Since the page is in fact about downloads, the algorithm may highlight these terms for ads, but your visitors may mistake the links for being the download button. Such clicks are double trouble. You both lose the download click you wanted in the first place, and the advertiser gets a mistaken click which he doesn’t like and would probably reward you with low quality feedback and long term decrease in revenues.

Each website has its own potentially harmful terms. Think about your own website – which keywords are better left alone?

As smart as the algorithm can be, terms that appear often seems to be important to the page’s content. Despite efforts to automatically recognize irrelevant words and avoid them, there are so many different ways to create a website, blog or forum, that it’s practically impossible to cover them all. Just a little help from you can do wonders to the algorithm’s performance and your monetization.

How to Choose Better In Text Ads

I hope you are convinced. By avoiding certain unwanted areas and keywords on your website, you can actually help the in text ads algorithm to chose better keywords and increase the potential website monetization. As promised earlier, it’s surprisingly easy to do. You simply mark which areas and keywords you want out of the in text algorithm’s reach.

For whole areas, there are simple HTML tags for turning the algorithm on and off. With each in text provider there are slight differences, but the big providers should all have this option available. Pick up the exact tag formation from your provider and mark as Off the areas that should not have in text ads in them. Don’t forget to add the On tag afterwards and then test it a little, to make sure that the ads appear in the right places and are gone from the wrong ones.

For unwanted keywords there should be a black list. Ask your in text provider about it and then write down your own website’s list. Coming up with the initial list shouldn’t be too difficult, and you can always edit it and add to it later on. You can prepare this list right now and immediately improve your earnings within a few minutes. What are you waiting for?