Grow your traffic and revenue with the Long-term Revenue Framework

We hear from publishers around the world that they are looking to grow their site traffic and increase revenue. To help you accomplish these goals, we'd like to share the Long-term Revenue Framework�a tool often used by our AdSense optimization experts.

The Long-term Revenue Framework below is a simple, but powerful framework to help you understand the four levers that can help you to grow your site. With this framework, consider your site optimization efforts in terms of the four levers outlined below.

At the highest level, to help grow your site's revenue, try focusing on attracting more unique users and/or increasing the value of the users already visiting your site. To earn more from your existing users, you can maximize the value of each page view, get visitors to look at more pages and visit your site more often. Let�s look at each of these levers in more detail.

1. Number of users

Growing the number of unique users starts with understanding your site�s traffic. Check your Google Analytics reports to see where your visitors are coming from and what content on your site drives the most traffic. You can use these insights to create compelling content that users can find and share.

2. Revenue per page view (RPM)

To help maximize the value of each page view, try focusing on two areas.  First, make sure your ads get seen by placing them near the content users are paying attention to. Next, increase competition for the ads on your website by following these best practices:

• Allow both text and image ads.
• Implement the top performing ad sizes on your site.
• Allow as many ad categories as possible.
• Enable AdSense to compete against other ad networks if you're also using DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP)

3. Page views per visit (Depth of visit)

To encourage visitors to look at more pages and spend more time on your site, clearly demonstrate the value of your content. Create a great first impression by making sure the information your visitors are looking for is the first thing they see.

You can further increase your site�s page views per visit by showing your visitors that you have more great content they�d be interested in. You can achieve this by showcasing related or popular content near the end of the main content of the page.

4. Visits per user (Loyalty)

Creating a loyal user base is all about conveying to users that your site is regularly updated with new and interesting content. You can build loyalty by asking your visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter or social media channels.

We hope this framework is useful when thinking about how to grow your website�s traffic and revenue. Let us know what you plan to do using the Long-term Revenue Framework in the comments section below.

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Posted by Adam Coelho - User Experience Strategist
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Google Search results just became more mobile-friendly

(Originally posted on the Webmaster Central Blog)

As more people use mobile devices to access the Internet, Google Search has adapted its algorithms to help users find mobile-friendly web pages and apps. Recently, Google Search has made it even easier for users to discover multi-screen content with two important changes:

1. More mobile-friendly websites in search results

Starting April 21, Google Search will be expanding its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in Google Search results. Users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results optimized for their devices.

To make sure your website is ready for this change, check out the guide to mobile-friendly sites and start building your multi-screen website today. You can test out how your site is performing with the following tools:

• To test a few pages of your site, you can use the Mobile-Friendly Test.
• To get a full list of mobile usability issues across your sites, log in to your Webmaster Tools account and use the Mobile Usability Report.

If you already have a multi-screen website, check out our Multi-Screen Implementation Guide to optimize your website for the best user experience and monetization. You can use the Mobile Search Engine Optimization guide to help your site show up in search results.

2. More relevant app content in search results

Recently, Google Search began to use information from indexed apps as a factor in ranking search results displayed to signed-in users who have the app installed. As a result, Google Search may now show content from indexed apps more prominently in search. If you have a mobile app, learn more about App Indexing, and allow Google Search to show this information in search results.

Posted by Inside AdSense Team

(Original post by Takaki Makino, Chaesang Jung, and Doantam Phan)

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Love is all around: 8 tips romantic movies can teach us about content strategy (Part 4 of 4)

Welcome to the last part of our Valentine�s Day blog series. Today, we�ll explore what eight of the most loved romantic movies of the last few years can teach us about content strategy.

Romantic movies are always a popular choice for Valentine's Day. In the spirit of this special day, we watched some classic romantic movies (for research, of course) to see what they can teach us about content strategy.

Here�s the top tips we found:

1. P.S. I Love You - Have a single common goal

Gerry and his series of letters were designed to encourage Holly to move forward to a new life. Similarly, when you�re creating a series of content pieces, ensure that they have a single common goal or call to action such as email sign-up. All pieces of content should link together and guide your visitors toward a desired goal or call to action.

2. 10 Things I Hate About You - Use list-based articles

This one comes directly from the title of the movie. List-based articles (listicles) provide a great way to deliver your message in a structured and engaging way. Keep them short and easy to read to grab the attention of your visitors.

3. When Harry Met Sally� - Make your content memorable 

When you ask someone what they remember about this movie, it�s highly likely that they will respond with one of several key scenes. Why? Because the film masterfully creates scenes that are both embarrassing and hilarious, making them very easy to recall. When you�re creating your content, ask yourself �Does this content have at least one memorable moment? Is there something that will stick with the my visitor?"

4. Love Actually - Link content pieces to each other

Love Actually tells nine intertwined stories with a common emotion, �love�. Consider all of the content on your site pages in a similar way. Each piece of your content may target one particular theme or audience but in the end, they should serve the same purpose.

5. You�ve Got Mail - Use email marketing

When you�re selecting your distribution channels for your content, make sure to use email. It can be an effective, easy, and inexpensive way to keep your visitors up to date. It also offers a great way to reach your mobile audience.

6. The Princess Bride - Know your audience

For a particular audience, the Princess Bride is the most romantic movie of all time. For others, it doesn�t even rate. This is because the film resonates with a certain audience. In the same way, if you know your audience, you can craft successful content. Get to know your audience more by using experimentation, market research, and other tools.

7. Pretty Woman - Bring unique value to your content

Pretty Woman is a modern retelling of the classic Cinderella story. Similarly, the subject of your content doesn�t have to be a completely original thought or subject matter. Your visitors want to see your personal opinion or a unique value in your content. Start by asking yourself �What is the unique value I�m adding to the subject matter?� or �What am I providing that no one else is providing?�

8. Forrest Gump - Provide a good user experience

To refer to Tom Hanks� iconic line in Forrest Gump in a modern content strategy way: �Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what screen you�re gonna get.� Thanks to the rapid growth of mobile traffic, your content is now viewed on multiple devices. If your site is still not multi-screen optimized, check out our Multi-Screen Starter Guide, and if you already have a multi-screen website, ensure you�re giving your audience the best visitor experience by using the Multi-Screen Implementation Guide.

To wrap up, try thinking about these eight tips and how they can be applied to your content strategy. Are you giving your content the love it deserves? Much like Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca will �always have Paris� together, remember that you and your visitors will always have your content, if you get your strategy right. 

Posted by Chris Jones, Audience Development Specialist
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Love is all around: Improve your site experience with Google Analytics (Part 3 of 4)

Welcome to the third part of our Valentine�s Day blog series. Today, we�ll focus on how Google Analytics can help improve the performance and user experience on your site.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you analyze the behavior of your site visitors. With Google Analytics, you can gain valuable insights into improving your site.

The very first step is to link your Google Analytics and AdSense accounts in a few easy steps. After your accounts are linked, you can start viewing AdSense reports in Google Analytics.

Here are five ways to improve the performance of your site by analyzing your Analytics reports:

1. Optimize your revenue by identifying top visited pages

Do you know which of your pages receive the most traffic? Check out the �Top Visited Pages� report to identify the pages that are visited the most and where your users spend the majority of their time. You can optimize these pages for higher conversion and engagement. To make the most of these popular pages, check out our best practices for ad placement.

2. Increase traffic by prioritizing top traffic sources

Which sites are driving traffic to your site? The AdSense Referrers Report allows you to identify the key traffic sources visiting your site. By knowing these sources, you can better tailor your content to make your visitors come back to your site.

3. Identify and optimize the last pages viewed on your site

Where do your site visitors leave your site? You can analyze the top exit pages of your site with the Exit Pages report (found under Behavior reports). Optimizing or fixing these pages could help increase the traffic to your site. 

4. Improve user experience by increasing page speed 

How long do your visitors wait to see your content? By using the Site Speed reports, you can view detailed information about the load speed of your pages. Faster pages lead to better user experience. With these reports, identify pages that have a longer load time and start improving them.

5. Get quick insights with In-Page Analytics

Are your users finding what they're looking for on your pages? The Page Analytics Chrome Extension will help you visualize how your users interact with your site. With this tool, you can see where your visitors are focused and optimize your pages for a better experience.

Learn more about how to gain insights from Google Analytics reports with Analytics Academy today.  

Posted by Cansu Ozaras - Publisher Monetization Specialist
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New ad sizes for Google AdSense

We've heard from both publishers and advertisers that new, larger ad formats provide a great canvas for rich creatives and perform well on many sites. Today, we�re pleased to share two new ad sizes - 970 x 250 Billboard and the 300 x 1050 Portrait - that will help you reach more advertisers while also enhancing user experience and engagement on your site.

As with most of our ad sizes, both of these ad units can accommodate standard text ads in addition to image ads. Additionally, they can show similar-sized image ads when doing so will maximize the performance of your ad unit. In this case, a 300 x 250 ad would serve in the 970 x 250 ad unit and a 160 x 600 would serve in the 300 x 1050 ad unit.

As both of these new sizes are large ad units, you can place a maximum of one per page. As always, remember to keep a balance between your content and ads and ensure your ad placements comply with our AdSense program policies.

We�re always looking for your feedback and suggestions to help us provide you with the ad sizes you need to stay flexible to your advertiser and user needs. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon and share your feedback in the comment section below.

Posted by Alexey Petrov, AdSense Product Specialist
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Score goals with AdSense during the World Cup (part 5 of 5)

Welcome to the final part of our World Cup series. Today we�ll share some AdSense-specific tips and tricks to help grow your revenue potential. We'll cover some old but steadfast recommendations plus more advanced seasonal optimisation tips to help ensure you�re well prepared for the World Cup.

1. Increase ad coverage: Place up to three ad units, plus three link units per page. This can help increase the click rates and views on your site, and potentially boost your earnings. It�s important to remember that a good balance between content and ads is essential. Placing too many ads on a page may cause a high bounce rate and loss in revenue.

2. Use the best performing ad formats: Wider ad formats usually perform better compared to others. Some ad formats also have more advertiser demand. Typically ad formats like the 728x90 Leaderboard, the 336x280 Large rectangle, the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, and the 300x600 Large Skyscraper are the most popular formats among the advertisers and more effective in terms of potentially increasing revenue. During big sporting events, advertisers are often focusing on viral engagement. Enabling expandable ads will help you capture this opportunity.

3. Be careful with blocking controls: Review which ad categories you�re currently blocking and why you�re blocking them. Overblocking can lead to a decline in your earnings potential, especially in times of increased traffic to your site and bigger advertiser spend on categories such as CPG, Auto, Entertainment Food and Beverage and Travel.  

4. Ensure optimal ad position: Choosing the best locations to insert the ads can be challenging.  Use Google Analytics to get a heatmap on where your users are clicking. You�ll also find more new resources on the AdSense Help Center regarding the best performing ad placements for each website category. Recently we have new articles about ad placement specific to sports and travel.

That wraps up our World Cup blog series. We hope you�ve gained some new insights, inspiration and ideas on getting your site ready for the World Cup. Check back here in a two weeks when we�ll be sharing news of a fantastic Google initiative around World Cup insights.

Posted by Marta Lysiak - Inside AdSense Team
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Our first online course for AdSense publishers is now open

Optimizing AdSense is now in session. Start the course today to access all of the new videos, activities and assessments. The course forum is now open so you can start discussing optimization ideas with other publishers taking the course and find out how to best apply what you learn. Take a quick peek at the course now.

Posted by Courtney Richardson - Optimizing AdSense Team
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Learn how to earn money from your website with Optimizing AdSense

Publishers often tell us that they want to learn how to use AdSense but aren�t sure where to start or which resources are right for them. We�re changing that. Join us on May 20th in Optimizing AdSense, our first online course for AdSense publishers. The course puts all of our top optimization resources in one place, helping you understand what drives your revenue and how to make changes right in your account to make the most of your setup.

Each lesson in the course will focus on a specific AdSense topic that can help. By completing Optimizing AdSense, you�ll learn:

• what drives AdSense revenue
• strategies for boosting your RPM
• how to improve your clickthrough rate, ad targeting, and coverage

Watch the lesson videos, follow the step-by-step walkthroughs, and complete the activities to practice what you learn. Also, take advantage of the course forum to connect with other publishers like you to see how they have used the course to earn money for their website. Publishers who complete the final assessment with an 80% or higher can also earn a certificate from the Google AdSense team.

Take the pre-assessment today to find out what to focus on when the course opens on May 20th.



Posted by Courtney Richardson - Optimizing AdSense Team
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