Put your users first with the four S’: Speed, Scroll, Style, Simple

We’re all consumers of web content. Yet as content creators it can be easy to forget what we need as users. But don’t worry, you’ve got this, and we’ve got you covered with just four S’.

 If you’re new to AdSense, be sure to sign up today and start turning your #PassionIntoProfit. 


1. Speed 

We all know how frustrating it is when a page takes forever to load. We twiddle our thumbs and look from side to side. And after just three seconds, we bounce.

But somehow publishers aren’t responding to this primal need that we all know as users.

According to Google's research from the Mobile Speed Matters report, the average load time for mobile sites across the web is 19 seconds. This is a LONG time. Usain Bolt can run 200m in 19.9s - think of what your users can do with a tap and a swipe.

But how does this impact me? Well, the report also states that…

• 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.
• Publishers whose mobile sites load in 5 seconds earn up to 2x more mobile ad revenue than those whose sites load in 19 seconds. 

By now we think you’re sold on speed. So what’s next?

• Understand your site’s speed with these resources
• PageSpeed Insights 
• Web Developer Kit 
• Consider one of the following quick fixes
• Asynchronous loading
• Lazy Loading
• AMP 
• Get our mobile web speed toolkit and...
• Measure your site’s performance
• Assess the different components impacting speed
• Prioritize the order your site loads
• Test, remeasure and repeat to improve your site speed

2. Scroll

The magic scroll. It’s an infinite, endless, perfectly loaded stream of content. There’s no need to click, to wait for a page to load, to navigate to that tiny ‘next’ with your giant thumb. It’s all right here, content, just waiting for you to consume it.

There are, of course, a few caveats before developing an infinite scroll. Like almost everything online, this isn’t a one size fits all solution. 

Infinite scroll is great for ...

• UGC publishers with constantly evolving content - think Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest.
• Sites with lengthy articles or tutorials. No one wants to click ‘more’ or ‘page 2’ anymore. It’s just too dang hard. 
• Publishers using a slideshow with pagination. Consider a lazy loaded infinite scroll instead. Users love it. 
• Publishers considering mobile first (aren’t we all?!).

Watch out for … 

• Crawler errors & SEO impact and check out this article for creating a search friendly infinite scroll. 

3. Style 

Style should never be an afterthought. You and your users want to interact with something that looks good and feels good. 

There are two primary components to style: content style & ad style. 

First: Content Style 

Great websites are able to maintain a consistent style  across pages and platforms. Consistency gives users a sense of familiarity when interacting with your content. 

• Choose a color scheme and stick to it 
• Choose a layout and stick to it 
• Choose a theme and stick to it 

We can’t stress this enough - stick to it. 

As the industry continues to migrate towards a mobile first perspective, consistency across device types and platforms becomes increasingly important. Responsive web design enables your site to adapt to various device sizes without changing the overall look and feel or compromising user experience. 

If you're up for the challenge, check out more on responsive design. 

Second: Ad Style 

In the internet of yesteryear it was nearly impossible to monetize without stripping a site of what made it beautiful. The good news? It’s 2016 and now you have the ability to make a profit and maintain your site’s style. 

When implementing ads think about what makes sense for you and your users.

• Consider responsive ads that automatically adapt to the user’s screen size 
• See if native ads are right for your site. If so, you can modify to match the look and feel of your site
• Add matched content units, allowing your users to interact with more relevant content

Here's a sample of a native ad design.

Most importantly use ads to complement the content of your site. Since content is king, it’s important to ensure that you give your users what they're looking for in a format that’s easy to find and navigate, this includes the ads on your site.

Place ads at natural breaks or where the user’s attention may have waned. Not only will this improve user experience but it also may encourage a higher CTR and increased audience engagement.

4. Simple

Keep it simple, folks. 

This rule underlines most everything that is targeted towards consumers, but it is even more important for a mobile first audience. 

When it comes to consuming digital content, we’re a generation of hungry hippos. We want headlines, snippets, concise and clear information. We want minimalist design with streamlined content and easy navigation.

Tips on keeping it simple

• Make it touch friendly. What’s easier than that?
• Bullet points make your content easily consumable 
• Be brief in sign-ups. If your site requires users to sign-up or sign-in, keep input requirements to a minimum or consider adding a Google sign-in option to speed up the process 

So there you have it; the four S’ of user experience: speed, scroll, style, simple. If you’re new to AdSense, be sure to sign up today and start turning your #PassionIntoProfit.


Posted by: Sarah Hornsey, from the AdSense team

How to earn money blogging with AdSense

This is the first of five guest posts from AdSense publisher Brandon Gaille. Brandon has built his small business marketing blog, BrandonGaille.com, to over 2 million monthly visitors in less than three years. He’s featured as our guest blogger to share insights and tips from his personal blogging experience to help AdSense publishers grow earnings. If you’re new to AdSense, be sure to sign up for AdSense and start turning your #PassionIntoProfit. 

Blogging is one of the easiest ways to build a residual income with Google AdSense. However, most bloggers are doing it the wrong way, and that’s keeping them from growing their earnings to a whole new level. Today, I’m going to share with you the four pillars that helped me build my blog traffic to over 1 million monthly visitors in less than 18 months after my first blog post.

My blogging success story is rather unique. For most of my thirties, I was mentally and physically disabled because of damage done by a small pituitary brain tumor. I was fortunate enough to find a doctor that identified the right combination of medicine to bring me back from the depths of nowhere. My mental cognition was regained a mere months before my pregnant wife was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. I was able to be there for my wife. Our first son was born healthy, and my wife officially beat cancer two months later.

The fear of our health problems returning led me down the road of creating a blog. One of my top skills is reverse engineering successful systems and rebuilding them into a more productive system. Before my health was ravaged, I had built several multi-million dollar companies on the back of this unique skillset.

Before I made my first blog post, I spent six months researching the blogs that received the most traffic from Google organic search. I identified the specific tactics from over 70 high traffic blogs. Then I ranked the tactics by the most productive, and I eliminated the bottom 80%. This is what I built my blogging system upon. Within four months of launching the blog, I had surpassed 100,000 monthly visitors. Today, my blog receives over 2 million monthly visitors.

Here are the four pillars that my system was built upon:

Pillar #1 – Keyword research

Most amateur bloggers fail miserably at keyword research. The reason for this is because they are overwhelmed by all of the data, and they are usually using the wrong tools. I will be breaking down my simple system for identifying keyword phrases that serves as the topic and title for future blog posts. This will allow you to blog with a purpose. And that purpose is to create blog posts that consistently produce organic traffic.

Pillar #2 – Compelling blog titles


You can write an epic 4000 word post, and it can doomed for failure because of a poorly chosen title. The post title is a very important part of the post, and often overlooked. I’ll be revealing my Perfect Title Formula, which will allow you to craft blog headlines that drive a ridiculous amount of traffic and social shares.

Pillar #3 – Engaging content 


Over the last three years, I’ve perfected my blog’s ability to engage new visitors. The average visitor spends 5 minutes reading one of my blog posts. I will be sharing the eleven techniques that I apply to my blog posts to achieve absolute engagement.

Pillar #4 – Getting High Quality Links


The key to remember here is quality over quantity. Do not waste your time chasing low quality links or adding your blog to a directory. There are two strategies that work better than everything else, and I will show you exactly how to execute them.


Over the next four weeks I’ll be sharing tips on how to increase your AdSense earnings right here on the Inside AdSense blog. In the meantime, go here to keep reading “How to Build a Blog to Over 1 Million Monthly Visitors” and find out how to apply the four pillars to your blog.


Posted By
Brandon Gaille














Brandon Gaille is an AdSense publisher. You can learn more about Brandon at BrandonGaille.com and listen to his popular blogging podcast, The Blog Millionaire.


If you’re new to AdSense, be sure to sign up for AdSense and start turning your #PassionIntoProfit. 

Meet the new AdSense user interface

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2016 and has been updated with the most recent product announcement. 


Over the coming weeks, when you log in to your AdSense account, you'll be automatically taken to the new UI. You can still opt out by clicking the Back to Previous AdSense link on the left menu.

Thank you to everyone who tried the new user interface (UI) over the last few weeks. More than half of our active AdSense users decided to opt in, and nearly 90% stayed with the new UI. After listening to your feedback we’re ready to take the next step.

How will I be affected?

• If you haven’t tried the new UI, you’ll be automatically opted in. You’ll still have the option to opt out.
• If you’re already on the new UI, you won’t be affected. You’ll still have the option to opt out.
• If you’ve tried the new UI and opted out, you’ll continue to be taken to the current interface with no changes. 

The new UI remains optional over the coming weeks. We’re aiming to make the new UI the default, and deactivate the old one by early 2017. Let us know what you think by using the Send feedback link.

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Posted October 13, 2016

The new AdSense user interface (UI) is here. Over the last year, our product team has been hard at work bringing Material Design principles to AdSense. This new UI highlights the information that’s relevant to you on a personalized homepage and streamlines navigation.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be offering the new UI to AdSense publishers.  All you’ll need to do is opt in when you log in to AdSense: 

What’s new?

• A fresh new look & feel. We're adopting Material Design principles with a completely redesigned homepage and menu. We’ll roll out further improvements throughout the product soon.
• A great new homepage. All the information you need, right where you need it. We've organized your homepage into a stream of interactive cards. You can pin your favorites to the top of the stream, and arrange your homepage just the way you’d like.
• A streamlined new menu. We’ve brought everything together in a new left hand menu.

We’ll continue to improve and refine AdSense over the coming months. While we’re making these improvements, you’ll still be able to find all the content and features that you’re used to–right where you expect them.


Opt in through the AdSense interface to try it for yourself, and let us know what you think in the feedback tool.


Posted by: Andrew Gildfind, Daniel White & Louis Collard
From the AdSense Product Team

Why (and how) you should utilize your online community

Publishing experts provide even more value to their readers by using backlinks to direct them to useful sites that expand on points made, inspired the content/research, or offer alternative looks at the industry.

Friendly shout outs boost your online image, and encourage the rest of the community to also view and engage with your site.

Link up

If you have an idea for a piece of content from another author or are sharing someone else’s article on your site, it’s important to link back to the original owner. Basically, make sure to give credit where credit’s due. By including a backlink (or inbound link), the original owner’s analytics will track what portion of their online traffic came from your site. Chances are, they may even return the favor later on by linking to your shareworthy content.

Promote Yourself Indirectly

The best way to encourage other publishers to direct their readers to your site is to provide high-quality, unique content. Inbound links such as these are valuable to you because they send out organic signals to search engines about the naturally derived credibility of your site. Establishing a reputation for inspiring, timely content is your best tool for continued success and traffic.

To learn more about familiarizing your audience with your brand, check out the AdSense Guide to Audience Engagement.

Posted by Jay Castro

Audience Development Specialist

@jayciro

Global Spotlight: Converting pageviews into revenue

Welcome back to our Global Spotlight on India, a nation with a population of over 1 billion people and 22 official languages (not including English) which for current AdSense publishers, this presents an opportunity to grow your audience globally.

The Global Spotlight is a series of blog posts that can help educate, inspire, and provide you with insights into how you can grow your business and share your content in emerging markets.


Our last spotlight shared insights on why you should cater to mobile first users.  Now that you have a site optimized for mobile users and with  high quality, relevant content, here’s how you can convert your traffic into revenue and turn your #PassionIntoProfit.

First, deliver more viewable impressions to get your ads seen. Measuring viewability is extremely important, because if an ad isn't seen, it can't have an impact, change perception, or build brand trust. Here’s a few ways to boost ad viewability on mobile devices:

1. Replace 320x50 ad units with 320x100 
2. Move ads at least 150 pixels away from content to cut accidental clicks
3. Use page-level ads designed for mobile devices. More on page levels below

Learn more tips on boosting mobile ad viewability in this blog post.

Second, choose the right mobile ad sizes: medium rectangle (300x250), large rectangle (336x280), large mobile banner (320x100), and rectangular responsive ad units. They tend to get the best results.

Third, use page-level ads. You’ve heard this from us before haven’t you? Page-level ads are a family of ad formats that offer a new and innovative way to help you earn money from your mobile content. They’re designed to automatically show the right mobile ad format at the right time - potentially increasing your earnings without interfering with your users’ mobile experience.

 

There you have it, our 3-step strategy to help you expand, or start, your site in India. 

1. Do your research
1. Use Google’s research tools
2. Understand the users in India
3. Apply your micro-moments strategy
2. Go mobile or don’t go at all. And make it fast. 
1. Understand how mobile devices are used
2. Increase your page speed
3. Leverage Google’s mobile resources
3. Convert page views into revenue 
1. Optimizing for viewability
2. Use the right ad sizes
3. Try Page-level ads

Do you want to hear more from us about successfully monetizing your content in India? We regularly host live Hangout on Air sessions to talk through best practices and ways to grow your business. Be sure to register for our next live session on November 17th.

If you’re new to AdSense, turn your #PassionIntoProfit today and sign up for Google AdSense.

 

Be sure to follow AdSense on Twitter to learn more tips on optimizing your account and stay tuned for more posts from our Global Spotlight series in the future!

Posted by Jay Castro, from the AdSense Team

Global Spotlight: Catering to mobile first users in India

This week we are shining our AdSense Global Spotlight on India, a nation with a population of over 1 billion people and 22 official languages (not including English). For current AdSense publishers, this presents an opportunity to grow your audience globally.

The Global Spotlight is series of blog posts that can help educate, inspire, and provide you with insights into how you can grow your business and share your content in emerging markets. 

Our last spotlight shared insights on how to capture the opportunity in India by sharing tips on how to research your potential audience in India. Research is an important first step because when you know what users are talking about, you can participate in the conversation.

Today we want to talk about why you should cater to mobile first users.

It’s no longer breaking news, our world has shifted to mobile. This shift has been quick, and users expectations for great mobile experiences has increased even more quickly. A website that simply loads on a mobile device is no longer enough. To keep users engaged, mobile sites must be fast and relevant. You’ve learned in our previous post that India is projected to have 570M users online by 20201, and more than half of those users will be accessing the internet via a smartphone. Since hundreds of millions of users in India will only access the internet via a mobile device, it’s important to think like a user, and think mobile first.

First, understand how users interact and use their mobile devices. The study “How People Use Their Devices” dives into three different categories of use cases:

1. What does device usage look like in an average day
2. What we do on our devices
3. How we search across devices

Second, increase your mobile page speed. For users in India, it’s important to reduce the size of your pages. To reduce the size of your pages, target 50 or fewer requests and 1,000 or fewer bytes to optimize load time. You can also compress and select efficient images, and prioritize download of visible content. Lastly, consider AMPlifying your site for lightning speed. These are all key in winning mobile micro-moments. 

Check out the Mobile Web Speed Toolkit released by DoubleClick to help you optimize the speed of your mobile site.

Third, leverage the many resources available to go mobile.

• Test my site
• Principles of mobile site design
• Building websites for multi-screen consumers
• AdSense multi-screen guidelines
• Find a multi-screen vendor
• Optimize your content for mobile users

What are you waiting for? Get out there and grow your site in India. While you’re at it, be sure to turn your #PassionIntoProfit today by signing up for Google AdSense.

Tomorrow we’ll be sharing more tips so stay tuned or check out the other posts from our Global Spotlight series! Don’t forget to mark your calendar and register for our next live Hangout on Air session on November 17th. We’ll be talking through best practices and ways to grow your business.  

Posted By: Jay Castro, from the AdSense team

Footnotes

1. eMarketer, Worldwide Internet and Mobile Users: eMarketer’s Updated Estimates and Forecast for 2015–2020, October 11, 2016

Global Spotlight: India presents big opportunities for publishers

More and more users from all over the world are gaining access to information online. For current AdSense publishers, this presents an opportunity to grow your audience globally. Our Global Spotlight series is designed to help educate, inspire, and provide you with insights into how you can grow your business and share your content in emerging markets.

Our last spotlight shared insights on how to capture the opportunity in Indonesia. This week, we turn our lens on India, a nation with a population of over 1 billion people and 22 official languages (not including English). Check out our last post on how and why you should create content in Hindi. 

Expanding your content strategy to India may spice up your earnings. Not only does India deliciously produce over 70% of all the world’s spices, but according to eMarketer, it’s on pace to add more new mobile phone users than any other country in the world. Projections say that India will have 570M users online by 20201, and more than half of those users will be accessing the internet via a smartphone.

This explosion in online user growth has been estimated by eMarketer to result in more than a 3x growth in online ad spend in India ($700M in 2015 and forecasted to be $2.5bn by 2020)2.  What does this mean for you?  A big opportunity to expand your business into India.

In our next few blog posts, we’ll be sharing with you a 3-step strategy to start expanding your business to India, or building a new site for an Indian audience. The first step has 3 tips to get started. 

1. Use Google’s research tools to create relevant content. 
2. Learn the demographics of India’s population. 
3. Apply Google’s micro-moments to your strategy. 

If you’re new to monetization, sign up for AdSense and start turning your #PassionIntoProfit by adding AdSense ads to your site so you can focus on your content. After all, content is king. 

The first tip we’d like to look at is how and why you as publisher should do research.

When you know what users are talking about, you can participate in the conversation. But the online world moves quickly, so if you want to keep the crowds coming back to your site, your content needs to move with it.

First, use Google’s research tools to create relevant content. Start with Google Trends. You can pinpoint hot topics based on user search trends.

Second, think with Google, literally. This article will help interpret the demographics of India’s population. 

Third, learn about Google’s micro-moments and apply them to your strategy. Don’t let another moment pass. 

What do you think?

Are you ready to grow your business in India? If so, why stop there? Around the world, people are using AdSense to help them do more of what they love. Turn your #PassionIntoProfit today and sign up for Google AdSense.

Do you want to hear more from us about successfully monetizing your content in India? We regularly host live Hangout on Air sessions to talk through best practices and ways to grow your business. Be sure to register for our next live session on November 17th, 2016.

Tomorrow we’ll be sharing the second part of our 3-step strategy on how to start expanding your business to India, so stay tuned and check out the other posts from our Global Spotlight series!

Posted by Jay Castro, from the AdSense team

Footnotes:

1. eMarketer, Worldwide Internet and Mobile Users: eMarketer’s Updated Estimates and Forecast for 2015–2020, October 11, 2016
2. eMarketer, Digital Ad Spending in Asia-Pacific, by Country, 2015-2020 (billions),  September 12, 2016