KISS for AdSense

Everybody's always asking me what are the best tips I have for AdSense. Well, I have published a list of Google AdSense Tips before, but it's far from comprehensive. I'll probably publish an updated set of tips in the near future, including the ones I mention in my AdSense book.

But I think the number one tip I can give people is “KISS” — short, of course, for keep it simple, stupid. What I mean by this is:

• Use clean HTML. Close all your tags. Don't use the deprecated (old, non-recommended) tags. Stay away from non-standard attribute values. Use an HTML validator to make sure you haven't missed anything.
• Go one further and move to XHTML if you can. At the very least, read the HTML Compatibility Guidelines from the XHTML standard and start building your pages so that they're XHTML-friendly, even if you can't move to full-blown XHTML.
• Put your content at the top of the file. Put navigation bars and other things at the bottom. Use CSS (cascading style sheets) to make them appear in different spots on the page.
• Pay special attention to standard search engine optimization techniques when writing your content. Do you have the keywords in the page title and in the headings? Do you have links to relevant content? Is the anchor text of those links well-written?
• If you must use JavaScript, use the Unobtrusive JavaScript style of programming. Instead of embedding the JavaScript into your HTML, you place it all in external files that are referenced from the HTML via LINK tags. It keeps your HTML very clean.
• Use the AdSense section targeting feature so that AdSense knows where your content really starts. And what it should ignore.

If the three most important words in real estate are “location, location, location” then the three most important words in AdSense are “content, content, content”. Keep things simple and focus on the content. That's the way to really make money over the long term.

Eric Giguere is the author of Make Easy Money with Google, a real introductory AdSense book for non-technical people. Be sure to download the free sample chapter.

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