We've already discussed the single-page AdSense site. Today we look at a slightly different site, what I call the AdSense mini-site.
In some ways, an AdSense mini-site is just a single-page site with two or more pages. You develop it in much the same way:
- Write content in concise, bite-sized chunks so that no page is too long. Split content by concepts across different pages.
- Minimize external links, though of course you'll want good
internal linking. - Use good SEO (search engine optimization) practices for all pages.
- Optimize the ad placement. Follow the AdSense heat map when possible.
There are some changes you'll want to make, though:
- Create a Google Sitemap for the site and register it with Google. You want to make sure that all the pages are found by the search engines. It doesn't hurt to create a human-readable sitemap, too, though with only a few pages that's not strictly necessary as long as the inter-page linking is complete.
- Place your most profitable or most attractive content on the home page. The home page is the one that's going to be indexed quickly. Many home pages are just gateways into the content, but for a good mini-site you want some high-quality content up front to attract search engine traffic.
- Use horizontal ad links. On single-page sites ad links are to be avoided because visitors aren't going to browse around the site — they'll read the content and then leave, either by clicking an ad (or an affiliate link) or via the browser's “back” button. But on a mini-site the chances are greater that the visitor will browse around, so link units make more sense.
- Use multiple ad units. For single-page sites I recommend using a single ad unit, but it's OK to use two or three here.
You'll also want to spend more time on the look of the site. Creating a single-page site is quite easy because you don't have any navigation to worry about. With multiple pages, though, you want the site to look good and to easily move the visitor from page to page. That actually complicates things.
How many pages should a mini-site have? Probably between 5-20 is a good number. You want to keep the visitor interested so they'll read the other pages and increase the chances they'll click an ad. Too many pages and they might not bother exploring any further. Tutorials (“7 steps to getting out of debt”) or narratives (“why I bought my digital camera”) make good mini-sites.
If you want an example of a mini-site, the guide to electronic pet fence and containment that I've mentioned here before is a good example.
Here's a tip for you: build a mini-site using a WordPress blog listing entries in chronological order (as opposed to the usual reverse chronological order). If anyone's interested in more details on how to do this, I can write up some instructions and post them here.
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Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. You can read this blog by mail if it's more convenient for you, just send a blank email to memwg-blog@aweber.com to subscribe.