Too many AdSense site marketers fail in a very fundamental aspect of marketing. They don’t think or even consider “time on site”. When you install Google Analytics on your site (which I hope you already have), you can see how much time visitors spend viewing your pages.
Of course, when Google sends someone to your site through their search results, they know this information as well. Simply put, if most visitors only spend a few seconds on your page, Google assumes that the page isn’t worthy of ranking well.
Bad weather on the page is a “double whammy”. It not only hurts with respect to search engine rankings but also kills AdSense revenue. You NEED people to spend enough time on your site to click on an ad… or two!
Too many marketers are so preoccupied with optimization and link building that they forget that they are HUMANS they are counting on to click on their ads. Site pages must offer enough interest to keep visitors interested in the site for as long as possible. The longer visitors are on the site, the more likely they are to click on an ad. Also, sites that keep visitors longer are more likely to generate repeat visitors. Imagine the page views possible if a new visitor could also be counted on to return two, three or more times!
Too often, the first thing a new visitor clicks is the back button. All the great SEO done went to waste. When the human visitor arrives, your page has 2-3 seconds (max) to convince them to stay for a while. Targeting traffic well is the obvious method to ensure they stick around for a while. Providing visitors with exactly what they are looking for is a surefire way to increase time on site.
Also remember, the page should look good in the middle. No, it doesn’t have to look fancy. Just a simple and clean look will do. Don’t scare away visitors by using moving gifs and bright colors! Keep it simple! I see too many beginners struggling to demonstrate their new web design skills that have no place on simple AdSense pages. Flash and fancy scripts just clash too much with the basic fundamentals of what makes an AdSense site work.
A perfect example of a site with a very high time on page is Steve Pavlina’s website. Steve uses tons of great content to keep visitors engaged. He has stated that he earns over $30,000 a month with AdSense. Virtually all visitors to it initially came from search engines and word of mouth. His high time on page has proven to be a gold mine in every respect. One of the fundamental truths of internet marketing success is providing value to the world.
Other methods used to increase time on page are the placement of specific photos on the site. In fact, I have a site that gets traffic almost exclusively from Google image searches. That site deals with a very specific area that is conducive to having great images for which I have optimized the alt tags. Other ways involve using bullet points and catchy headlines to hold attention.
Also, having well-placed links on the page using targeted keywords to your other pages is a great way to get visitors to click within your site.
Take a long, honest look at your own sites. What can you do to improve the amount of time visitors will stay? Ask your spouse or a friend to visit your page while you watch. See where they click and where they don’t click. Also, don’t forget that Google Analytics has a feature that shows screenshots with the percentages that visitors click on. With that information, you can fine-tune your page design and take advantage of what works well and get rid of the parts that don’t.
Imagine if your time on the site is now 20 seconds. What if you could double that to 40 seconds? There is a great chance that your AdSense income will increase dramatically too! And don’t forget, if you can increase the time visitors spend on your site, search engines will think your site is more relevant. In turn, you’ll find your site ranks better and better!
