AdSense Above the Fold
A lot of site owners that have Google AdSense ads on their site debate with themselves whether or not they should put AdSense ads above the fold on their sites. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, “above the fold”, it refers to the portion of your webpage that a user first sees after landing on your site, before scrolling.
This portion of your website is extremely valuable since many first time visitors to your site will take one look at this portion of your site and take one of three actions. Either they will scroll down further, click on a link, or leave the site.
Because of the chance that a new site visitor will never see any of the content below the fold many site owners decide to place AdSense ads in this portion of their site. Taking such action will often have the effect of increasing your site’s click-through rate (the percentage of viewers that click on an ad).
When deciding for yourself where to place your AdSense ads, it is helpful to ask yourself a couple of questions. First, is your site content driven? When I say “content driven” I don’t mean do you have content on your site? If the primary reason that you have content on your site, is so that you can host AdSense ads, then your site is not content driven.
If your site is not content driven, then I would definitely advise placing some of your AdSense ads above the fold.
If your site is content driven then I would suggest asking yourself three more, related questions. Is building an opt-in email list important to you? Are you interested in creating brand recognition for your website? Do you want your website to be viewed as an expert source of knowledge on a particular topic?
If you answered yes to any of these three questions then you may want to think twice before placing any AdSense ads above the fold on your site. One of the best places to place an email list opt-in form on your site is… you guessed it, above the fold. Putting advertisements of any kind in this space causes competition between the ads and your opt-in form.
Visitors who opt-in for your email list have the potential of becoming life long customers. If a new visitor lands on your website and clicks off your website by following an ad, you may have permanently lost a long term customer in exchange for a little money today.
If you are trying to build your website into a brand or to have your website viewed as an expert source of knowledge you should seriously consider not putting AdSense ads at the top of your site. Sites with AdSense above the fold can be perceived as “spamy”, therefore run the risk of visitors taking your site less seriously as either a respectable brand or a valuable source of knowledge.
If you are interested in this subject you may enjoy our post on how web traffic can be monetized.
Tags: AdSense, Email Opt-In, Above the Fold, Internet Marketing, Email Marketing
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