First rule every web designer has to follow is that you design your website for your clients’ needs, not your needs. If your clients feel their needs are not being fulfilled, they’re going to abandon you and go to one of your competitors’ sites to buy what they need.
These 2 simple issues should always be in your mind while you’re designing your web page:
- The reason my website exists is to for my customers.
- What problems does the page I’m looking at solve?
Most people visit a website to solve one or more of these four problems:
- They want/need information.
- They want/need to make a purchase / donation.
- They want/need to be entertained.
- They want/need to be part of a community.
There are 6 questions that you have to answer to determine if you’re getting the right traffic on your website.
1. Does Your Site Have Heroin Content?
Vincent Flanders talks a lot about heroin content websites. He refers to the classic book Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, which I also read and am very fond of, while discussing the heroin content: William Burroughs described heroin as the ultimate product. Why? Because people would crawl through the sewers and beg to buy it. In the non-drug world, there are very few products that can be classified as having heroin’s appeal.
Heroin Content’s characteristics vary by type of site — but you’ll know it when you see it. One global characteristic, though, is frequently updated content. The best way to get people to come back to your site again and again is by having content they need, and then updating this content on a regular basis.
How do you create Heroin Content? The answer depends on the likes and dislikes of your audience. Remember, it’s what your audience wants that counts. What I consider Heroin Content is somebody else’s Quinine Content.
Website like PostSecret or Upyachka are poorly designed. But users keep visiting those websites due to the outstanding content. These sites are a proof that content is much more important than design.
Your site most likely doesn’t have Heroin Content. Digg.com has it, YouTube borrows a lot of it, and Google is another site that has Heroin Content.
2. Do You Own a High CTR (Click Thru Ratio) Website?
CTR varies from Industry to industry. It depends upon the keywords you are using to make your web page. It has been observed that more technical the topic is (but not necessarily) less CTR it will give you (for example Search Engine Optimization, Affiliate Network – exceptions are always there), but still works if the Ad content is well written.
However, this is only one condition; there are many undiscovered conditions that affect the CTR of keywords.
3. What About Your Ad’s Position and Color Scheme?
Google heat map helps improve the CTR (Clicks Thru Ratio) of your website by suggesting you the most converting areas for your Adsense Ads. You can have a glance at the Google’s Survey that illustrates the ideal placements of ads on your web page (click here).
To sum up, darker the area, better will be the performance of your ads. Your visitor tends to click on these darker areas more often than the other areas of the web page. Ads placed near rich content usually do well because users are focused on those areas of your web page. For example, on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the concluding part of high quality content tend to perform well, as the visitors are left with no other choice except clicking the Ad block.
However, stay away from the header section or the sidebars to put your ads there, since users are very good at ignoring the content that looks like an ad.
4. Are You Getting the Targeted Traffic?
There are high chances that traffic that is interested in your content (also called targeted traffic) is also interested in your ads. Thus, your ads might be clicked more frequently. Targeted traffic means more CTR, more earnings, and enhanced ad convertibility. On the other hand, the untargeted visitors are not interested either in your content or your ads, so keep your website’s traffic targeted.
There are several ways to get targeted traffic to your website, but the most commonly used are web promotion strategy and effective optimization of your web page structure. Effective web promotion strategy requires an appropriate Anchor text and more back links from relevant websites. And, to develop an effective web page structure, you have to optimize your Title Text, internal linking of your website, and most importantly your web content, in the best possible manner.
5. What’s Your Title?
Title text of your webpage appears in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) as the Title link to your web page. Therefore, it is the title Text that directly speaks to the surfer on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) about your content’s theme.
Use Meta Tags wisely. If there is NO CONTENT on your web page, the Google Mediabot will consider the Meta Tags while displaying ads. Use the appropriate text for your titles and your headings.
6. Trashed With Block Junk Websites and Competitor Websites’ Ads?
There are many junk websites that might be displaying ads on your website. These websites steal the traffic from your website and recycle it on their own Adsense ad blocks. Recognize such websites and stick them in Adsense Competitive Ad filter. Also, you can block your competitor websites using this competitive filter.
This trick can sometimes double or triple your Adsense income, augment user experience, and makes look your Google ads more genuine.
For more information, please refer to the following articles: “Web Design & Text – SEO Vs Style” by Tucker Stoffers and “Adsense Optimization: Getting more clicks on your Adsense ads”.
To sum up our discussion, you are going to double the relevant traffic on your website if:
- Your website has distinct heroin content.
- Your website has a high CTR (Click Thru Ratio).
- Your ads positioned in the best sellable way and the color scheme follows the rules of online retail design.
- Your website is getting the targeted traffic.
- Your website is using the appropriate meta tags, title links, and titles for your pages
- Your website is free from junk websites’ ads
Twilight Zone Art 