Search Engine Optimisation Pitfalls

On page factors - Is your search engine website friendly?

So you have a website but where is it on Google? Have you fallen foul of a penalty or have you overlooked one of the many common search engine optimisation pitfalls when designing your site?

Understanding what works for the search engines and what doesn't when it comes to the content on your website can have a crucial impact on the relevance and/or page rank of your pages from a SEO perspective.

Here we highlight common mistakes that could affect your ranking on Google and other search engines.

Optimising for the correct keywords - Basically 'Get real' about what keywords you feel your website can be ranked for. If you have a ten page website in a highly competitive market then ranking naturally for the major terms will be close to impossible. Use the Overture keyword tool together with the number of results on Google to find out what keywords are searched for and how many other websites are targeting them. If you are lucky then you might even find a popular keyword that not many other websites are optimised for. Alternatively a good tool for this job is Wordtracker from Rivergold Associates Ltd.

Code validation - If your html code is not valid then this could make it very difficult or even impossible for a search engine to separate your page content from your code. If the search engine cannot see your content then your page will obviously have no relevance.

Frames - Even though most, if not all, major search engines now index frames and even with the use of the NOFRAMES tag you run the risk of your pages being displayed in the search engine results out of context. As each individual page is indexed separately, it is likely that your website visitors will not see your pages within your frame and will effectively be stuck on the page they arrive at.

If you must use frames then create a 'Home' link on each of your individual content pages and point the link at your frameset index page.

JavaScript navigation - If you use JavaScript to control your website navigation then search engine spiders may have problems crawling your site. If you must use JavaScript then there are two options available to you:



Use the NOSCRIPT tag to replicate the JavaScript link in standard HTML. Replicate your JavaScript links as standard HTML links in the footer of your page.

Flash content - Currently only Google can index Macromedia Flash files, how much or how little content they see is open to debate. So until search engine technology is able to handle your .swf as standard then it would be advisable to avoid the use of these. Again if you must use Flash then offer a standard HTML alternative within NOEMBED tags.

Dynamic URLs - Although Google and Yahoo are able to crawl complicated URLs it is still advisable to keep your URLs simple and avoid the use of long query strings. Do not including session IDs in the URL as these can either create a 'spider trap' where the spider indexes the page over and over again or, at worst, your pages will not get indexed at all. If you do need to include parameters in the URL then limit them to two and the number of characters per parameter to ten or less.

The best SEO solution for dynamic URLs is to use Mod-rewrite or Multiviews on Apache.

No sitemap - A sitemap is the search engine optimisation tool of choice to ensure every page within your website is indexed by all search engines. You should link to your site map from, at least, your homepage but preferably from every page on your website. If your website contains hundreds of pages then split the sitemap into several categorised maps and link these all together. Try and keep the number of links per page on a sitemap to less than 100.

Excessive links - Excessive links on a given page (Google recommends having no more than 100) can lower its relevance and, although it does not result in a ban, this does nothing for your search engine optimisation strategy.

Be careful who you link to - As you have no control over who links to your website, incoming links will not harm your rank. However outbound links from your website to 'bad neighbourhoods' like link farms will harm your ranking.

As a rule ensure as many of your outbound links as possible link to websites that are topical to your field of business.

How To Survive A Good Review

When the first reviews for my most recent novel (Great Sky Woman, Random House 2006) started coming in, my emotions went through the usual roller coaster. The first, from Publisher's Weekly, was 90% positive, but mentioned that, in their opinion, it was slow in spots. My stomach sank. Slow? In spots? Oh my God-all is lost!

The second review came in two weeks later. This one, from "Booklist," used words like "magnificent" and "engaging" and "adventure on a grand scale."

I sighed. Boy, oh boy, did I need to hear that. Why? Because I am an insecure artist. Because I spend, on average, two years researching and one year writing my novels. Because I care so very much about each and every one of my literary children. Because I pour my life into every project I work on, break my head open, remove the protective walls from around my heart. I have to, because that is the only way to access my talent. I CAN'T do less than my very best-that would immediately devolve to hack work, and that I cannot do.

Some say to ignore reviews, that they are only the opinions of people who, often, are jealous of work they themselves could not create. I choose not to embrace that opinion. To me, reviews are the opinions of informed, professional readers. Such people are not necessarily any better informed than the average reader, but what they have to say is certainly worthy of attention.

To be absolutely frank, there have been times I curled up and cried because a reviewer I respected disliked my work. And other times when handsprings across the living room were the order of the day. Such violent ups and downs can hardly be good for your blood pressure (let alone the household pets) but for an artist who cares, really cares about reaching out to the world, about creating a dialogue with readers present and unborn, there seems little choice.

An artist needs feedback. We must know whether what we do communicates the message intended. That doesn't mean all glory and complement. Harsh but honest criticism can help an artist understand what the public sees when they read the work, watch the film, view the dance. To the degree that such work is intended to make a statement, to communicate a state of emotion or elusive concept, we MUST know how the public reacts.

But there are times when the good review is more damaging than the bad one. It often seems that a large proportion of artists are people who crave a deeper, more fluid connection with the outside world. Who in early life felt their voice stifled, felt invisible in the middle of a crowd. So they learn to speak their truth in some other form, and a creative performer was born




Deep within such an artist is a driving, gnawing, ravenous urge to be loved, respected, seen, heard. It is the stifled urge of a child dancing in the living room for the guests, saying "look at me! I'm special!"

Of course, attention isn't always on the artist herself: sometimes we merely want to draw attention to some cause, or effect, or external reality or philosophy we consider important or of interest. At the heart of all of this, however, is the sense that our perceptions are worthy, our hearts strong, our song as valid as that of any other warbler in the forest.

And when those reviews come in, we can either read them at an emotional arm's length, or we can take them to heart, suffer the slings and arrows-and rejoice in the victories.

Which are more important? I'm not certain. But when those positive reviews come, I notice that I don't take them as seriously, as deeply, as the negative ones. I don't dare. That little boy inside me wants too desperately to believe that he is loved and appreciated, that he has made something worthwhile. When the positive reviews come, it is easy to listen to the accolades, to glow in the applause…

But God help you if you ever need it. Then, with an exquisitely perverse precision, it will be withdrawn. Chasing after the approval makes it dissolve, and we become like a third-rate comic frantically mugging for a once-appreciative audience, begging them to laugh until they are embarrassed for him.

I love the process of writing. I love the books themselves. I love my audience. And I love those reviews, too much, it sometimes seems. And at those times, a little voice whispers in my ear: "The writing isn't for them. Never for them. It was before they were. And if they turn their backs, you will write still. Don't be lulled by the fact that today's reviews are positive. Don't be frustrated if tomorrow's reviews are bad. Listen to the voice in your heart, the one that whispers of discipline, and pain, and creative ecstasy. That voice was there at the beginning, and will be there at the end."

That voice, and no other, can you trust

How to achieve success in business using your website

Designing a web site that get results can take time to complete and the best results are gained when you are fully involved and prepared in the process.

Making your company an attractive and popular is more than just placing a picture of a product or a description of a service on a web page and publishing it to the web. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed to ensure success.

Primary market research
Strategic marketing provides the structure that helps assemble the information through which the company understands its customers. This is the information needed in order to sell successfully. Hence before beginning any development work, it is important to have a clear picture on who the customer is and why they are likely to buy. In describing the target customer, such factors as gender, age and socio-economic group are essentials while further information such as technical capability and language level can also be useful.

Including this information in your design briefly puts the web site designer in a much better position to produce a site that the end user will feel useful and comfortable with.

Objective of the website
Determine the objective of the website; is it to provide information, to produce direct sales? or just a brochure-ware site showing the company and its capabilities. Is it intended to generate enquiries from new customers? or to keep existing customers informed.

Objectives will include the detailed information on any existing brand identity and the image the company wants to portray to the world at large. Remember your web site is the salesperson to your potential customers.

Promoting the website
Promotion of the website is essential if potential customers are to find your web site. Although it is not obvious to the viewer, the purpose of this information is to provide the search engine with the data they need to place the site in the correct category in the database, which in turn helps the search engine respond to search terms entered by users.

To achieve successful ranking in search engines the title and meta-data must reflect the content of the page it belongs to. Keywords and phrases need to be researched thoroughly, what exactly are your customers likely to enter as search terms into search engines.

Update your website
Analyze your site as often as possible to make sure that it is presenting the image, content, accuracy that your customers and prospects expect. The costs associated with this effort are different from those of other marketing media, but the significance should not be under estimated. Updating your web site continually helps your readers come back time after another to find out what are new things you've posted recently.

In summary the major part of the web site is carrying out your research into your customers and understand them and then conveying all required details properly to your web site designer so that they can build a web site, which your customers will find useful and will purchase from. After all the web site is for your customers!

Facebook Office vs Google Office [Pics]

It might be a question of personal- preference. You can’t help but love one company’s work more than another, which leads to desire to- work for them. Aside from that, you could use some objective- measurements in choosing between the two.

This might help you. We give you a chance to have a sneak view at the offices from both Facebook and Google . You’ll find that both are design great, to enhance the -productivity of their workers. Absolutely no trace of standard office- cubicles.

About Facebook

Facebook, Inc. is a company that operates and privately- owns social networking website, Facebook. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks- organized by city, workplace, school, and region. The website’s name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping- students to get to know each other better.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science -students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University. The website’s membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford -University. It later expanded further to include any university -student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 350- million active users- worldwide.

About Google

Google Inc. is an American public corporation- specializing in Internet search. It also generates profits from advertising bought on its similarly free-to-user e-mail, online mapping, office- productivity, social networking and video-sharing services. Advert free versions are available via paid subscription. Google has more recently developed an open source web browser and a mobile- phone operating system. Its headquarters, often referred to as the Google-plex, is located in Mountain View, California. As of March 31, 2009 the company had 19,786 full-time employees. It runs thousands of servers across the world, processing millions of search requests each day and about one petabyte of user generated- data each hour.

Info from : http://www.twittfun.com

20 Best Ways to Improve your Alexa Ranking

Keep it simple, the Alexa Rank is a ranking system which bases its ranking schema on the level of traffic each website receives from the number of people who visit a website with the Alexa toolbar installed.

Why would you want to increase your Alexa rank?

Alexa is a very famous source to know the rankings of any website so almost all webmasters, advertisers and ad networks use your blog’s Alexa rank as a gauge to determine the worth of a link on your website. So you will need to start bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing.

How do I get started with Alexa?

There are two easy ways to start using Alexa. If you are using Internet Explorer, visit this page and download the Alexa Toolbar. If you’re using Firefox, download the SearchStatus extension which displays the Alexa Rank, Google PageRank as well as other useful features and if you are a google chrome user then you may follow this link to install alexa rank checker extension. I highly recommend that you use Firefox and SearchStatus instead of Alexa toolbar, which I find to be more bulky and less useful.

Undoubtedly, great link-worthy content will leads to an natural increase in site traffic and is an excellent way to passively increase your Alexa rank.

It is important to emphasize that you should devote most of your efforts in growing your site audience alongside integrated implementation of any of the following tips below. So here is my 21 Quick Tips to Increase Your Alexa Rank.

1. Install the Alexa toolbar or Firefox’s SearchStatus extension and set your blog as your homepage. This is the most basic step.

2. Put up an Alexa rank widget on your website. I did this a few days ago and receive a fair amount of clicks every day. According to some webmasters, each click counts as a visit even if the toolbar is not used by the visitor.

3. Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar. This includes friends, fellow webmasters as well as site visitors/blog readers. Be sure to link to Alexa’s full explanation of their toolbar and tracking system so your readers know what installing the toolbar or extension entails.

4. Work in an Office or own a company? Get the Alexa toolbar or SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers. Perhaps it will be useful to note that this may work only when dynamic or different IPs are used.

5. Get friends to review and rate your Alexa website profile. Not entirely sure of its impact on rankings but it might help in some way.

6. Write or Blog about Alexa. Webmaster and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic (i.e. visitors with the toolbar already installed). This gradually has effects on your Alexa ranking.

7. Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others.

8. Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums.

9. Use Alexa redirects on your website URL. Try this: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.techjunoon.com . Replace techjunoon.com with the URL for your website. Leave this redirected URL in blog comments as well as forum signatures. This redirect will count a unique IP address once a day so clicking it multiple times won’t help. There is no official proof that redirects positively benefit your Alexa Rank, so use with caution.

10. Post in Asian social networking websites or forums. Some webmasters have suggested that East Asian web users are big Alexa toolbar fans, judging by the presence of several Asia-based websites in the Alexa Top 500. I suggest trying this only if you have the time or capacity to do so.

11. Create a webmaster tools section on your website. This is a magnet for webmasters who will often revisit your website to gain access to the tools. Aaron Wall’s webpage on SEOTools is a very good example.

12. Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank. Naturally, you’ll need to develop link worthy material.

13. Use Pay per Click Campaigns. Buying advertisements on search engines such as Google or Exact Seek will help bring in Traffic. Doubly useful when your ad is highly relevant to webmasters.

14. Create an Alexa category on your blog and use it to include any articles or news about Alexa. This acts as an easily accessible resource for webmasters or casual search visitors while helping you rank in the search engines.

15. Optimize your popular posts. Got a popular post that consistently receives traffic from the search engines? Include a widget/graph at the bottom of the post, link to your Alexa post or use Alexa redirection on your internal URLs.

16. Buy banners and links for traffic from webmaster forums and websites. A prominent and well displayed ad will drive lots of webmaster traffic to your website, which can significantly boost your rank.

17. Hire forum posters to pimp your website. Either buy signatures in webmaster forums or promote specific articles or material in your website on a regular basis. You can easily find posters for hire in Digital Point and other webmaster forums.

18. Pay Cybercafe owners to install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as the homepage for all their computers. This might be difficult to arrange and isn’t really a viable solution for most. I’m keeping this one in because some have suggested that it does work.

19. Use MySpace . This is a little shady so I don’t recommended it unless you’re really interested in artificially inflating your Alexa Rank. Use visually attractive pictures or banners and link them to your redirected Alexa URL. This will be most effective if your website has content that is actually relevant to the MySpace Crowd.

20. Try Alexa auto-surfs. Do they work? Maybe for brand new sites. I think they are mostly suitable for new websites with a very poor Alexa rank. Note that there be problems when you try to use auto surfs alongside contextual ads like Adsense. They aren’t also long term solutions to improving your Alexa Rank so I suggest using with caution.


Info from : http://www.twittfun.com

Effective Ways Of Making Your Site More Visible By Seo - Search Engines Techniques

Before now, many would simply build or have websites built for them and go to sleep. They wouldnt have any SEO search engine need or doesnt really take it as priority but will opt to patiently wait for people to start tinkling in to the site. Those days are gone. The idle thing for any web owner today is to be actively involved in boosting the search engine position his or her website.


It has been noted that more than 50 percent of web users find products or services they need through the search engines. It has also been noted through extensive surveys that the web searches usually dont go past the first two or three result pages. Appropriate SEO search engine application helps to make the website visible by ensuring that it is among the first few sites that will be shown whenever someone searches for any information that relates to its niche.
Search engine optimization involves choosing targeted keywords or keyword phrases that relates to the websites offerings. These keywords are what would bring searcher to the site soon as they use any of the terms to search for information on the search engines. This why it is absolutely important that businesses that have online presence ensure that their website ranks high in the search engines so that relevant online searches can easily click through to such sites.


You web site will not be complete if it doesnt comply with certain SEO search engines requirements. No rule says you must comply with the SEO basics but it is for the visibility of your website, so that your site can attract more targeted people for the overall success of your business. There is need for you to be SEO conscious even while developing your website because the proper use of keywords from domain names to site titles e.t.c will go a long way in helping the search engine ranking of such website.<
Many wouldnt want to be believe this but a company recently came out to say that an average of 6.5 million websites are developed daily all through the internet and this figure will potentially increase in the near future. This is more reason you should ensure that your website is SEO compliant so that many or all your pages will rank well for the success of your business. No online customer will know that you are there if they dont get to your site to see what you are offering.


Irrespective of what you are currently doing online, it can be that you are offering products or services or you are offering both, the sooner you invest in SEO applications, the better for your business. It will not only help your site to be indexed by various search engines but if properly implemented, will continually make your site visible to those who may be search for what you have on the internet. Your websites visibility will be boosted if you take time to implement proper SEO techniques.

Build Your Online Business Through "building On A Budget"

Investment is truly a necessity for any online business venture. But it is not the quantity that matters but most of all the quality since without you being knowledgeable about proper investment, you will most likely fail. Making good online is more than knowing how to use the computer since you have to learn the online tools and marketing techniques which may be difficult to really get to know with.

If you think you don't have enough finances to succeed online it's a good time to get Building on a Budget program that will fill your mind with different strategies about generating the best MLMleads without having to spend much. Here you will truly learn about the ins and outs of attracting highly targeted and inexpensive MLM leads.

Read further and learn more about it.

The Surest Way To Big Bucks

The key to make online business operate well is to generate highly targeted traffic to your site. The many site visitors will be responsible for the large return of investments which you shall enjoy truly early. With this consideration, Building on a Budget will impart the highly proven effective five strategies in attracting net surfers to visit your site and sign up in your business.

Besides this, this training program will also train you in the best strategies of creating inexpensive MLM leads that can raise you up to the ladder of success. Since experience is often called the best teacher, the program will most likely just teach you; it allows you to experience it through a sample company. Once you have mastered it, you only have one thing to do but change the sample company's name into yours.

Misconceptions

Most people have common notions as to why newbies in online business fail to earn big bucks through network marketing. These notions include having bad luck which is superstitious indeed, having insufficient call center staff, and the lack of network marketing conventions and the likes. Great insight proves that these are truly untrue causes of failure. The real cause is the absence of one important factor.

The Real Cause

The reason why online business does not thrive through network marketing is the fact that the company lacks the necessary amount of money. Money fuels the business to flow smoothly. In terms of network marketing, money is also necessary since the company shall spend for inventory, getting enough resources, training, to name a few. This solely means that the company has to generate huge profits to continue spending for the important stuff while enjoying the targeted profits.

The Most Common Case

For many beginners in online business who want to take advantage of network marketing, there is not enough cash to spend for lead generation, gatherings, meetings, travels and other stuff. For this, Building on a Budget is designed in order to help out entrepreneurs who are in tight budget yet are very willing to try their luck in network marketing. This MLM training course was made by Mike Dillard a world renowned personality in online business who likes to share his expertise about how to be successful online and how to create inexpensive MLM leads.

Lessons To Be Taught

Building on a Budget offers so much good things for your online business. For one, it can make your site included on the first page of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN which is one important way of generating huge traffic to your site. Since large traffic will be generated, you can use the traffic of the highly known personalities which can be really beneficial for your business.

Besides generating traffic, this MLM training course can train you how to run pay per click ads and various marketing campaigns without too much spending. Moreover, you will not be compelled to hire a network marketing rep simply because cheap MLM leads will take care of earning thousands of dollars for you.

5 BLOGGING TIPS FOR FIRMLY ESTABLISHING YOUR BLOG

5 Blogging Tips For Firmly Establishing Your

Some of the best blogging tips you can received are also the most simple to understand and follow. If you aspire to develop and operate a popular blog within your niche there is one word you must keep in mind: FOCUS.

To establish a popular site you will need plenty of blog traffic to help boost your search engine rankings and visitor referrals. How then is the best way to attract the typical blog reader and keep them coming back?

Here are 5 grass root 'tips' you will want to keep in mind for attracting blog traffic as you lean over your keyboard pounding out your next post.

Maintain Just ONE Blog

There are many bloggers online who agree that focusing on just one site allows you to put more effort and quality into that blog. Jumping from one site to the next and trying to do your best sets the stage for less effort, less quality and less traffic. The only thing you will see an increase in is FRUSTRATION.

Use Social Network Sites

To properly participate at any of these sites you will need to invest some time, much like a blog. It therefore stands to reason once again that you can easily spread yourself too thin working too many of theses sites.

There are only so many hours to the day and if you intend to get 'real' results from any of these social sites it is best to focus your efforts. Therefore choose your favorite site(s) with the best potential for exposure and become a fixture there.

Post Comments on Other Blogs

Either from a learning standpoint or in an attempt to increase your own blog traffic you should go out into your community and visit other (similar) blogs. Participate in the conversations if you are intrigued or post comments about particular entries. It is both important and polite however to only post comments when they are constructive and not for the purpose of traffic generation. If you leave enough 'quality' comments you can gain a considerable amount of blog traffic from the backlinks you receive.

Blog with Passion

If you have a real passion for what you are blogging about it the blog reader will know it. Another area your passion will show up is in the consistency of your efforts. If a genuine interest in what you are doing is not present, you will burn out sooner or later and most likely it will be sooner. Blogging takes time and effort and on top of that it can take quite a while to build up a loyal following.

Post Original Content

One of the most attractive aspects of blogging is the chance to express yourself if you are so inclined. But aside from personal expression the content you post to your blog should be your own. You may not think you are a good writer but that really does not matter since whatever you post is uniquely you! Whether it is your insight, humor, or original useful information there will always be somebody else who will enjoy it. By posting consistently in this manner you will develop a popular blog over a period of time.

The originality reflected on your blog will be what sets you apart from the all the rest so focus on this aspect in particular'

Some of the best blogging tips you can follow merely address certain fundamental rules or quite simply pure logic. For anybody looking to establish their site as a popular blog within their niche attention must be paid to 'gathering' the necessary traffic. The need to attract and then maintain the loyalty of your blog reader is your first step and a top priority for gaining popularity. By following the 5 'tips' discussed above you will best serve your readers and they in turn will appreciate your efforts and maintain their loyalty. The end result if you maintain a consistency of effort will be a popular blog that both you and your readers will enjoy.

SUCCESS STORIES SEATGURU FROM ADSENSE

Hobby site SeatGuru.com found a real business with Google AdSense.
Case study : SeatGuru.com : www.seatguru.com

Working on a project that took him repeatedly between San Francisco and Prague, Matt Daimler racked up a lot of air miles. During these long flights, he studied the seat configurations on various models of aircraft to determine which seats are the best, including proximity to such features as video monitors and power ports. Compiling these details inspired him to create a website, www.SeatGuru.com, to share his information. Daimler quickly began to get tips and anecdotes from other frequent fliers who visited the site, which led him to rank seat selections from "very good" to "bad."

Two years since he launched SeatGuru as a hobby, Daimler continues to have a day job. But his sideline has continued to grow: Today the site provides seating diagrams for more than 100 different planes. And it has gotten favorable press mentions in places like Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal. All of this has required Daimler to invest more time – and money – to manage the site.

"Google shows targeted ads reflecting the sorts of information and services SeatGuru visitors want. For a small business like mine, this is the best approach to advertising." Matt Daimler Founder, SeatGuru.com

Approach

After some initial hesitation ("I did not want to put banners or pop-ups on the site," he recalls), Daimler joined several affiliate marketing programs along with an ad network that required him to sell the ads and maintain the advertiser relationships. He quickly learned "it wasn't worth the hassle for the meager return I got." Direct advertising was no easier. When he approached airlines directly for ad support, they said the site was too small.

A friend sent Daimler a customer case study about using Google AdSense,™ which interested him. Among other things, the story described an easy-to-use product that yielded $3,000 a month in ad revenue. "I have a high level of trust in Google," he recalls thinking, and he decided to try it. He calculated that since his page views were about one-third the number of those in the case study he read, he expected to make about one-third the revenue cited in the story. His results were considerably greater.

Initiating AdSense took very little effort, Daimler says, noting that within minutes he implemented AdSense ads on about 90 percent of the site's pages, "where it makes sense to serve ads and monetize traffic."

Results

"Google shows targeted ads reflecting the sorts of information and services SeatGuru visitors want," says Daimler. Ads appeared on the airline seating chart pages for airlinespecific discount fares, business class upgrades, airport parking, and the like. "For a small business like mine, this is the best approach to advertising," he says. "You set it up easily, it automatically serves relevant ads, and it takes very little of my time."

Today Daimler sees about 175,000 unique users and 650,000 page views a month. AdSense ads are his only source of revenue. Not only has SeatGuru attained the original revenue Daimler hoped for, it has exceeded it. As Daimler says, "AdSense really marked the turning point that changed my hobby into a business."

"AdSense really marked the turning point that changed my hobby into a business."

Daimler uses several AdSense features, including channel reporting, to optimize the program's performance on SeatGuru. Channel reporting enables him to track the performance by specific site areas, ad format, ad colors, and more.

Initially, Daimler did not run ads on the home page, assuming they would not be effective until visitors had gone into the site. Using AdSense channels, however, he found quite the opposite: These ads on the home page registered more clickthroughs and greater revenue than did other sections. "Straight away, we saw very high value with channel reporting data," he says.

The AdSense support team also recommended Daimler try the 160 × 600–wide skyscraper ad unit. He converted a portion of the site to run ads in this format and tracked that portion using AdSense channels. Once more, he says, "there was an improvement in both CTR and earnings, so the entire site now uses that format, and has seen the same increases." Now Daimler looks forward to experimenting with channels for colors, position, and ad formats.

Daimler also takes advantage of AdSense features such as the filtering tool, which blocks ads he doesn't want to appear, and the reports, which he says have "very usable information in a great format." Whenever support questions arise, he says, "I always receive a reply within 24 hours. AdSense support has exceeded my service-level expectations."

Today, Daimler engages an accountant to maintain the finances, and SeatGuru.com has become a corporation. "Because I can count on the ad revenue from Google," Daimler says, "I can spend more time developing the site. I feel comfortable investing in it, knowing that it's bringing in money." His advice to others who may be inspired to create a web presence reflecting their interest? "Good content pays! Find your niche, create a good site, and use AdSense to make it worth your while. It's easy to set up, the ads are useful, and your users will like it."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. A broad universe of sites profit from AdSense, with service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management. Google's thousands of advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, including AOL, Ask.com, Lycos, and EarthLink. Visit www.google.com/adsense.

SUCCESS STORIES MEDICAL CODING FROM ADSENSE

Medical Coding.Net found greater clickthrough and conversion with Google.
Case study : Medical Coding.Net : www.medical-coding.net

Entrepreneur Darren Carter, M.D. created a company in 2001 to sell software and other products for medical coding and billing processes, an increasingly important task for medical practices of all kinds. His company, Medical Coding.Net, is today a wholly owned subsidiary of Provistas, Inc., which provides Medicare compliance solutions to hospital and physician-practice clients. Medical Coding.Net receives a qualified professional audience of about 500 unique visitors each day.

Challenge

"Every ad that shows is a complement to my sites, and I'm getting high-quality traffic." Darren Carter, M.D. Entrepreneur

"In my industry, people are out looking for a variety of services and products," says Dr. Carter. In order to grow his e-commerce business, his online marketing strategy now includes Google AdWords to drive traffic to Medical Coding.Net; Froogle to increase visibility and gain customers for his specialty software; and AdSense (AdWords ads on content pages). He intends to leverage this combination of all three Google programs in order to gain traffic, clicks and buyers.

Results

"AdWords sends qualified leads my way," says Dr. Carter. "We get cost-effective visibility that's tied to very specialized keyword searches through our AdWords program.” For those visitors "who don't find what they need from the products on my site,” he adds, "the AdSense program, which enables Google ads on other sites, seems to offer them what they need." says Dr. Carter. He also notes that enabling these "unobtrusive" ads "took only a few minutes to put up. It was very easy to add the code." The ads now appear for nearly 100 percent of the site's pages.

While he was initially concerned that ads on his discussion forums would not be well-targeted due to the dynamic nature of those pages, Dr. Carter says he is "very pleasantly surprised at how well targeted they are. "Every ad that shows is a complement to my site," he says, "and I'm getting high quality traffic." He also takes advantage of ad blocking, noting that even in this highly specialized arena there are enough suitable ads after he blocks direct competitors.

Regarding Froogle, Dr. Carter says, "This free merchant program is a great way to become visible for a specialized product category." He sends an XML feed for Froogle to upload whenever he has new pricing, sales promotions, or new products. "It's incredibly easy way for us to be branded in a big e-commerce channel, and we see customers who would not have found us otherwise."

For all of his efforts, Dr. Carter is seeing a healthy five-figure return on his advertising investment. He also reports that AdSense revenue more than offsets his AdWords expenditure: "In fact, we have reduced our overall ad budget," he says. What's more, he reports a consistent and healthy 3.6 percent clickthrough rate. Overall, Dr. Carter concludes that " All of Google advertising has had a very favorable impact on my business."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES PVRBLOG FROM ADSENSE

PVRBlog.com found a way to cover costs and make a profit with Google AdSense.
Case study : PVRBlog.com : www.pvrblog.com

It's fair to say that Matt Haughey doesn't always start with a business plan. Based in San Francisco, Haughey has been a website developer, designer, and publisher for years, and is an active blogger as well. One of his blog sites, PVRBlog.com, is all about personal video recorders (PVRs), especially the TiVo® brand. Nearly a year ago Haughey began posting messages about this growing consumer electronics category, including notes on TiVo features, shortcuts, new s, reviews, hacks, and PVR industry news.

"I encourage people who can write and have active blogs dedicated to a single subject to support them through AdSense ads. It's definitely lucrative, and you can concentrate on your subject and your site." Matt Haughey Founder, PVRBlog.com

Challenge

Haughey didn't intend for PVRBlog to become a business. But its popularity grew - up to 5,000 people read it every day - and he wondered if there was a way to cover costs for hosting and storage. "If running ads could pay for the site, that would be fantastic," he recalls thinking. But as rule, Haughey and his blogging circle did not like the often irrelevant, obtrusive nature of most online advertising. "I didn't have a clue about how to find decent advertising for the site," he says. Haughey read about the Google AdSense™ program and decided to try it. "It's completely automated, and so it took 5 minutes to set up," he says. "I've hardly touched it since then."

Results

"I can't believe how lucrative AdSense is," Haughey says. "On the very first day it was on, I made twice what it costs me for monthly hosting, storage, and bandwidth overage fees," adding that he's making money because the ads are relevant and readable. "The targeting is perfect for me," he says. Since PVRBlog is about a product, he gets a lot of traffic from searchers. "People are constantly looking for TiVo and PVR products and services. I'm lucky to have a blog that is product focused, because the ads all relate to PVR products and services."

Haughey says the custom color feature to differentiate the ads from the pages is "awesome. It's nice to add color so readers can see them in context on the page."

In his professional role as web creator, Haughey says he now sees the value of AdSense for similar endeavors. "I encourage people who can write and have active blogs dedicated to a single subject to support them through AdSense ads," he says. "It's definitely lucrative, and you can concentrate on your subject and your site." In particular, he feels the program is "really great for bloggers who worry about the wrong kind of commercialism creeping in, because AdSense ads really work in the context of blog pages."

Since launching AdSense on PVRBlog, Haughey has even opted to run AdSense ads on Metafilter, a much larger community blog site he began in 1999. Today, it features half a million posts on some 27,000 subjects. In short, Haughey has become an extreme fan of Google advertising, which he now says "changed everything by offering highly targeted ads that are actually useful."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. A broad universe of sites profit from AdSense, with service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management. Google's thousands of advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, including AOL, Ask.com, Lycos, and EarthLink. Visit www.google.com/adsense.

SUCCESS STORIES TESTMAGIC FROM ADSENSE

TestMagic found a profitable way to grow with Google AdSense.
Case study : TestMagic.com : www.testmagic.com

For years, Erin Billy taught English to non-native speakers, including a three-year stint in Brazil. When he moved to San Francisco in 1997, he continued his passion for teaching through a web-based business, TestMagic.com. Today he offers online and offline classes in San Francisco for those applying to American universities and colleges. He also offers preparation courses and reference guides for high-level tests, including the GMAT, SAT, and GRE.

Approach

After losing money on the website for the first couple of years, Billy says he made a small profit by the third year. Three years after that, he has two full-time employees on the payroll, and contracts with five teachers for classroom training. Now his challenge is to grow the business and make it more profitable. Currently, he gets about 60,000 daily page views from 3,000 unique visitors. To make money from that traffic, he has tried a variety of advertising strategies. "I've tried most of the media types I can think of," he says.

"Getting started was a breeze, and right away, I began to make money." Erin Billy CEO, TestMagic.com

Billy doesn't like subjecting his users to annoying pop-ups and interstitials. He says he "moved up the ladder of affiliate programs," starting with those that are easy to get in, but pay poorly. He managed to move into a more selective affiliate position, but the programs he chose kept a sizable share of revenue, and several didn't pay out for 90 days. Despite the drawbacks, he's maintained several affiliate relationships. He also has a deal with one direct advertiser.

When Billy heard about the Google AdSense™ contextual advertising program through an ASP forum, he recalls thinking, "If Google is doing it, it's worth a try." He tested AdSense by putting the bit of required code onto a few pages of TestMagic. "Getting started was a breeze," he says, "and right away, I began to make money." So he quickly incorporated AdSense on virtually all of the site's pages.

Results

"Good advertising gives people more options, more information," Billy says. "And text ads are my all-around favorites," adding that, "It's great that Google chooses the best combination of relevance and high-paying ads." Now he gets "very impressive" AdSense revenue – about four times what he typically gets from all affiliate programs and ad networks combined. Billy invests this additional income in TestMagic to give his users more of what they want. "I can now afford to outsource some technical and creative work that I previously had to do myself. The ad revenue helps me speed things up."

"I can now afford to outsource some technical and creative work that I previously had to do myself. AdSense revenue helps me speed things up."

Billy takes advantage of two AdSense features in particular. One of them, alternate ads, enables Billy to specify an image or ad server when there are no suitably targeted ads available from Google. (An unexpected effect of using this feature is that he has decreased his use of ad networks, and now uses them primarily to ensure that his ad space is always used effectively.) He also uses the custom color palette to make sure that the ad appearance "fits in with the site overall, because I don't want to alienate my users."

Billy believes that AdSense revenue "has infused small publishers and webmasters like me with cash they could never have had before." And he continues, "I honestly believe that AdSense is helping users in a ‘second wave' of the Internet. It's a great equalizer, enabling people like me with a lot of knowledge and a useful service, but not much financial backing, to build a business that makes money." So when associates ask, Billy's advice is "start using AdSense right away."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. A broad universe of sites profit from AdSense, with service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management. Google's thousands of advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, including AOL, Ask.com, Lycos, and EarthLink. Visit www.google.com/adsense.

SUCCESS STORIES SWAPALEASE FROM ADSENSE

Swapalease.com
Case study : Swapalease.com : www.Swapalease.com

Business

It was among the first companies to handle car lease transfers online, and today Swapalease.com is now one of the largest car lease assumption marketplaces in the world. It receives 300,000 unique visitors monthly and has successfully transferred more than $500 million in automobile leases since its founding in 1999.

"Some people want to get out of their automotive leases without penalties, and some people want to assume short-term leases," explains Swapalease Executive Vice President of Operations Scot Hall. "We match supply with demand by providing a large online classified ad system of leases to be transferred and we handle the logistics of making the lease transfers happen expeditiously."

Approach

"With AdSense, Google takes the work out of selling and delivering ads." Scot Hall Swapalease Executive Vice President of Operations

As an online marketplace, Swapalease discovered early on that search-based advertising using Google AdWords was a great way to drive traffic to the site and help convert customer leads to sales. When the Google AdWords team suggested Hall might substantially augment his revenue with relevant ads from Google AdSense, he was interested.

"Our site follows the 90-10 rule, with 90 percent of traffic landing on 10 percent of the pages," says Hall. "We reasoned that our most visited pages would be a good place to deliver ads that meshed with the site content. And, we welcomed the additional association with the Google brand—it gave us a lot of credibility."

Results

After signing up, AdSense ads immediately comprised of 40 percent of Hall’s online revenue, without requiring a dedicated ad sales staff. "With AdSense, Google takes the work out of selling and delivering ads," says Hall. "Google really takes care of the details." After making only slight adjustments to ad size, format and placement such as ensuring that ads appear "above the fold," Hall was earning 75 to 80 percent of his online revenue from AdSense.

Hall is choosy about how his site appears and says he doesn’t "want to overdo it" when it comes to online advertising. He’s found the right mix of quality, relevant ads using AdSense, and makes smart choices about where he delivers them. Hall also appreciates the ability to block competitors’ ads to maintain the Swapalease brand and keep customers loyal. "The right partners advertise on our site," says Hall. "This helps ensure that AdSense ads are useful to visitors, and that nothing detracts from our business success."

As a next step, Hall has signed up to display video ads from Google AdSense, and he’s looking forward to the possibilities. "When Google comes out with something new and exciting, you know it’s important to take notice," says Hall. "That’s how we feel about video ads, and about Google in general."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES APARTMENTRATINGS FROM ADSENSE

ApartmentRatings.com
Case study : ApartmentRatings.com : www.apartmentratings.com

Business

Jeremy and Katie Bencken were fed up with the driving, bother and rushed decisions associated with finding rental housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and decided to do something about it. In 2000, they started ApartmentRatings.com, a site for apartment hunters to obtain information such as peer reviews in order to make informed rental decisions. What started as a sideline for the couple has grown into the largest independent apartment-hunting site on the web, with 560,000 pages and traffic comparable to larger, commercially-funded sites for rental housing. Today, the company is located in Austin, Texas, and the site reaches approximately 30 percent of apartment hunters nationwide. Site users praise ApartmentRatings. com as a "brilliant resource," saving grief for a countless number of users in the process of apartment hunting.

Approach

"Google serves up very relevant ads. The content matching is impressive, which makes the ads helpful for our visitors." Jeremy Bencken Co-founder

Advertising is the company's exclusive source of income; however, the Benckens face several challenges in selling ads. With a staff of five, they don't have a large pool of resources to sell directly to advertisers. To remain unbiased, the Benckens don't accept ads from apartment complexes and instead rely on movers, renter's insurance providers, and roommate locators to fill their inventory. To add to the challenge, the rental housing market is highly localized, yet the Benckens note that it can be difficult and time-consuming to find and recruit advertisers in smaller markets.

"We were in a 'Catch 22' situation," recalls Jeremy Bencken. "We weren't big enough to have a sales force dedicated to selling ads, but we couldn't become big unless we sold advertising." In 2003, the Benckens learned about Google AdSense contextual advertising and realized that it could "move them along the growth curve."

Results

The Benckens are now running AdSense ads across virtually all of ApartmentRatings.com, their blog, OhMyApartment, their forums, ThinWallsTalk, and their classifieds, Apartments-and-Rentals.com. Jeremy is pleased that advertisers come from across the U.S., including smaller metropolitan areas. He notes that AdSense complements his use of other Google products such as Google AdWords campaigns that drive traffic to his site, and Google Sitemaps, which make the newest content on the site available on Google search.

Besides being pleased with the revenue he's generating from AdSense, Bencken notes that "Google serves up very relevant ads. The content matching is impressive, which makes the ads helpful for our visitors."

After gaining experience with AdSense, Jeremy further improved his results by making adjustments to ad placement and size. He uses 300 x 250 medium rectangles containing four ads each and 160 x 600 wide skyscrapers – both with colors that blend well with the site. He also places ads at the end of apartment reviews to enhance the user experience by giving visitors a useful next step once they've finished perusing a review. With just these minor ad format and ad placement changes, he was able to improve his CPM by 45 percent and his clickthrough rate by 91 percent without disrupting the user experience.

AdSense also helps the Benckens adjust to seasonal fluctuations in advertising demand. During summer, call for rental properties is at its peak, and advertisers tend to less aggressively promote their services. Other times of the year, advertisers are hungry. "AdSense is flexible and adjusts to whatever the market is doing, without us having to intervene by raising and lowering prices, which can be difficult," says Jeremy. In addition to AdSense, the Benckens rely on Google business tools such as Google Sitemaps*** and Google Analytics to increase visibility of new site content in Google search results and to gain valuable insight into their site's audience.

Since they started the company, the most important lesson the Benckens have learned is that real estate requires a local focus. Concludes Jeremy, "AdSense does the work for us and has allowed us to tap 100 percent of our market, since we can reach both small and large metropolitan areas, versus serving only a few big advertisers. AdSense has made a tremendous difference in our business."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES TEACHNOLOGY FROM ADSENSE

TeAch-nology
Case study : TeAch-nology.com : www.teachnology.com

Business

TeAch-nology offers services and resources designed to support educators who want to effectively incorporate technology into their classrooms. The company provides a reservoir of online resources and delivers effective tools for designing instruction. At TeAch-nology.com, educators can find best practices information, as well as a variety of free classroom materials and support tools. A seasoned team, including pre-K to K-12 grade teachers, professors of higher education, leading educational consultants, small business consultants and experienced web designers, maintains TeAch-nology.com.

There’s no charge for accessing many of the resources found on TeAch-nology.com. Educators who want more in-depth content and resources can purchase memberships for a modest annual fee.

Approach

"The quality of the AdSense ads is superb. It's almost as if a specialist hand-picked ads for every page. The ads match our content so perfectly, it's amazing" Paul McKee Founder

Founder Paul McKee explains that he can offer the site as a free service due to advertising campaigns and sponsorships. For several years, TeAch-nology has relied on Google AdWords search-based advertising to help drive traffic to the site and encourage membership sales. The site now receives 3 million page views each month. "AdWords provides an unbeatable return on investment for us," says McKee.

McKee started investigating other ways to increase his income. He saw TeAch-nology’s ads showing up on other relevant education sites, and was impressed with how well his ads matched the content. "When we saw how relevant our ads were to users on other education sites, we decided to investigate use of contextual advertising ourselves on TeAch-nology," says McKee. In the fall of 2006, TeAch-nology began running Google AdSense ads throughout the site.

Results

It was easy to implement AdSense, McKee says, but what impressed him most was the relevance of the ads his users now see. "The quality of the AdSense ads is superb," says McKee. "It’s almost as if a specialist hand-picked ads for every page. The ads match our content so perfectly, it’s amazing."

In terms of revenue, McKee notes that AdSense ads outperform other forms of contextual advertising by 8 to 9 times. He notes that he’s "extremely satisfied" with AdSense, which now accounts for 50 percent of company revenue. Equally important, McKee says that filling his ad space through AdSense frees up efforts to sell memberships, another key source of revenue. "We don’t have a full-time ad sales team," McKee observes. "AdSense takes care of itself, allowing us to focus on running our business."

In all, McKee believes he’s found a powerful tool to make the most of the educational site he runs. "It’s vital to us to be able to continue offering a wealth of resources to educators at no charge," he says. "Without revenues from AdSense, that goal would be difficult if not impossible to achieve."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES AUTOMOTIVEFORUMS FROM ADSENSE

AutomotiveForums.com
Case study : AutomotiveForums.com : www.automotiveforums.com

Business

In November of 2000, when he was just 14 years old, Igor Sushko founded AutomotiveForums.com because of his enthusiasm for cars and desire to spread knowledge to others. Today, the site receives about 950,000 unique visitors each month on more than 1,000 forums. There, car buffs can discuss virtually any car make and with more than 150 expert moderators and thousands of other enthusiasts. Membership growth has maintained its steady pace and is nearing 500,000 worldwide.

Approach
"AdSense is a win-win for all entities. It adds value to my website, and not just from a revenue standpoint. The ads are also useful for visitors."

Igor Sushko
Founder

To maximize the value of his site, Sushko wanted to build revenue by running relevant advertising throughout AutomotiveForums.com. But more important, he wanted to maintain a feeling of community on the site’s pages. He needed to ensure that ads were correctly targeted and therefore relevant to the content on his site. "Psychologically, the people who visit AutomotiveForums.com are part of a community," explains Sushko. "They get offended when things change unexpectedly, or when they feel they’re being spammed."

Based on Google’s brand, reputation and targeting technologies, Sushko decided to explore contextual advertising more fully. In August 2003, he began running Google AdSenseTM ads throughout the site. In addition to AdSense ads, Sushko expanded his options by trying other contextual advertising networks.

Results

Sushko reports that Google AdSense "blew other contextual advertising networks out of the water." Google immediately began filling his ad space efficiently, without fail, and without any effort on his part. He was impressed with the revenues that came streaming in, but even more important for Sushko, his users didn’t realize they were looking at advertisements. "AdSense ads are extremely well targeted and non-invasive to my visitors," says Sushko. "They’re more like supplementary content than ads, which makes them useful for visitors."

In addition to running ads on content pages, Sushko runs AdSense ads on his discussion forums, where he notes that the ads are easily visible but do not interfere with the user experience. He optimizes his revenue by ensuring that the ads match the color of the site and by trying out ads in a variety of locations. He notes that adjustments are easy to make and that even small changes can yield a significant increase in daily revenues. He’s now looking forward to running video ads to attract attention and keep users entertained and informed.

Although AdSense is just part of the equation, Sushko gives Google credit for bolstering his success. He’s now expanded his user base substantially and has started an auto racing team to further promote the community to enthusiasts on TV, magazine publications, and a variety of events. "AdSense is a win-win for all entities," he says. "It adds value to my website, and not just from a revenue standpoint. The ads are also useful for visitors."



About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES UNIVISION FROM ADSENSE

Univision
Case study : Univision : www.univision.com

Business

Univision Online, Inc. is the interactive division of Univision Communications Inc. (NYSE:UVN), the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Univision Online owns and operates the most visited Spanish-language Internet destination in the U.S., located at www.univision.com. Each day, users visit Univision.com nearly 850,000 times, accessing everything from the latest entertainment and sports news to classified ads and reader forums. Univision Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Univision Communications Inc. Univision Communications Inc’s portfolio includes television, radio, music and Internet offerings that entertain and inform more Hispanics each day than any other media company in the country. Television operations include the Univision Network, TeleFutura Network, Galavisión, and Univision and TeleFutura Television Groups. Other operations include Univision Radio and Univision Music Group.

Approach
“We’ve had significantly better results since switching to Google. Google helps us monetize our site better.”

Javier Saralegui
President of Univision Online

Maximizing revenue from its popular online property is one of Univision’s chief goals. Univision Online discovered early on that contextual ads are a meaningful way to do just that. As a result, Univision.com began delivering contextual ads in January 2004. Although the ads immediately generated income, Univision Online sought to increase revenue even further, as well as improve click-through rates and ad quality. “We were doing relatively well with contextual advertising,” recalls Charles Walter, Director of Product Development for Univision Online. “But we also had a suspicion that we could improve our metrics manifold, including click-through rates, revenue per thousand impressions and overall income.”

In addition to boosting revenues, Univision Online sought to ensure that they delivered ads that were relevant, tasteful and useful to visitors – ads that meshed well with the content and site design of Univision.com. Among the biggest considerations was the ability to deliver a mix of ads in both English and Spanish. This is especially important because of the prominence of the Spanish language among the more than 40 million US Hispanics. The US Hispanic population makes up approximately 14 percent of the total U.S. population, and is driving the nation’s population growth. Analysts predict advertisers will spend more than $3.4 billion this year to get their attention.

With these goals in mind, Univision began investigating contextual advertising more fully and changed ad vendors, implementing Google AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content in June 2005.

Results

Walter reports that it was easy to get up and running with AdSense, and that AdSense “runs itself.” According to Walter, Google ads are highly appropriate. He notes that he was immediately impressed with Google’s content matching and ability to crawl the Univision website with unmatched accuracy.

In terms of revenue, the Univision team immediately saw positive results. Gauging the success of AdSense a year later, Univision has seen AdSense for Search revenues grow by 160 percent. Revenue from both Google AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content increased by 103 percent. Univision has subsequently expanded its use of Google tools by implementing site targeting with the goal of attracting advertisers who want to promote their brand specifically to Univision’s highly sought after user base.

“We’ve had significantly better results since switching to Google,” said Javier Saralegui, President of Univision Online. “Google helps us monetize our site better.”

For Univision, AdSense has become an exceptional complement to traditional advertising. It produces revenue without requiring an internal sales staff, providing a way to fill ad space at lower fixed costs and letting smaller advertisers benefit from the broad reach of Univision Online.

“Google is an important strategic partner,” says Saralegui. “Not only are we pleased with the relationship, but we believe both users and marketers on our site are benefiting as well.”

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.