B³H³ Blog Network

If you have a relatively large blog or website (say, one with 100 or more pages of content) then chances are good that a some of your visitors will carry out a search while on your website for other content that’s of interest to them.  Why not leverage this to make some additional dollars?  Google AdSense allows you to place a Google Search box onto your site. 

How does this earn you money?  Simple.  The search box allows visitors to carry out searches across your website.  However, at the top of the results page is a selection of Google AdSense links.  If the visitor clicks on one of these links rather than a link to content on your website, then that counts as a click on an ad and you get paid.

What’s the best way to maximize profits from using a Google Search box.  Here are a few tips:

• Offer the Google Search box as the only mechanism for searching your site
• Generate more great content - this is what’s going to make people search in the first place (there’s no getting around the fact that you need lots of good content!)
• Generate lots of good content to encourage users to want to search
• Place the search box is a highly visible location (where this is depends on the look and layout of your site)
• Use the new feature that Google AdSense offers to allow search results to appear within your own site (this way users aren’t freaked out by being taken to another site)

Don’t expect a massive boost in your earnings from just adding a search box - normally you can expect an increase in revenue of between 1% and 5% (although it’s possible to get more, depending on your site, the content and the readership).  However, if you earn $100 bucks a month from AdSense for content, that’s up to an additional $5.  Grow that AdSense for content earnings to $1000 and you’re making up to an extra $50 a month.  Not much, but it all adds up over a year!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 at 6:07 am and is filed under Adsense Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.