Nice use of images for pointing the ads without using arrows

Hello, I've found this website on another AdSense forum and it's a nice niche because people in the US are beginning to feel that oil is not so cheap (in europe we know that thanks to over 80% taxes on oil in some countries, for decades)
http://www.gas-mileage-tips.com

The first image has a kind of arrow, the car bettle on the right is looking at the ads below with its two eyes and down the page someone is pointing too, but again with subtility and staying on topic

So I think it is a nice use of relevant images to increase AdSense's CTR

 

Thanks for noticing

I kept the images relevant to the topic, but still put them near the ads to draw the eye. The VW was a very lucky find. I cropped and edited the photo to get what you see there. The old Beetle always seemed like it had eyeballs looking at something.

My CTR went up a bit, but the position of the ads is still the main factor. The block at the top gets the most clicks, regardless of what image is near it. It gets the most clicks on the main page and on the individual article pages. The CTR is highest on the main page with the article pages coming in second of all the blocks.

Before I added photos (which I think make a site more interesting anyway) the AdLinks unit was making almost as much money as the block at the top of the main page and the rest of the blocks and pages were making quite a bit less money. The AdLinks unit is in third place now for income.

Traffic has been in the dumper lately, though. Google seems to be going through another of their dances. Other search engines see over 100 inbound links to my site. Google doesn't see any. Granted, a lot of those links appear to be from scraper sites, so Google may have delisted them, but there are still a lot of legit inbound links that Google doesn't seem to know about any more. I'm sure they'll get it sorted out eventually.


Scott

 

Would the use of images be considered drawing undue attetion to the ads? I'm wondering.

 

Awesome feedback, thanks for sharing.

 

hi. i started a similar thread earilier. please see some of the posts by DP members here.. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=86499

 

see this one, it directly points to the ads !!! :eep:

http://topdot.org/Free_SEO_Links/Many_Instant_Links.html

 

I think it is.

 

Images next to ads has been done to death in many forums. I've seen numerous quoted e-mail responses from Google stating that the Content Creator Pro default template (leaderboard with four images directly above it) is OK.

Google does usually have issues with images that have arrows pointing to the ads. Even the tiny arrow at the site rosiee007 mentioned is bad. So is the "Free SEO Links" text next to it. Google would almost certainly call that a deceptive tactic to draw attention to the ads.

I have heard that images of people pointing to the ads are also considered bad by Google.

The only image at my site I'd consider borderline questionable is the gas gauge.

I've sent a request in to Google for them to look at the site and bless it. I'll let you know what I hear back.


Scott

 

Here's what Google had to say:

So images near ads are OK, provided those images are not misleading or appear to be directly associated with the advertisers or their offerings, and they also recommend that you graphically distinguish the image area from the ad area by using a visible border around the ads.

I've also seen Google responses to other people that say having either the images or the ads in a different background color is a good way to separate the blocks from each other.

So far I haven't seen any advertisers offering gas gauges, VW Beetles, or gas pump nozzles on my site, so my images probably won't be mistakenly associated with the advertisers or their products. I'll probably do something to graphically distinguish the image area from the ad area, though.


Scott