Who exactly is responsible for improving the CTR?

Is the responsibility yours or for Google to provide better contextual Ads?

If you develop a website laden in content with a fair flow of traffic yet your CTR hovers under 3% even after doing the blending etc etc, where does one stop before your site is simply becoming an Adsense portal.

With my very good search engine density I try to capitilise on selling individual Ads to clients as well as having the Adsense displayed.

The clients are happy to pay for their Ads and yet one gets the distinct impression that Adsense to some extent cheapens the site worth with Adsense clients (most) paying less than 10 cents a click thru to be on one's site.

Does anyone feel that Google cheapens their site?

I am working on a balance and often wonder whether Google will send me into Search Engine hell if I don't continue with their Adsense program.

 

I can feel that .

 

If you flood your site with google ads then yeah it cheapens it. Like some sites that place 4-6 different ads and a tiny bit of content in the middle

For me CTR is less about blending and more about type of content. %3 is not a bad CTR, for many sites that would be considered very good.

 

Certainly it cheapens your site, just like commercials on TV cheapen the programs that they advertise on (a toliet paper commercial on a romantic comedy movie). Ads in a newspaper or magazine are annoying, and commercials on radio interrupt the music we enjoy. But we accept the reality that radio, TV, and web sites cost money and can't be free. Either we pay a subscription fee or suffer through the ads -- or both.

However, your search engine rankings are not affected by your participation in Adsense.

 

%6 for a gaming site I think is pretty good so I won't complain. To bad the clicks are worth crap.

 

If ads don't pay I often pull them from the site. It's just free advertising for other people.

You just have to consider whether you need/want the money.

 

It helps pay the hosting bills and therefore I think that's worth putting up the ads.

- MENJ

 

Stackman: That's interesting that you say that. Since Adsense is contextual advertising and you shouldn't really get irrelevant ads. If you do, I suggest section targetting.