My blog is having 9k visitor per month but the CTR on home page is approx. 0.40% comparison to internal pages CTR, which is more than 4%. As most of the traffic is on home page and home page is having 6-7 posts so users land on the home page, averagely read 2-3 posts and then close the window. Why my home page CTR is really low and how can I increase it?
Here's the web address: http://gadgetsworld.co.in I'm working on this project since few months and we're improving on other aspects like: traffic, users stay time, bounce rate etc. but home page CTR is really low.
You actually looked at your own site? All the ads are right at the top. By the time anyone scrolls down to the start of the content on the first post, all the ads are off the screen. Thus, you as good as have no ads at all. Put some ads lower down however you want. Leaderboard/large rectangle/link unit after your first post IN the content section, and lower the number of posts on the front page from eleventy billion like you have now to, oh, five. Get rid of the leaderboard in your header so you can put another large ad on the sidebar.
RumpledElf, few comments: 1. As I'm using infolinks so ads are coming up on body content as-well-as on some content of comments. 2. Defined link unit after the end of each post content. 3. I've experimented with banner (468x60) by putting it after body content but there were no clicks, so I put on the top & now, at-least getting some clicks on it. 4. 10 posts running on the home page instead of 5.
Well, then you know exactly what to do ... so why ask? It is certainly nice being able to browse your site so easily without seeing ads though. On one site I also had an ad on the side once - in the 'hottest spot' - and its CTR was almost zero, earnings barely $30 a month so I got rid of it. Leaderboard in the header worked great, link units in the footer work great. But this site of mine is very, very short and you don't need to scroll down so the header ad is always visible. Yours is very long so you need to spread them around. As to your point 3, why a small banner (those pay very low) and not a BIG ad?
RumpledElf, I really respect your time & suggestions but I was trying to convey that I already tried these suggestions but still not getting the results. Also, I always believe that in online business, research & their results are required for improvement. BTW, Now I'm thinking of placing 2 link units of 200x90 (5 links) after the post content & reducing the number of posts on home page. What else you suggest to improve the CTR & earnings?
Beats me, I have a very loooong site and I doubled the earnings/CTR just by moving that one ad further down the page .. I've got ads near the bottom or main content of all my loooong pages across all sites. It works really well. They get around .2% but that's still $5 a day, can't complain. Much more than they ever got at the top left. If I knew better tricks to double my CTR again I'd do it and be making $1000+ a month :\
RumpledElf, Im looking or such kind of changes. BTW, as I said, very soon, I'm going to place 2 link units at the end of content.
Your individual blog post might me much visible in search engines than your homepage. Take a look at the entry pages of your visitors.
In most case, home page is the entry page for visitors as home page is ranking on almost all the gadgets related keywords.
Use some entertaining or some sort of interesting animation around or give FREE ebooks on your site or create a download section. This will increase the length of visitors time on your site.
Guys....so I made below mentioned changes: 1. Placed a rectangle ad after content 2. Reduced the number of posts from 10 to 7 3. Changed the copyright year Any more suggestions?