Earn More Google Ad Revenue From Existing Content
One way to get more traffic to your site and increase Google ad revenue is, of course, to add more quality content. Another is to maximize the potential of the content you already have. After all, since you spent the time or money to have the material produced, you should be getting the best return you can on your investment, right? However, many are missing the mark.
If you’re not doing so already, get ready to carve out some time in your schedule to review your content’s performance and look for ways to get more value from high-performing articles (we’ll show you how below). In most cases, the effort for doing so will be far less than it would be to create a new article. Plus, you know the existing article is already a winner so it’s worth the time to pamper it a little.
We’ve already talked about how to increase the SEO of older content, now we’ll do the same with Google ad revenue.
Refine Popular Content So It Earns More Google Ad Revenue
Have a popular article or web page that is doing well but still could rank higher in search engines? Try sprucing it up a bit by doing one or more of the following.
- Re-edit quickly. Read the article again and fix any typos, grammar mistakes or unclear sentences that you may have missed the first time around. There are usually a few of these, and it is proven to make people bounce (decreasing pageviews, earnings, and EPMV). Eliminating proven bounce factors almost always directly influences Google ad revenue.
- Add images. Did you skip adding an image or use one that wasn’t that eye-catching or relevant in the original article? Take a little extra time to insert an image that is going to get people to spend a few more seconds on the site (and hopefully keep them scrolling). You may even want to use a tool like Canva to create something interesting and unique. We talked about how images strategically placed down the page can dramatically improve time on site here.
- Insert internal links. Do you have another related article on your site? Cross-link the two pieces of content to give both a potential boost. If you’re using Ezoic, check out EZLinks – it automatically looks for linking opportunities for you. These opportunities should go at the top of the page, not the bottom. Many wrongfully assume that if links are at the top that people will bounce from the article they came to the site for to another and quickly leave the site. Nothing could be further from the truth!
It’s been proven that links at the top get more clicks (duh) and the users that hit more pages spend more time on the site (they wouldn’t have clicked if they didn’t expect to find more relevant content). Pageviews and time on site will help drive up EPMV, RPM, and will improve critical UX metrics. This will almost certainly enhance opportunities for improved Google ad revenue. - Use dynamic ads instead of static ones. Dynamic ads are individualized ad experiences for each unique visitor on your page. They take into account who the visitor is, where they’re coming from, where they are browsing, and what device they are using. These types of ads perform significantly better (the link will show you how to get started). This is the fastest way to earn more Google ad revenue on popular pages.
- Optimize for social media. When the article is shared on social media how does it look? Do you have your open graph and meta description configured properly? Your meta description is sometimes just as important to CTR as your title/status on social media when posting. It will automatically appear in many social media posts and it will be what determines if people click.For more ideas, check out 10 Tips for Making Your Content Easy to Share on Social Media.
You can also capitalize on the popularity of an article by publishing additional content on related topics and linking to those items from the original piece. Check out the comments section of the article, if you have one, and see if anyone is asking questions that could be the basis of a new article.
Also, don’t forget to check whatever analytics application you use and see which keywords are attracting searchers to your article – this may give you lots of ideas for related content to produce. It should also cause you to pause and ensure that you are properly optimized for those keywords on your page. Re-optimizing these posts could give you an organic rankings boost; therefore increasing Google ad revenue as well.
Update and Refresh Older Content That Is Starting to Wane
Maybe you have an article or two (or more!) that used to get a lot of traffic in the past, but monthly pageviews are starting to decline. This can happen for a lot of reasons, such as:
1. The keyword for the article isn’t as popular as it used to be. If this is the case, you may want to research keyword alternatives. People may be searching for the same information, but using a different language now. Depending on your research, you may want to modify your content to use this new language.
2. The title makes the article seem outdated. Most of the content in the article may still be relevant, but there may be references in the title or first paragraph that give a different impression to potential readers. For instance, an article titled The Best Beach Vacation Spots of 2014 isn’t going to be that appealing to searchers in 2016.
For this situation, make any necessary changes to bring the article up to date (including changing references to the year, if there are any) and add a note at the top of the article to let readers know you’ve made these changes.
3. The information in the article really is outdated. An article on the best Android smartphones that was published in 2014 is probably going to need more than just a few tweaks to bring it up to date. This is a case where you need to make a judgment call. You may want to write a completely new article with the current information, and note at the top of the older article that an updated version is available (keeping both articles on your site).
Alternatively, if the URL for the older article is still ranking well in Google, you may want to just replace the content on the page with your new article. If you have multiple articles on your site that fall into this category, try experimenting – use one approach on a couple of articles and use the other on a couple of different ones to see which option works better for you.
4. Newer articles on the same topic have been published by a competing site, and they’re now outranking you for that keyword. Check out the competition and see what they’re doing differently. You may get some ideas on quick modifications you can make to your article that could boost your rankings up again. Try adding rich snippets (if relevant) to jump ahead in the rankings.
Publish the Content in a Different Format
If you want to get your content seen by more people — and for it to earn more Google ad revenue — try publishing it in multiple formats. Visual content, in particular, is highly shareable — and with all the online tools available today, almost anyone can create it. To start, you may want to try one of these ideas.
- Convert a popular article into a SlideShare presentation or infographic. Once these assets have been created, they can be embedded on your site.
- Combine several related blog posts into an ebook that you can use as a giveaway to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter. Or, if you have an ebook, consider breaking it up into several blog posts.
- Make a video version of how-to articles. If the article is a software tutorial, doing this is actually pretty quick and easy with a screencasting tool like Camtasia. You can then upload the completed video to YouTube or Vimeo and embed it on your site.
- Turn a quotable statement (like a statistic or an insight) into a picture quote and share on social media with a link back to the full article. As an example, see what Unbounce did in this blog post: 20 Marketing Insights That Inspired Us In 2013.
Promote It Again on Social Media
Sometimes, all it takes to give existing content a boost is to share it again on social media. Definitely do this if you make any changes, however small, to an article. It might even be worth it to spend a few dollars to promote the updated article on Facebook, Pinterest or another social media network, especially if you’re recently added an image optimized for that network.
The bottom line is that, while it may look like an article is on the decline, it may just need a little maintenance to get it to spring back to life and perform even better than it did before.
