I was planning on writing a post showing how to get started with Google AdSense and Google Analytics, but the process has been so streamlined since I started using it years ago that it needs no explanation. Adding both to my site took less than five minutes.
For AdSense, go the Signup page, fill out the form, customize an ad using the wizard, grab the ad code, and paste it wherever you want on your site. Much like AdWords and other statistics driven advertising, I’ve found it’s best to just dive right and adjust as you go. If you are looking to produce ad revenue, put a few ads in places you think make sense, and check their performance regularly. Things that can increase performance:
- Change color, style, or type (images, text, or both?) of ad units
- Change location and type (banner, skyscraper, etc.) of ad units
- Change number of ad units on the page
- Experiment with other AdSense offerings (AdSense for search!)
Every site should have Google Analytics. It’s incredibly easy to setup and use, requires no maintenance, and its free. To sign up, head to the Analytics main page and fill out the form. Once you’re done, all you have to do is apply the provided code on every page of your site. If you’re following best practices, this should be as easy as throwing it in one of your include files! Some tips:
- Despite the fact that the documentation tells you to put the tracking code between the
<head></head>tags, I’d put it as the last thing on the page, immediately before the final</body>tag. I’d much rather miss out on tracking a person than impede the user experience with longer page load times! - Many people will spend hours looking through their analytics data, until they manufacture trends and analysis. Wasteful. Once you know what’s provided in Google Analytics, only check when you know in advance what data you are trying to analyze.
- Hide the Analytics code on your development site. You’d be surprised how much development testing can skew your data.
I’ll revisit Analytics and AdSense strategy at some point in the future. For now, dive in and have fun!
