It's rare for a day to pass in the Webmaster forums where somebody isn't asking, "How can I increase my CTR for Google Adsense?" It's even rarer for a day to pass where I don't land on a site that has Adsense way over on the right side of the page, halfway hidden by the fold, probably making less money than that obnoxious flashing Click-Me-or-the-Monkey-Gets-It banner.

Just as you should optimize your pages for the search engines, you should optimize Adsense for your visitors. You don't want to trick your users into clicking on your ads (in order to ensure the continuation of the program, it's important that advertisers receive visitors that convert to sales), but you absolutely want to make sure your visitors notice the ads. The following five tips will help:

#1 Make sure there is enough keyword rich content (text) on your pages so Adsense can figure out what ads to display instead of showing Public Service Announcements. In particular, ensure you have used your keywords in your title and H1 tags.

#2 Blend the background and border to match the page's background. You don't want to trick visitors into clicking, but you don't want them deadened by banner blindness either.

#3 Put Adsense where people will notice the ads. This is a big one. Try above the fold and within the content. If you use CSS, a floating box works nicely. Definitely, don't stick the ads way over on the right side of the page or below the fold.

#4 Don't put a lot of other ads on your page that will distract visitors from Adsense (or your content for that matter). Cluttered pages make it hard to find things, detracting from usability.

#5 Don't use words in your content that will trigger Public Service Announcements (for example, text related to violence is a big no-no).