How to implement Google Adsense Section Targetting

Posted on December 28, 2006
Filed Under Adsense Tips, Web Tools |

I have noticed that my Google Adsense Targeted Ads were sometimes not as well targeted as they could be. So I set out in search of a way of making them more relevant to the content on my blog pages.

My searching turned up the following article in the Google Adsense Help Center. The article describes the process of section targeting to obtain more relevant ads for your web page. The idea is that you include special HTML comments to guide Adsense in what content on your web page is important. The tags are as follows:

<!– google_ad_section_start –>

<!– google_ad_section_end –>

You should place the <!– google_ad_section_start –> tag at the start of the main content of your web page (ie. after any menu or sidebar HTML code). Then, at the end of the main content you place the <!– google_ad_section_end –> tag. These tags can be used multiple times in the one page.

In addition, if there is a section of a page you would like ignored by adsense (a sidebar for example), you can add the qualifier (weight=ignore) to the start tag to mark the section. The tag would be as follows:

<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –>

Mark the end of the section with the normal <!– google_ad_section_end –> tag.

Apparently it can take 2 weeks for these changes to become apparent in the ads displayed on your website, so some patience is required.

I have implemented the Adsense Section Targeting code on my blog and I will monitor the result. Getting the tags to be generated using the blogger platform was quite a trial. Leave me a comment if you need info on how to do it. I will post the results (if any) when I see them.

UPDATE: I have now posted detailed instructions for the blogger platform in my article titled How To Implement Google Adsense Section Targeting On Blogger Blogs.

Read more about other tools I have looked at.




Keep up to date with the latest articles at Monetize Your Blog. Subscribe via rss for free.

Related Articles


Comments

9 Responses to “How to implement Google Adsense Section Targetting”

  1. wealthyminds on March 28th, 2007 6:09 am

    Hi,

    This was very informative indeed. I was considering to include the ad section tags to my website, and found very useful info on how i can implement it.

    Thanks again!
    K.G.Radhakrishnan
    http://www.NewAgeLife.net

  2. John on April 11th, 2007 4:04 pm

    I’m also looking at getting the AdSense targeting code into my blog, which is hosted on Blogger. What did you have to do to get it to stop eating the comment tags?

    John Haager
    http://johnsponderings.haager.net

  3. Alpesh on December 5th, 2007 2:26 am

    The post does not so how to implement targeting on blogger’s platform, although it says it was quite a task. Did it help, if yes, what is the way?

  4. Google Adsense Section Targeting On Blogger Blogs | Monetize Your Blog on December 8th, 2007 4:49 am

    […] my post on How to implement Google Adsense Section Targeting, I have had several people ask me the details of how to implement Adsense Section Targeting on […]

  5. Brett on December 8th, 2007 5:30 am

    Aplesh - I have just posted an article describing how to implement Google Adsense Section Targeting on Blogger Blogs. Let me know if you need more details…

    Brett

  6. Idetrorce on December 15th, 2007 5:31 am

    very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
    Idetrorce

  7. Brett on December 15th, 2007 5:53 am

    Idetrorce - What don’t you agree with? How to implement it, or whether it is effective?

    Brett

  8. Planet Apex on January 3rd, 2008 10:03 am

    Hi
    I have a blogger blog. Will adding the tag with the ignore open and close in each of the 4 sidebar widgets I use be enough?

  9. Brett on January 3rd, 2008 2:54 pm

    Planet Apex - It’s a process of trial and error. I would look at the ads which you are getting, then work out why Google thinks they’re relevant. If they aren’t what you expect, mark the relevant section of your page with ignore tags.

    I had a quick look at your blog. On your individual post pages, the ads look quite relevant. I think it’s on your home page that Google gets confused. Because you post on a range of topics, Google isn’t sure what the page is about.

    For example, when I checked, you have posts about televisions, hotels, pyramids and blogging amongst other things. While there is nothing wrong with this, it will be hard to get adsense ads to work well on this page.

    I hope this helps.

Leave a Reply