Want to freshen up the AdSense performance on your site? Google Analytics can help. Here are some simple and effective places to start.

1. Find out where to focus

Content Groups let you bundle your offerings to analyze them more clearly. Instead of analyzing all shoes at once, for instance, a shoe company might divide content into shoes for adults and kids, for men and women, or by tennis shoes and high heels. You can view and compare aggregated metrics by group, or drill down to any individual URL or page title.

Suppose you want to know: What topics have the best AdSense CTRs?

• Group content by topic (such as food, politics and sport)
• Use the AdSense Pages report to view metrics

Once you learn which topics have the best clickthrough rates, you could then focus on creating more content for those topics.

Suppose you want to know: Which product groups have slow-loading pages?

• Group products by type (such as shirts and shoes)
• Use Page Speed reports to look at page load performance

Are some pages very slow? You might focus on fixing uncompressed images to improve the user experience (and your AdSense revenue).

Content Groups are easy to set up. Learn how to create them and then follow these best practices from Google Analytics evangelist Justin Cutroni.

2. Understand where your users arrive and leave

A Landing Pages report can show you how engaged visitors are with your content. You can analyze individual pages or the Content Groups we just talked about.

Suppose you want to know: What pages cause visitors to leave?

• Look for pages with high bounce rates, this usually indicates content that isn't appealing to visitors or is irrelevant to their needs
• Try changing the headline of your article or finding better images
• You may also want to analyze the page speed for pages with high bounce rates; visitors may be giving up on a very slow-loading page 

Both Content Groups and Landing Page reports can help you find underperforming pages on your site and take action to fix them.

3. Get to know your users 

Demographics and Interests data helps you understand the age and gender of your users, as well as their interests based on their online browsing and buying.

Suppose you want to know: How old are my visitors?

• Try Demographics Report > Age  
• Check the bounce rate: if it’s high, consider changing the headline or the visuals to make your pages more relevant and engaging for your target audience

Suppose you want to know: What are my users interested in?

• Try an Interests report
• Then shape your content based on the user interests you see; if viewers of you tech blog are interested in photography, try publishing more articles on that theme

To get started with the Demographics and Interests reports, enable them in your Analytics account.

The key to making your site better is to jump into the data, have fun, and experiment. Find out what works and do more of it. Have any ideas to share about using these reports? Add them in the comments below!

Not yet an AdSense user? Sign up now!

Posted by Stephen Dunleavy

AdSense Analytics Expert

The holiday season is the busiest time of the year, with shoppers out in full force to gather their holiday gifts, round up their decorations, and treat themselves to something special. 2014 was a record-breaker in terms of ad spend, which goes to show just how important it is that your advertising is as targeted as possible, and that you’re fully prepared for the final, and most lively, quarter of the year.

Check out these stats and tips below which can help you be in tip-top form for the season:
(viewing from mobile? Download it here.)

Not yet an AdSense user? Sign up now!

Posted by Yigit Yucel

Marketing Communications Specialist

Welcome to the third part of our Valentine’s Day blog series. Today, we’ll focus on how Google Analytics can help improve the performance and user experience on your site.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you analyze the behavior of your site visitors. With Google Analytics, you can gain valuable insights into improving your site.

The very first step is to link your Google Analytics and AdSense accounts in a few easy steps. After your accounts are linked, you can start viewing AdSense reports in Google Analytics.

Here are five ways to improve the performance of your site by analyzing your Analytics reports:

1. Optimize your revenue by identifying top visited pages

Do you know which of your pages receive the most traffic? Check out the “Top Visited Pages” report to identify the pages that are visited the most and where your users spend the majority of their time. You can optimize these pages for higher conversion and engagement. To make the most of these popular pages, check out our best practices for ad placement.

2. Increase traffic by prioritizing top traffic sources

Which sites are driving traffic to your site? The AdSense Referrers Report allows you to identify the key traffic sources visiting your site. By knowing these sources, you can better tailor your content to make your visitors come back to your site.

3. Identify and optimize the last pages viewed on your site

Where do your site visitors leave your site? You can analyze the top exit pages of your site with the Exit Pages report (found under Behavior reports). Optimizing or fixing these pages could help increase the traffic to your site. 

4. Improve user experience by increasing page speed 

How long do your visitors wait to see your content? By using the Site Speed reports, you can view detailed information about the load speed of your pages. Faster pages lead to better user experience. With these reports, identify pages that have a longer load time and start improving them.

5. Get quick insights with In-Page Analytics

Are your users finding what they're looking for on your pages? The Page Analytics Chrome Extension will help you visualize how your users interact with your site. With this tool, you can see where your visitors are focused and optimize your pages for a better experience.

Learn more about how to gain insights from Google Analytics reports with Analytics Academy today.  

Posted by Cansu Ozaras - Publisher Monetization Specialist
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