Thinking of monetizing your website with display ads but the unknown consequences are holding you back?
Well, we can shed some light on this, and it’s good news!
In the worst case scenario, joining a reputable and trusted ad network like Adsense won’t have any impact on SEO—good or bad. Hopefully that reassurance alone will put your mind at ease.
But you should feel optimistic that running Adsense will actually improve your website’s positions in the SERPs, and we’re going to explain why.
Adsense makes your content longer
One of the most effective ways to grab Google’s attention is by producing long-form content. Users naturally spend more time on pages with long content and this sends positive signals to search engines that your users are engaged.
Other than writing more text, most publishers try to raise the average time spent on page with the help of images. These images can be relevant to the topic or just purely decorative.
With Adsense in your arsenal, you now have an additional tool for lengthening your pages: In-content ads!
Not only will in-content ads require users to do more scrolling and thus spend more time on page, you’ll earn more ad dollars (higher RPM) for having highly engaged users.
Adsense makes your content easier to read
You may be gifted with amazing prose and a high level of expertise in your niche, but all that will count for nothing if it’s poorly presented.
Nobody wants to be met with a giant block of text when they land on your webpage, otherwise they will quickly abandon your content and Google will be hesitant to recommend it in future.
Again, this is a situation that images can help with, in addition to using shorter paragraphs, making the text easier to scan and more inviting to read.
But why give up precious real estate to images when you can use display ads to break up the monotony and generate cash in the process?
Adsense makes your content more trustworthy
You have to go through a vetting process before you can join the Adsense program and run their ads on your site.
Of course, this will entail technical checks to make sure a website can handle the code and provide a smooth ad experience, but they also look closely at the quality of the content.
In other words, becoming Adsense-approved is like giving your content the seal of approval for being original and high quality.
This kind of validation is especially important in YMYL niches such as finance or law, as the review team will determine whether the publisher demonstrates an acceptable level of expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
A user who is aware of Adsense and its role in validating content is more likely to trust and make return visits to an Adsense-approved site, which has a positive impact on SEO.
Conclusion
Running Adsense on a website can boost its SEO in a number of ways.
In-content ads will make the page longer and increase the average time users spend on page. You can also use ads to improve the user experience by breaking up walls of text.
Lastly, websites that are approved for Adsense meet the content quality threshold and can therefore be fully trusted by users.