Key Take Aways
- Reducing excessive ads and optimizing ad placement improved both user experience and ad performance, leading to higher engagement and revenue.
- Enhancing the site’s Core Web Vitals and migrating to a modern cloud infrastructure significantly boosted speed, which contributed to a 53% increase in organic traffic.
- Implementing a mobile-friendly design and restructuring internal link flow led to better search rankings and improved user retention.
Background
- Provides unlimited, high-quality math worksheets that are customizable and printable.
- Offers a comprehensive range of topics and difficulty levels, making it an indispensable resource.
- Leader in the space since 2009.
Math-Aids.com is a well-regarded educational resource offering free, customizable, and printable math worksheets. The website is designed to support classroom learning and home practice, providing an extensive array of worksheets that cover various math topics and levels of difficulty.
The primary aim of Math-Aids.com is to offer educators and parents tools to help students improve their math skills through practice. The website allows users to generate an unlimited number of worksheets, which makes it a highly flexible and valuable resource for different educational needs.
The worksheets available on Math-Aids.com are known for their textbook quality and flexibility. They can be customized to fit specific teaching goals, which is particularly beneficial for addressing individual learning paces and styles. This adaptability helps cater to the diverse needs of students, making it a practical tool for reinforcing math concepts taught in class.
Phase #1 – AdMetricsPro Identifies Issues
A long-time publisher of ours who recently purchased this web property asked us to help them improve the potential outcome of this web site for them.
Our SEO, Content, and Ad Ops Team went to work and were able to dig through the data (GA4 and Google Console) that was provided to us. We asked each of our teams to identify missed opportunities and low hanging fruit that we could advise our publisher of.
Recommendation #1- Less Ads Would Do More
The site was peppered with display ads all over the place. It made it difficult to use the site.
– Excessive ads can significantly slow down page load times, causing frustration and increasing bounce rates as users are likely to leave the site if it takes too long to load.
– Too many ads can clutter the interface, making it difficult for users to find the content they are looking for. This visual distraction not only detracts from the overall user experience but also can result in lower user engagement and satisfaction.
– High ad density can lead to a drop in search engine rankings as search algorithms deprioritize sites that have poor user experiences, including excessive ad placements. This can result in reduced organic traffic, ultimately impacting the site’s revenue potential.
Recommendation #2- Make the Ads Flow Best for Users
In addition to removing useful ads, better ad placement would work significantly better for both monetization and users who were enjoying using the site.
– Placing display ads in strategic locations, such as within content or alongside navigation menus, can enhance user engagement by ensuring that ads are visible without being intrusive.
– This careful placement allows users to interact with ads organically while consuming content, which can lead to higher click-through rates and better ad performance.
– Ads that complement the site’s layout and do not disrupt the user experience are more likely to be effective for both site owners and advertisers. Thoughtful ad placement maintains the website’s aesthetic appeal and usability.
– By placing ads in locations that are naturally eye-catching yet non-disruptive, such as between sections of long-form content or at the end of articles, site owners can optimize revenue without sacrificing user experience.
Recommendation #3- Fix the Core Web Vitals
The site, in its current state, was deep in the Red (36/100-mobile, 28/100) for core web vitals. This was confirmed by 5 third-party tools and 2 internal tools that we use. After a quick run through of the code and images, we saw a clear path to being able to reduce load time significantly through re-writing the code and image optimization.
We noted that this was a huge opportunity for our publisher.
– Core Web Vitals focus on aspects such as loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability, which are crucial for a positive user experience. When a website loads quickly and is easy to navigate, users are more likely to stay longer and engage with the content, including display ads. This increased engagement can lead to higher click-through rates and better ad performance, ultimately boosting monetization.
– Search engines like Google use Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor, meaning websites that score well on these metrics are more likely to appear higher in search results. Higher search engine rankings lead to increased organic traffic, which provides more opportunities for users to view and interact with display ads.
– Websites that meet Core Web Vitals standards often see improved ad viewability rates. Ads that load quickly and are placed on stable, visually appealing pages are more likely to be seen and clicked by users. This can lead to higher ad impressions and click-through rates, translating into increased revenue.
Recommendation #4- Restructure Internal Link Flow
The site was doing well in the SERPs, but internal link flow was weak and with a simple restructure could definitely improve the link juice to key assets and improve sticking rankings.
– A well-structured internal link system helps search engine bots efficiently crawl and index your website. By creating clear pathways between related content, you ensure that all pages are discovered and ranked by search engines.
– Internal links facilitate easier navigation for users, guiding them to relevant content within your site. This can increase user engagement, and the time spent on your site, both of which are positive signals to search engines. Additionally, better user experience can lead to higher conversion rates and ad interactions, thereby boosting revenue.
– Internal links help distribute page authority or “link juice” across your website. Pages that are linked to more frequently from other parts of your site are seen as more important by search engines. By strategically linking to key pages, you can boost their authority and improve their rankings in SERPs.
Recommendation #5- Mobile Version a Mess
The original owner of the website had a mobile version present, but neglected to worry about the mobile experience. We could clearly see that, over time, mobile would be a more significant source of traffic.
– Google and other search engines predominantly use the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking. Ensuring that the mobile version of your site is optimized and offers a seamless user experience is essential for maintaining and improving search engine rankings.
– Mobile devices account for a significant portion of web traffic. A poor mobile experience can lead to high bounce rates and low user engagement, negatively affecting your site’s overall performance and search rankings.
-A well-optimized mobile site can lead to higher click-through rates on ads, better user retention, and ultimately, increased revenue from both direct sales and ad monetization.
Recommendation #6- Remove Index Bloat
There were many pages and static assets that were being indexed by search engines that were of no use to humans which was wasting crawl budget and user’s time.
– Search engines allocate a specific crawl budget to each website, determining how many pages they will crawl and index during a given time period. By using the “noindex” tag on less important or duplicate pages, you can ensure that the crawl budget is spent on your most valuable content.
– Search engines strive to provide the best results for users by prioritizing high-quality, unique content. Noindexing low-value pages such as tag archives, thin content pages, or outdated content helps maintain a higher overall content quality signal on your website.
Recommendation #7- Internal Site Search Loosing Eyeballs
We noticed a key data point that 93% of the users whom were using the internal search function were leaving the site after performing a internal search. It amounted to losing 3,400 visitors every month. We determined that this single data point was losing our publisher at the minimum $3,500 annually.
The internal search was littered with ads that were not benefitting the website or users, for that matter. We recommended revising the internal search tool to keep users and provide them with what they were actually searching for.
Recommendation #8- Get Rid of Zombie Bots
We identified a significant amount of bot traffic (zombies) trafficking our publisher’s site.
– Bot traffic can significantly increase server load, bandwidth usage, and other operational costs, as website owners must accommodate and manage this non-human traffic. This can degrade site performance and increase expenses without corresponding revenue gains.
– Persistent bot traffic can damage trust and relationships with advertisers and ad networks. Advertisers seek genuine human engagement, and high levels of bot traffic can make a site appear untrustworthy or fraudulent, potentially leading to reduced advertising bids or lost partnerships.
– Bot traffic distorts website analytics, leading to inaccurate data on visitor behavior, engagement, and conversion rates. This skewed data can mislead website owners, resulting in poor business decisions and ineffective marketing strategies.
Recommendation #9- Move Web Hosts
After having a discussion with our publisher, it was clear that the web host was not serving them best.
– The site was being operated on a 8-year-old non-SSD dedicated server.
– Hosting support was dismal. A ticket would take 24-48 hours to be answered. A typical issue would take a week to solve.
– Monthly they were paying $700 for a single website.
The simple fix was moving to a modern cloud infrastructure that offers auto-scaling and load balancing, which dynamically allocates resources based on traffic demands. This ensures optimal performance during high-traffic periods without over-provisioning during low-traffic times, leading to faster website response times and reduced costs.
Recommendation #10 – Monetize Ad Blockers
We offer an optional product to our publishers that can recapture users running ad blockers. Our tech detects if users are running ad blockers, if they are, the site is pay walled, and they can either choose to disengage the ad blocker for your site or pay the membership fee.
- The beauty of our system is that we manage all the subscriptions for you.
- No Merchant Account Needed
- No Support Calls or Emails
- Just an additional payment to you (the publisher) each month.
Phase #2 – Reassuring the Publisher
Publisher: How Am I Ever Going to Do That?
When we presented our publisher with our recommendations, they found the extensive volume of suggestions overwhelming. Recognizing that these recommendations were beyond their expertise, they were also concerned about the potential costs associated with hiring external vendors to implement the necessary changes. Additionally, they were significantly worried about identifying reliable individuals and vendors to bring these recommendations to fruition.
Unlike other digital ad agencies, we don’t just give recommendations and say, “Good Luck!”
We connect our publishers with the right people.
We take the time to introduce our publishers to curated and trusted vendors, whom we regularly employ for our own catalog of websites. Within two weeks, our publisher engaged one of our trusted vendors, who completed all the recommendations within four weeks.
Once the deliverables were ready, we guided our publisher through every step necessary to implement the changes. Although there were two minor issues beyond their expertise, we promptly connected them with a programming team that resolved the problems within 24 hours.
It took ten weeks from our initial discussion to bring these changes to fruition, costing the publisher $3,200 USD. The investment paid for itself in less than 3 weeks, as we reduced their monthly hosting bill from $700 to $110. This cost-saving measure continues to benefit them. Who doesn’t want to save $590 every month?
Let’s dive into the process that we followed.
Phase #3 – Publisher Implementation
Step #1 – Web Host Migration
This was the scariest part for our publisher. In fact, when we brought it up to the publisher their comments were “Oh gosh, switching web hosts is terrifying! It’s like moving your entire house to a new neighborhood, but instead of just packing up furniture, you’re dealing with all the files, databases, and settings that make your website run. My biggest fear is that something will go wrong, and your site could go down-just disappear from the internet!”
It took a tremendous amount of trust on the part of the publisher, and we deeply understand this. When done right, migrations are simple and the vendor- web host relationships we have established make this a cinch for most setups. We set it up in such a way that if anything went wrong, it would be only minutes of downtime.
We migrated from an 8-year-old dedicated server to a lightning-fast cloud environment. There was not a second of downtime. This process took a total of 2 days, we set them up with a trusted migration team that specializes in their tech stack. The process was seamless and for less than $500 their site was transferred to a new web host at a great savings rate. The transfer paid for itself in less than a month because the new host was much cheaper, and the speed of the new cloud environment already improved their core web vitals a decent amount.
The end result was a cost savings of just under $600 a month and core web vitals improving 25% with no changes to the website itself other than moving to a new network. We’ll dig deeper on the core web vital improvements in a moment.
Step #2 – New Website Template
Since 2009 Math-Aids has run the same website HTML/CSS template. While it was functional and users were enjoying it, we thought it could be greatly improved. The improvements we suggested would not only improve monetization, but user experience and engagement.
Optimizing ad placement ensures that ads are integrated seamlessly into your website, avoiding disruption to content flow. This keeps the site aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate, which helps retain visitors and reduces bounce rates.
Strategic ad placement in high-visibility areas without overwhelming the user can lead to higher CTRs. Well-placed ads that blend naturally with the content are more likely to engage users, boosting ad performance and overall revenue.
Properly positioned ads strike a balance between user experience and monetization. This balance ensures that ads generate revenue without frustrating users, which can lead to longer session durations and higher overall site engagement, further enhancing monetization opportunities.
We put our publisher in contact with a premier development team that does unbelievable and affordable work. This took a total of 3 weeks to complete the 2 website templates that they chose to go with. Once the deliverables were received by the publisher it took them 4 weeks to hand implement this across the site.
This new template took into consideration the use of a new in-site search engine that was simple for the publisher to maintain. The internal link structure was optimized through the introduction of simple breadcrumbs and the removal of unhelpful site links.
At the time mobile was accounting for less than 25% of their traffic but encouraged the publisher to work on a thoughtful mobile design that incorporated non-intrusive display ads. The mobile version was ultimately perfected.
Nuts and bolts, this was the most impactful change made by the publisher. We’ll show you the impact in a few.
Phase #4 The Impact
Wow, What a Change!
When fully implemented, we noticed drastic changes in Google Search Console almost immediately. The key metrics were drastically different, in a very good way.
We waited 90 days to evaluate the impact of everything. There were 1,400+ indexed web pages and based on their search engine crawl budget, it would take a minimum of 60-days to see any major changes, were our initial thoughts.
a. Key Metrics: After 90-days, during a corresponding period of non-seasonal traffic, we noticed huge improvements in metrics:
- Users up 53%
- Views up 70%
- Engagement up 48%
- Views per user up 47%
b. Site Speed Drastically Improved: The site loaded twice as fast once we migrated to the new design, server, and CDN.
Just look at the numbers based on the same day on day change a week after implementation.
c. Core Web Vitals: Both Mobile and desktop CWV scores were also off the chart.
MOBILE CWV Improvements
Desktop CWV Improvements
d. In Site Search
As we previously indicated, they were running a third-party in sight search that resulted in users clicking almost primarily on ads that did not benefit users or the publisher. We moved it to an in-site search. Take a look at the difference:
The new In-site Search resulted in an additional 22% of time on page, 2,000 daily additional page views, 34% improvement in engagement rate. While not the biggest change in world most publishers would love to get an extra ¾ of million page views annually.
e. Adblockers Are Monetized
We improved the publishers earnings 22% by introducing the adblocker pay wall feature. This was a completely new revenue source and took less than 3 minutes to implement site wide.
f. Mobile Experience Drastically Improved
Let Us Do This For You Now!
As you can see from the data that we shared, our web publishers love us. We see web publishers as partners, not just numbers. Let us leverage our knowledge and relationships to get your web site in top form today! We are in this together!
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