Do you use Google AdSense on your site? Here are two tips to help improve the performance of AdSense Link Units on your site without changing any code.

1. Don’t Reuse Colors

When you create an Ad Link unit for your site, the background color of the Ad Link block should match with the color of other navigation elements on your web page.

For instance, on my home page, the AdSense Link Unit near the top navigation area has a dark grey background to match the horizontal navigation bar just above the Ad Link unit.

A problem with the above approach is that the landing page, which appears when a user clicks the ad link, will also have the same background color and that may not be very pleasing to the eyes of the visitor especially when you are using dark colors for Ad Links.

You can however override this default setting such that Google text ads on the target page are displayed using the default color palette (green URL and blue titles). For this, you need to edit your AdSense unit (AdSense Setup -> Manage Ads) and uncheck the setting “Reuse Colors”.

2. Use Large Fonts

AdSense units with large font sizes tend to perform relatively better.

Therefore always consider using 4 links per unit (not 5) because with lesser number of links, AdSense will increase the font size and spacing (or line height) to fill the whole ad space and that may yield better results.

Google Ad Link units help you make the most out of limited space so don’t ignore them. And unlike the other text ads, Ad links can sometimes perform well in less visible locations also like the sidebar of your blog or even the footer. Keep experimenting.

Best of all, you can make all the above changes directly from the AdSense dashboard without having to edit your site template.

Related: Google AdSense Optimization Tips