Text Is Design Too

4.3 Text Is Design Too!

That's right: the text size, font, color and the color of your ads must match the other text elements. If the text color of the ads is the same as the text in the body of your page, it’ll help the ads blend into the site and make the reader feel that you’ve endorsed them.

And if the size of the font in the ads is the same as the size of the main body of the content, it will have the same effect: they’ll look like part of your site and not something brought in by Google.

That’s the sort of blending that translates into clicks.

Fig 4.4 Format your text ads to maximize clicks! On my blog, I have removed the border and matched the ad’s background color and fonts to my content. See more at http://www.joelcomm.com

This 3-way matching (titles, text and background) can generate excellent click-through rates.

Too many text styles add clutter and can confuse your visitors. Instead, try every legitimate way to make the ads look like a part of your web content.

In other words use the colors to make sure that your ads don't look like ads!