If Refreshing hurts your CTR, what do you do?

Hello,

I'm working on a Wordpress site, learning HTML and stuff, adding content, changing colors, etc.... And I want to keep refreshing my pages to see how my changes took effect.

Now, on the days that I did not work on my site at all, I got very few impressions (I haven't promoted the site yet) and had 8% CTR. On days I did work on the site, I had lots of impressions (mostly mine!) and a 1% CTR.

Is there a way I can tell Google to ignore just me when I refresh?

I've heard that Google's way of rewarding high performers is to place higher-paying ads on pages that have a higher CTR...

So, what options do I have as I continue to tweak my site? Does anyone use a dummy mirror site to view their changes, or something like that???

Thanks! Love hanging out here, but have to get back to work....

 

tweeking your site is good. Google love site update all the time

 

Exclude ads from being viewed by yourself. With cookies or your IP you can do that easily. Then if you want to see them, script it so that with a $_GET['show_as'] = 'yes' you can see how they mix with your new layout. Or just capture a screendump and cut the ads and show them as an image to yuorself.

 

When you are building your website, set the ads to be on TEST MODE by adding this code to your adsense ad code:

google_adtest='on';

Code (markup):

When it will be on TEST MODE there will be no views or clicks counting.

 

Thanks, all!

Tops and Build: I'm pretty new to html and coding... can you tell me exactly where I'd put that code?

 

My solution can't be done with just HTML. You'll have to get programming PHP or whatever language.

BuildHome's solution can be done in your favourite HTML editor. Just amend the AdSense code slightly.

 

Ok, thanks!

Can you tell me EXACTLY where I'd put this code? google_adtest='on';

Does google mind if I enable it and disable it every day while I do work on my site?

 

Ellen: I created this little hack of code:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/58928

Take a read over that and you'll see how it works to block tracking from yourself.

To answer your above question: you put it anywhere inside that google_* = ''; code, ie below your pub ID, above the colors, wherever in that < script >. Lastly, no, google does not care if you turn it on or off. They encourage the use of it. I contacted AdSense support directly about this and they were more than happy to provide me with information about it.

 

If you use firefox you can simply block google ads through an extension (AdBlock) when you want to update your website.

You can turn this function on and off easily.

 

Don't worry, it will OK the next day.

 

This will still count towards your pageviews. Firefox only blocks them from being viewed by your browser, Google is still counting them because they don't know if you're seeing them or not.

 

Are you sure? I thought these extensions (I use NoScript) fetch the Source before the browser outputs it, do their magic and serve up an alternative source, without the ads/javascript/flash etc. so it never gets executed. Server side it might be counted but client side not.

That's how I thought it worked anyway....

 

As far as I've learned from these extensions, it only blocks it and that it's still viewed -- just not by the browser. I could be wrong, but this is what I've learned to be true.

 

It's quite easy to test I guess, just put an image on your site from somewhere else you own the server space of and tell FF to block it. Then count hits.

 

I dont think there is any kind of relationship betweek CTR and CPC. I have even noticed the opposite.

 

Sorry for the dumb question, but does it matter? For example I have Adsense on my forums & obviously there's a lot of people refreshing the pages constantly. Do Google have a problem with people constantly refreshing pages? I do the same as the OP & refresh a lot when I'm updating stuff. Now I have something new to be paranoid about.

 

I could be wrong too but I think it doesn't because you are directly blocking the javascript responsible for the adsense. Hence the javascript doesnt even load.

 

There is a huge thread at that very popular webmaster forum about how page impressions can damage earnings.

The majority of people over there seem to think that more page impressions = less earnings-per-click.

So yes, I'm thinking forums are a problem but I'd like to know for certain either way.

 

Fsmedia,

I responded to your post on the WP forum, and asked some questions!

Thanks

 

CTR is a number for you so if you alter it you know its slightly lower because of your own refreshes... doesnt really matter google doesnt care what your CTR is