Clicking on own website page

[Margaret]

I have just read in the archives of another forum that google does not like it if you click on your own web pages if you have adsense because it increases the number of impressions.
I panicked when I read this because I am constantly clicking on my site.
I alter pages in the cpanel daily and every time I make a change I click to see how it looks. This can add up to 20 impressions or more if I am very busy. I never click on the search box or the ads on the page so I can't see what difference it makes to Google, but is it correct that doing this is wrong?

[flensborg]

Hey Margaret,

Could you link to that other forum or specific pages at Google referenced in that forum?

It will make it so much easier to comment on.

I can see two reasons why Google doesn't like people viewing their own pages over and over again:

1) Increasing page views means a lower reported CTR in Google AdSense. If you're also using another ad solution that treats multiple refreshes of a page a one unique impression, then your GoogleAdSense CTR can appear to be lower - even if it isn't. And this could give a siteowner the (possibly false) impression that Google AdSense isn't performing as well as the other ad network.

2) Site Targeting which is also available to Google AdWords advertisers works on a CPM basis, so multiple refreshes of a page with Site Targeted ads would generate more AdSense revenue, but at the expense of a Google AdWords advertiser who wouldn't get his projected ROI.

/Henrik

A third option is of course resource consumption. Each refresh of a page results in increased CPU, bandwidth, memory and storage IO at Google's end. Now, me refreshing a page a few times doesn't have a great impact at Google's end, but if Google could have just 1% fewer people hitting their own pages over and over again, the they could save 1% of their hardware costs - or provide 1% more of other services withthe same hardware investment.

[Margaret]

Thanks Henrik
I've just spent 30 minutes trying to find the post on the other forum and can't. However I understand the points you have made and I came across this in Adsense Help
"Simply viewing your pages yourself will not jeopardize your good standing in the AdSense program - however, please continue to avoid clicking on any ads, and don't reload your pages excessively."
I guess I will have to make as many changes on a page as possible without viewing. Probably Google recognises that the page views are in cpanel anyway.
I came across two other suggestions. Adding google_adtest="on" to the adsense code (though I'm not sure where) while working on a page.
Disabling Javascript in the browser.
Does anyone know if this is good advice?

[Lynn Terry]

I dont think just working on your site would be considered "excessively". This isnt something I would worry over.

[flensborg]

Previewing pages is a natural part of page creation, and personally I wouldn't worry about it.

Hitting "reload" every second for an hour - now that's what I would consider excessive.

/Henrik