Tools Beyond AdSense for Tracking

AdSense for Tracking

It’s nice to have independent verification
of Google’s numbers and also better
analysis tools of visitor behavior than the
 AdSense reports provide. You now have
 the option of linking your account to Google Analytics.
To  get  third-party  information  about
 your  traffic,  a  good  starting  place  is
 to  visit Alexa. On Alexa, click the Traffic
 Rankings tab. Enter your site domain in the
 box and click Get Traffic Details.
The Related Info page for your site will open.
Next, in the Explore this Site box, click the
 Traffic Details link.

Alexa metrics For Adsense

You can use the Alexa metrics as a reality
 check in terms of whether it agrees with
Google that your page views are going up
 or down over time, but you cannot use
Alexa as an absolute measure of anything
because of how the Alexa statistics are compiled.
  Alexa’s  page-view  metrics  are  based  on
  information  uploaded  from  a  small
toolbar, mostly installed by business users.
This information is notoriously flawed for
consumer sites, particularly ones without
high traffic.

Listening to Web Logs
Depending on  your  web host, you should
 have access to a number of tools used to
generate usable information from your web
 logs files. Web log analysis is the first and
best place to look for data in addition to that
 supplied by Google.

If you are set in the AdSense program, you should:
• Track  progress  by  regularly  displaying  reports—perhaps  as  often  as  daily—to
monitor your AdSense tips for Content and Search performance as well as AdSense for
Domains
• Use custom reports or URL channels to display results to get a better handle on
performance on different parts of your site or sites
• Download CSV files to crunch your own data
• Use the optimization tips provided to increase your AdSense revenue
• Check the Site Diagnostics page and fix any problems indicated
• Learn to use the web traffic analysis programs available to you to get a better understanding of how your site is performing in relation to the AdSense program
• If  your  business  justifies  the  trouble  (and  expense),  consider  more  robust  web
analytic software
• Make sure you link your Google Analytics and Google AdSense accounts

Getting Open Directory Project Listings
The Open Directory Project -ODP is the most
 important taxonomic directory on the
Web. Formally hosted and administered by
 the Netscape division of AOL, the ODP is
run along the lines of an open source project
and is inspired by the  Debian Social
Contract.
The credo behind the ODP is  that web
automated search is ineffective and getting
 worse, and that the small contingent of paid
editors at commercial web search engine
companies cannot keep up with the staggering
rate of change on the Web—decaying,
stagnant sites; link rot; new sites; sites intended
as search spam; and so on.

The ODP is run and maintained by a vast
 army of volunteer editors. These editors
follow internal checks and balances to
preserve the integrity of the directory.
 http://dmoz.org/guidelines  for more
 information about the ODP review
process and guidelines for site inclusion.

Here are some of the highlights of Google’s editorial strictures:
• Use proper spelling and grammar.
• Ad content and  seo keywords must directly relate
 to the destination web page.
• Local services must indicate their location in their ads.
• No exclamation points in the ad headline and only one in the ad text.
• No unnecessary capitalization or repetition.