Evaluating site logs for fraudulent activity.

What do you look for?

[Broadway]

A few days ago I experienced an event where the Adsense income and CTR for a site skyrocketed. On this day, just by noon time, the day's income was 10 to 15 times normal. I pulled Adsense from the site and reported to Google.

They didn't seem all that interested in the event. They encouraged me to put the Adsense ads back up (setting me up for a fall?) They suggested that I do a Google search for the terms "website tracking and logging" and report any suspicious activity to them.

I did the search but didn't see any results that seemed especially relevant or on target. When I look at my website logs (related to suspicious activity) what type of activity should I be looking for?

[Tearabite]

i'm no expert, but i would look at the source of the traffic.
for example, if you usually get 90% of your traffic from search engines, but on the day in question 90% is coming 'direct' that might be a clue.

Also, i'd look at pageviews per user. if usually you have an average page-views per user of say 2.5, but on the day in question, it's suddenly 10.9, you know something is out of whack..

the real question is, if/when you do find something, WHAT can you do about it?

[Broadway]

I agree. Any website is like a deer standing in front of a pair of headlights. There doesn't seem to be any defense.

Now that I have created it, I will keep a copy of my website's pages that do not have any Adsense advertising. At least next time uploading a no advertising version of my site will go a lot quicker.

I guess I am assuming that in the future if I luck into noticing unusual activity during the time frame when it is happening, at least I can pull the ads quickly and possibly the offender will loose interest and forget about my site.

[trillianjedi]

They encouraged me to put the Adsense ads back up

Because you did exactly the right thing and behaved like a responsible publisher. That's googles way of saying to you "It's ok, we're know you're a good guy, leave the rest to our algo's".

TJ

[barns101]

I will keep a copy of my website's pages that do not have any Adsense advertising. At least next time uploading a no advertising version of my site will go a lot quicker.

You could put the AdSense code in an include file and then all you would need to do would be delete its content and upload the one file in order to remove the ads quickly.

[Broadway]

Barns101,
I use a number of Adsense channels. I would have one file for each different channel? Right?

Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to put Adsense code in an include file? (page loading speed, the ads not reliably showing?)

[Tearabite]

if you put it into an include, then all the adsizes, colors, & placements would be the same on each page (right?)..

i like variety.

[barns101]

You could have one include file for each ad block. Then if something goes wrong you can just clear the contents of the include files and upload them rather than uploading the whole of your AdSense-free site.