Target="_blank" and referral acquisition data
-
Hi,
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
I have been reading up on this topic but there is some contradictory articles out there and I was hoping someone could clarify the latest practise for me.
Website A links out to four of its partner websites.
These links are using a target="_blank".When i look at the acquisition data for any of the partner websites there is zero referral data from site A.
I tested this wasn't an analytics bug by using the real time feature while clicking the partner links to see what had happened, and to also find the source, but I found that they are all being returned as a source direct. Ideally id like it to show the referrals once more for reporting purposes.Do I need to add extra google analytics parameters/functions to track the outbound links? or should this referral data be appearing correctly and it is something unrelated to the links themselves? or should I throw in the towel and drop the target blanks?
Thank you in advance for your time.
Best Regards. -
Yes, the best article you can read at internet is:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1136920
It will help you a lot!=)
-
No I'm not saying that I suggest you to best way to track outbound link. If you want to track outbound link for target=_blank Please check Google document below and modify.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1136920
Thanks
-
Hi Alick,
Thanks for your reply.
So just to clarify you are confirming that target blank links are seen as outbound links and are not tracked in acquisitions under referrals?
Thanks again.
-
Hi Liam,
IMO best way to track outbound link is event tracking.
If you are using tag manager @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABo-Sk1QzrQ
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1136920?hl=en
Thanks
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Personalised Geo-targeted results - How does Google pass link juice?
Hello, Many websites now serve specific home page offers based on the location of the customer, my question is, how does link juice flow around a site when the links (this case from the homepage) are served up based on a visitors location? Internal links from your homepage are valuable for ranking that product well in the SERPs so how does Google deal with this? So, for example, a car hire website based in the UK. If you arrive on the care hire website sat in Manchester (Northern UK city), on the homepage the website serves offers of car hire deals in Manchester, Leeds, London and international destinations. If you arrived on this website from London (Southern UK City), you would not see the Manchester link at all but London, and other cities in the South. In this case, when Google crawls the car hire website, it will see internal links but a)which version and b) is there any way of sharing this link value around? Basically, we want to understand if Manchester in this case will get the benefit of an internal homepage link from Google even though we only show Manchester to people FROM Manchester, OR, do Google only give juice based on one version of the website, a generic UK version? Or to put it another way, is there any way of cashing in on both geo-targetting the customer based on their location AND getting link juice from those geo-specific home page links? Perhaps there is some code or way of telling Google that people from Manchester (a certain % of our visitors) will see a homepage internal link for Manchester that will pass some small % link value?
Search Behavior | | xoffie0 -
GWMT - "Tag Site For Child Directed Treatment" Effect On Search / Rankings?
Hi All, We have a client who has been directed to tag their site for "Child Directed Treatment" in Webmaster tools to comply with AdExchange policies. The site is, generally speaking, directed at those between the ages of 13 and 16 along with their parents, but does NOT collect any data (No sign in, login, signups etc). You can find out more about the specific tag here (unfortunately not much more about it) https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3221080?hl=en Our concern is that we have never heard of this specific tag, and our client is asking us to let them know if that this will have no effect on search traffic or ranking. I can't find much in the way of anyone who HAS implemented this tag and the effects it has had on their site. They are ad supported, receive millions of unique hits a month, and the majority of their traffic is from branded keywords. Would love to hear from anyone with ANY experience or thoughts on this process and what to be aware of. Your assistance is muchly appreciated.
Search Behavior | | SearchMarketers0 -
Can you track "Add to home screen" for ios devices?
I was curious to know if there was a way to track in analytics users "adding to home screen" on ios devices. With the new ios map not receiving so much love and google maps "web app" process getting more attention, I feel knowing this stat would help us decide if we really need a native app or not. Our customers don't normally return within the year and when they do its about 2-3 (normally on a desk top), To us it does not completely justify the idea of making a native app with the world being so app heavy now a days. Any thoughts are always appreciated.
Search Behavior | | sknott0 -
How to target local searches?
How do I start to target a national audiences? I currently get most of my hits from The US and Australia? But I see no reason why I don't get vies in Canada and The UK.
Search Behavior | | Stefan-Thorpe0 -
Google Rel="Next" & Rel="Prev"
Hello, I have a catalogue website and I am implementing the rel="next" and rel="prev" to the website. My question is that we do have a view all page also, which apparently Google likes over a 'page1'.. Should I add the canonical to this page? I already have it set to WEBSITEURL/sonos (which is going well) I don’t want to have to change this to [URL]sonos/view-all (which is my view all link) as the first page is getting ranked well I am then telling Google no, the view all page is the parent. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks Rick
Search Behavior | | Lantec0 -
"Near" perfect Keyword domain matches - Which would you choose?
Hi, I was wondering on your thoughts, or if any tests had been done on the best format of "near" perfect keyword domain matches. Suppose I am not really interested in branding, and I am principally after the bonus given to exact keyword matching, but all the exact match high level extensions have gone - whats the next best solution? Suppose I am after the term "car hire", and on my website I want to target many different location keywords such as - "Car Hire London" My main extensions are gone, but I have the options to go for:: Additional Word at the FRONT:
Search Behavior | | James77
Number - eg 4:
4carhire.co.uk -> gives me -> 4carhire.co.uk/london/
Geo association - eg uk:
ukcarhire.co.uk -> gives me -> ukcarhire.co.uk/london/
Info term - eg compare:
comparecarhire.co.uk -> gives me -> comparecarhire.co.uk/london/ Additional Word at the END: Number - eg 4:
carhire4.co.uk -> gives me -> carhire4.co.uk/london/
Geo association - eg uk:
carhireuk.co.uk -> gives me -> carhireuk.co.uk/london/
Info term - eg compare:
carhirecompare.co.uk -> gives me -> carhirecompare.co.uk/london/ Which of the domains would be best to benifit when a term like "Car Hire London" is typed in ?? If you were to choose a domain which would you go for and why?0 -
UK Requiring "Opt-In" for Cookies. Suggestions on Compliance?
The UK is now requiring that websites, targeting UK visitors and/or hosted in the UK, to provide an "opt-in" option for cookie tracking. While I don't target UK audiences, I do foresee this potentially being an issue for US business. Anyone have any suggestions as to how web publishers, in the UK, will easily implement this change will not impacting their targeted advertising revenue?
Search Behavior | | ChristineCadena0