Identifying crawler clicks
-
I have a website where i register outbound clicks on some affiliate links. But when crawlers and search engines pass my site i get clicks registered which are not customer clicks.
How can I identify these clicks and not save records of them?
-Rasmus
-
Rasmus, what makes you think the bots are clicking on these links? Is there something in your log files that suggests spiders are following those links, or are you just getting really low conversion rates from clicks to affiliate programs?
Affiliate links should also be nofollowed, which would make it even less likely that they would be registering as a click from search engine spiders.
-
Agree with Lynn. Seems odd that a crawler would cause a "click" in this type of model - i have never run across that happening before. I would think that by adding java or onclick events would take care of the problem.
-
Hi Rasmus,
Are you sure these clicks are being caused by crawlers? Usually this kind of tracking is triggered by javascript events and I don't think it would be common for crawlers to be triggering clicks like that (unless you have a different setup?).
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
-
Split test content experiment - Why can't GA identify a winner here?
I have been running a content experiment for a short while now and GA has just ended it saying it cannot determine a winner. Looking at the images (links below), without any form of analysis I can already see a pattern of greater success in Variation 1. It ended with a 93% probability of outperforming the original yet the content experiment ended with no winner. Does this mean the 95% confidence threshold I set should've been lowered? Ultimately I'm going to choose this as my winner but why didn't GA push it as the winner? Is there something I am missing? Image 1 - Showing e-commerce performance (objective of split test was transactions) Image 2 - Showing conversions (same split test, same objective, just different report) Your thoughts and comments will be appreciated.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | OptiBacUK0 -
Tracking Adwords users who sumbit a contact form after clicking through my Landing page.
I have a user, Jane, who comes to my landing page through an AdWords campaign. She click off my landing page, browses the website, then submits a contact form on one of the other pages on the site. My problem is when I receive the email from the contact form, there is no identification that this user came through adwords. If she had submitted the contact form on my landing page this wouldn't be a problem, but she submitted the form from elsewhere on the site. I know that I can see a NUMBER of how many goal conversions were achieved this way in Analytics. This is not what I want. I need something to identify it on the CONTACT FORM so that the intake staff in my office can credit that lead to the correct campaign. Any idea on how to achieve this. Technically, I am using the latest version of Wordpress and the Contact Form 7 plug-in. I can change plug-ins if needed.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | McShaneFirm0 -
First click free
Hi guys, We are investigating the First Click Free implementation and we're not sure if a certain scenario follows Google's guidelines or not (aka can it be considered cloaking?!). Now the question is, should we allow this user to see 1 page after every Google search or it should it be 1 page / session. We have these steps: 1. Let's suppose that we have John searching for an address he clicks on our link and lands on the page. From now on if he goes further he will be asked to register. 2. He closes the site but the session is still active. He searches for another address and clicks on our link and again he lands on our website. At this point should he be able to see the page or we can prompt him with the registration request? Thoughts? Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | propertyshark0 -
Any General feedback or Experience on Page Titles and Click Through Rates ?
Moz, I have managed to climb onto page one for a couple of keywords i am really happy with, Just looking for any feedback on page titles and different effects on CTR The page i am working with is product pages I tried a simple headline which was a branded product keyword, this way when the keyword matches the user search it will stand out as the the majority of the title is bold because of this match,, Example below <title>Jeffs<strong> Lollipops</strong></title> and my other option is to look at testing a more descriptive title to fit the limit <title>A selection of sweet Strawberry and Cherry<strong> Lollipops</strong> from Jeff<//Title></p> <p>has anyone looked into this and tested for results in CTR ? i can see there being a youmoz about it somewhere?</p> <p>Alot of people i assume will just say test test test, but any feedback on how other moz users tackle title tags for CTR would be great,</p> <p>Thanks</p> <p>James</p> <p> </p> <p> </p></title>
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Antony_Towle0 -
Adwords shows clicks but no conversions in GA
Hi Folks, I was wondering if anyone has come across a similar situation, I have setup adwords campaigns and included these in my Google Tag Manager setup and deployed the GTM snippet to a clients site. In adwords I can see clicks (2,000+) however in Google Analytics I can see only a handful ot conversions. Is there anyway I can test/track a conversion to ensure that it is being processed and report correctly? Also within AdWords Conversion Tracking I have noticed that under the "Webpages" tab that pages other than the pages that should have the conversion code on them are listed. Have I setup my Adwords camapign or GTM tags incorrectly? Any and all feedback or insight would be greatly welcomed and appreciated.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | icanseeu
Regards,
Dave0 -
Pay Per Click Campaign Optimization
How much would you pay for a Pay Per Click Campaign Optimization? Our monthly budget is around $2k a month for Adwords. Any advice in choosing the right company to run our Adwords campaign?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | echo10 -
Clicks versus Conversions
Have had a significant amount of success getting clicks to my site through a number of online marketing methods. Still falling a bit short on conversions. Any thoughts on the types of things that are successful to get people to contact you?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | casper4340 -
Paywall usage question on First Click Free
We have some list pages on our site that we would like to use a paywall for to get users to do a free registration. The first 2 times they view a "list" page (from anywhere) they see the content fine. If the user registers or logs in they can see all content. My question is if a user hits our site and they look at 2 list pages. They leave the site and then via a google search result they find another one of our list pages. When they click on that they get to our site but the paywall pops up. Is this a problem? First Click Free documentation says that they must be able to get there on the first try. Since we let people look at 2 lists free are we ok? Does googlebot have an issue crawling our site if we do that? Without the paywall our conversion rate was about 1-2%. Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | GeorgeLaRochelle0
