Trackbacks vs Links: What's the Difference?
-
Our Google Analytics social pages report isn't showing several of our links. And several links are from high quality sources, such as about.com. Does anyone know why this may be?
-
Well said: "a trackback is essentially a notification of a link to your content from an external source." hear hear
-
Michelleh - while you got insight into what trackbacks are, I can offer this regarding why GA isn't showing some of those links.
Unfortunately, no analytics system is 100% accurate or complete, not even Google's. It's possible that if they're new or recent, they will eventually show up in GA reports, however it's not guaranteed.
That does NOT mean you don't get SEO linking value for them, only that reporting systems are imperfect AND Google's intent is to show " a sampling" even though they don't make that abundantly clear in a way most people would even know that's their stance.
If you want to get more insight into Google's Sampling methods, you can read about theme in the Google Developer site here.
-
I was just about to type that! Beat me to it Keri : )
Michelle - a trackback is essentially a notification of a link to your content from an external source. Hope that helps!
-
Hi Gigs20,
It looks like what you wrote is directly from Google's announcement at http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/05/expanding-google-analytics-social.html. In Q&A, please list your sources, and make it clear when you're saying something from your own experience versus quoting someone else.
Thanks!
-
The concept of trackbacks, a protocol by which different sites could notify each other of referencing links, first emerged back in 2002. Since then, the blogosphere has grown in leaps and bounds, but the requirement for each site to explicitly implement this protocol has always stood in the way of adoption. Many are not familiar with Trackbacks, just think of it as automated Google Alerts for all of your pages: you publish new content, Google scour the web for pages that link to it and build automated reports for you right within Google Analytics - simple as that.
These reports provide another layer of social insight showing which of your content attracts links, and enables you to keep track of conversations across other sites that link to your content. Most website and blog owners had no easy mechanism to do this in the past, but Google see it as another important feature for holistic social media reports. When you know what your most linked content is, it is then also much easier to replicate the success and ensure that you are building relationships with those users who actively link to you the most.
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
-
Losing referrer data on http link that redirects to an https site when on an https site. Is this typical or is something else going on here?
I am trying to resolve a referral data issue. Our client noticed that their referrals from one of their sites to another had dropped to almost nothing from being their top referrer. The referring site SiteA which is an HTTPs site, held a link to SiteB, which is also an HTTPs site, so there should be no loss, however the link to SiteB on SiteA had the HTTP protocol. When we changed the link to the HTTPs protocol, the referrals started flowing in. Is this typical? If the 301 redirect is properly in place for SiteB, why would we lose the referral data?
Reporting & Analytics | | Velir0 -
The difference between organic searches in Acquisition and organic searches in Default Channel Grouping
Hi guys, We have a question. In Google Analytics, there are 2 types of identifying organic searches: through Acquisition and through Default Channel Grouping. On our website, we have some differences between the number of organic sessions. Which one do you think is more relevant? Which one do you use? Many thanks in advance!
Reporting & Analytics | | RIDGID_Europe0 -
The differences between New Users to User
Hi, Someone know the exact differences between the following Google Analytics metrics: "New Users" "User" Hope to get your support. Thanks in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | Kung_fu_Panda0 -
Ecommerce site product link. How to handle a link that doesn't exist.
Suppose we have this product A, and we just have a single item for this. When the item is sold out we do not want to show it on the website saying "out of stock". Instead we would like to remove the product from out store which will now result in a url that doesn't exist. And google webmaster tool and Moz analytic will show them as page not found after they crawl over the site. Should i be generating a new sitemap.xml and update ? How do i handle those pages that don't exist anymore ? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | MindlessWizard0 -
What is the difference between "Organic Traffic" and the "Non-Paid Search Traffic" default segment in Google Analytics?
These two filtering options ("organic traffic" in the left sidebar and "non-paid search traffic" in the advanced segments) give me slightly different numbers. Any idea why this would be the case?
Reporting & Analytics | | FPD_NYC1 -
'Search Queries Report' in Webmaster Tools Question
Hi, How much do you use the search queries report in webmaster tools to research current rankings/movements? It does look like a great tool but the data doesn't seem to be spot on. For example a keyword over a week might have flux in position so lets say 6.0 then 9.2 for 3 days then back to 6.0. But I check the serp's for this keyword everyday and didn't see any movement?!?! Is this a good tool for you?
Reporting & Analytics | | activitysuper0 -
Too Many On-Page Links
I'm getting the warning of "Too many on-page links". I have a number of affiliate marketing sites, all Wordpress, all with sidebars. In the header navigation bar is a link that offers "reviews" and links to each product/brand. This is not a drop down link but leads to a page with product links. Also, in the sidebar I have links that also lead to the products/brands. Redundant yes, but in the beginning this seemed to be a good practice in site design. It would be easy to simply remove the widget that contains the link process in the sidebar. The problem may simply be that the sidebar is the same for every page in the site(s). Is this hurting total SEO as my sites are all over 95-percent indexed. One site in particular does very well in traffic and sales so is removing these links potentially going to improve my SEO and ultimately by success? Thanks, Don
Reporting & Analytics | | JavaManOne0 -
Will javascript generated links affect my bounce rate?
Hi all, I run a site called Applicable Jobs (http://www.applicablejobs.com) and from analyising my analytics I notice my bounce rate is unusually high at around 85%. I'm keen to get this right down as I've read recently that a high bounce rate is a metric Google uses in determining positioning in the SERPs. I honestly don't think it's the quality of my content because I feel it's genuinely useful to my target audience but I'm wondering if the way my jobs list is generated is causing an issue. At the moment I have my jobs listings generated through javascript so I can have nice effects and use a bit of ajax but if Google crawls it, it obviously won't be able to see the listings. So I'm wondering if when a user comes to the site and they click on one of the job listings, does the Google analytics code recognise that click because that link is generated through javascript? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Benji870