Can trackingcodes in your url be seen as duplicate content or break other rules?
-
I recently gave ReachLocal control to manage my Adwords campagne. I didnt want "Reverse Proxy" on so I decided to go with the Remote Conversion Tracking. So they track my website in every stap of the way. Therefor I had to place a Javascript on each page.
But what worries me are these kind of URL's I see appearing in my Analytics account:
/webpaginaname.html?scid+29903&cid=12343&tc+13012316371028544&rl_key=32850e0a2d4499e02a711d0b969044d2&kw+8307565&pub_cr_id=16701148613&dynamic_proxy=1&primary_serv=www.website.com&rl_track_landing_pages=1
Could this be seen as duplicate content by Google? Or could it break any other rule you know of? Should I be worried?
Thanks a lot!
-
Hi Peter, that owuld mean that it is already indexed? Then it would be too late. I want to avoid a problems before they are there. I will PM the exact url.
-
Unfortunately, it can vary wildly - in some cases, those variants aren't really crawlable and/or Goolge will ignore them. In other cases, they can spin out a lot of duplicates. It's hard to speak to the crawlability without digging into the site, but you can test for indexed copies with a Google query like:
site:example.com inurl:scid
If you're seeing versions of these URLs indexed, then you may have a problem. GWT parameter handling is one option, but you could also use rel=canonical to point these variants back to the original page. It depends a bit on the situation and the scope.
-
I would handle this situation using the URL parameters screen within Google Webmaster Tools (shown in the attached screenshot). You can add URL parameters into the screen and set them to have 'no effect', which means when Google indexes your site, whatever URL parameters you're set to 'no effect' will be ignored by the spider.
-
For whatever reason, the URL you posted isn't formatting correctly for me to be able to see it all (it gets cut off), so I apologize if I can't speak directly to your example.
I will tell you from my personal experience that the way our place uses tracking codes has indeed created duplicate content.
Example: www.domain.com?cid=102is the same content as www.domain.com - so unless you prevent it before these URLs get indexed, you can have a mess to clean up. It comes up in Moz, Screaming Frog, etc.
-
With my experience with tracking URLs I have never had an instance of duplicate content. Although I was working solely with Google Analytics tracking URLs I think you should be safe.
To double check yourself you can run a report in Screaming Frog or check SEOMoz to see if you are getting any duplciate errors or show multiple versions of the same URL in your Screaming Frog report.
I have been using tracking URLs for close to two years now and that is how I always double check myself.
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
-
Any PPC Companies out there who can work with small accounts
I have a story , 18 months ago we had our own PPC adwords account, we had been running at £3.20 CPA for quite some time and we were very happy. Sometimes CPA would go up , sometimes down, but not my very much. One unfortunate day google rang, and told us , that our CPA should ne £2.50 and that we needed expert advice that they couldn't actually give us, we needed an expert. To cut a long story short and after 5 very expert companies have messed with our account, we had varying results. One company left us with 2 leads per day at £10 a lead !!!! , one did better than that and setup a £3k adwords account using their expert advice, blew it all and said "times are tough" sorry !!! The last company was actually the best, great guy , but I think we are two small for him, we have varying results, one day we get 30 leads, the next we get 10 , one day its £3.50 CPA , next its £7.00 . But on the whole very happy with his initial work We just want a company that doesn't Lie to us , tells us straight , and can use their expertise to get us a CPA of £3.50 and help us get upto 50 leads a day, if not more. Thanks Hope that makes sense Nick
Conversion Rate Optimization | | NickKer
systems direct ltd0 -
If your brand name is the same as your URL should you include it in your homepage title tag?
I have always felt that having your brand name in every title tag though-out your website when your URL is your brand name is a waste. The space your brand name takes up could be used for more valuable non-branded keywords. If your brand name is unique, the URL (and content optimized with your brand name) should be enough to have you rank #1 across the board in search results. Though I beleive this I still think it is valuable placing your brand name in the back of your homepage title tag. Example: Full Service Advertising Agency | Your Brand Name Any thoughts why you should or shouldn't do this? Isn't this useful for branded purposes? Doe this help click-though rate? Don't you want your visitors to know our brand at first glance of search results? Another argument I had for doing it was if it weren't important, than why does every search site do this? http://moz.com/ http://searchengineland.com/ http://searchenginewatch.com/ http://www.seroundtable.com/ Thanks for the help!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | EvanC.EGC0 -
Which eCommerce site you consider using best practices? Site we can learn from
Hi, I'm looking to hear thoughts and suggestions as per sites that you consider to have great practices in the eCommerce world. Almost none of the sites do everything good so you can split your suggestions by any criteria -
Conversion Rate Optimization | | BeytzNet
the site structure
conversion funnel
Converting product pages (good design)
content creation and blog management / structure
content marketing
SEO guidelines / practices
... Thanks0 -
What's the most effective web marketing tactic you've seen or used that very few people know about?
I wanted to start a thread to share some of the really cool marketing tactics I've seen on the web that I think few folks are using, AND ask the community here what you've seen, too! Some of my favorite undiscovered or less-used tactics include: Making smart use of bios for conferences, events, interviews, etc. where folks ask you or your team members for a "bio" and you get to control the links, link targets, and anchor text. This is super powerful in my experience, so long as you have a moderately strong profile or regular participation in this type of stuff. Price anchoring on conversion pages, e.g. http://www.trackur.com/options - note how they start with the highest price to help "anchor" the audience to bigger numbers. A great principle of psychology in action. Using re-marketing to draw people to content rather than just purchase/conversion pages. The effectiveness of these is, I've heard, dramatically higher than the usual re-marketing campaigns that take you to a squeeze or purchase page. I can't share the example I'm thinking of, unfortunately, but I'd urge you to try it! Get more social shares and clicks by SHARING MORE THAN ONCE! A lot of folks feel like they are burdening their audience on Twitter/Facebook/G+ or frustrating them if they post multiple times, when in fact, very, very few of your followers are online at any given time. I've tested this myself and I get almost no negative feedback but can triple or more the number of shares/+1s/likes/visits/etc I get just by sharing 2-3X! The key is not to be too repetitive or annoying, and to acknowledge past shares (at least for me). e.g. I'll say "my blog post from last night on XYZ" and get a ton more clicks. What are your favorites? Please share!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | randfish16 -
SEO For Personalized Content Pages
Hi, We are building a site that has content that personalizes based each visitor. This is being done to serve the most relevant content for conversion purposes and NOT for SEO purposes. So, there are many diferent versions of each page based on the visitor's location, device, browser, keyword-used, traffic source, etc. Obviously, we don't want this to appear like cloaking (it is genuine content personalization) and wondered how Google would view this? What is the safeguard for protecting the website from potential penalties? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Clickthroo0 -
Can fun, slightly unprofessional text be good for conversion rates?
I operate on a freemium model. The three plans are currently called "Free", "Gold" and "Platinum". Besides being incredibly square and boring, these titles are also meaningless. I'm doing a slight redesign of my site, and the new (unreleased) site has a very fun, playful feel. I'm also trying to make everything more streamlined and obvious. I'm considering renaming the three plans "Boring Amateur", "Kick-Ass Amateur" and "Bona Fide Professional" on the registration page and simply "Boring", "Kick-Ass" and "Professional" elsewhere. There are lots of places on the site where I have to refer to "amateurs" vs "professionals" - these tags would make that easier to explain. Easier = more sales. What do you think about using unprofessional text like this? Is it too risky, possibly offending too many people and losing sales? Or is it a good eye-catcher? I know the best answer is "test it." But this is one of those changes that I don't want to have to put my users through too many times. Thanks for any thoughts!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | PatrickGriffith0 -
Using overlay content on landing pages - possible? recommended?
We want to use an overlay, like a modal dialog, in a landing page to show more information to support conversion without linking to another page or using popups. Anyone have any stats on success or risks? We've considered simple roll-overs to provide some more info, but everyone has raised alarms that we may be introducing a potential technical or usability hurdle for users. The overlay would display when someone rolled over or clicked a "Learn More" link on the page to provide additional offer reinforcement points to drive the visitors from consideration to conversion. Aside from our own testing, we don't have any sources to cite as to whether this approach can or will impact or aid conversion. Any insights would be appreciated.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | lh27121 -
Duplicating Product Titles in the Page-Content
I have been debating this with a few others within my office and we would like an outside opinion on this issue. This screenshot is of a new product grid I have been designing. I have decided to try something new for SEO that I have seen elsewhere. (see attached image) The page-content below the last products on the page, now have a small paragraph that contains all the products "titles" that are visible on the page. The intention is to capitalize on multiple search terms by using modifiers to replace special character sets within the title. For example: 46" 3 Seat Perforated Square Picnic Table = 46 Inch 3 Seat Perforated Square Picnic Table Not only does this give a secondary search term that could convert but increases the number if instances of "Table" within the page. Suggestions or Thoughts? Thanks! GviGn.jpg
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Highland0