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
-
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 -
How I can exclude "Events" & "Traffic" from a specific IP?
I would like to know how I can exclude the events triggered from a specific IP for example my office' IP address. I've already added a filter to exclude my office's IP address, but the "events" are still showing in the new view. TIA!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | zpm20140 -
How can I track if a landing page assists a lead/goal to another page in Google Analytics?
For example, I'm running a PPC campaign for site.com/landing-page and it consists of different product pages like below: site.com/product-1 site.com/product-2 site.com/product-3 How to determine if /landing-page assists a lead/goal to a specific product page in Analytics? Example scenario: /landing-page -> /product-3 -> Lead TIA!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | zpm20140 -
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 -
How can I track the lead to its referring site in my Google Analytics?
Hi, is there a way to track a lead (through funnel setup or similar) so I can see who the referring site is? I want to be able to be able to calculate ROI from display ads, social media initiatives and other partner integrations. Thanks.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Majsan0 -
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 -
Can using the Google Keywords tool and/or SEOmoz cause problems for my company's IP address?
I just started with a company a few weeks back, working on-site doing SEO work. I've been using SEOmoz as well as Google Adwords' Keywords tool. I just got a message from one of our reps saying that people at the office (and this is a huge office) have reported tons of CAPTCHAs being thrown up frequently. I told them I had been running searches with Google Keywords tool and SEOmoz, but would that really cause that much of a problem? Is there anything I can do in order to fix this, some keyword finders that won't get me in trouble, etc.?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SmokewagonKen0 -
Can Adwords campaigns affect other campaigns performance?
I understand that keywords and adgroups within a campaign can affect the performance of other keywords within that parent campaign. I was interested to understand whether campaigns in my account can affect one another. I have an adwords account with around 30 campaigns. Some are heavy hitters and others get minimal to 0 traffic. Will these low quality campaigns drive up the costs of my high end campaigns?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | peigenesis0