16 replies to this topic

[AlDugan]

Does adding a tracking parameter such as ?id=101 to a Sitematch listing url affect ranking or link popularity? Would a page rank higher without the tracking parameter?

[Jill]

Good question!

Anyone? MakeMeTop???

Jill

[AlDugan]

anybody???...


...please

[Haystack]

It shouldn't. But I don't know for sure.

[AlDugan]

Hmmm... I didn't think it would matter myself or maybe I'm just hoping. If it does matter, that's a pretty big disadvantage to SiteMatch subscribers.

I'll see if I can get an answer from Yahoo

How about the same question but with Froogle? Say you have a page that ranks well in Google but you use a copy of that page with a tracking parameter appended in Froogle. Will the Froogle listing suffer because there is no link popularity attached to the new tracking url?

[Haystack]

With Froogle, I haven't compared rankings, but I haven't noticed a difference in referring traffic before and after adding a tracking code to the URLs. Shopping.com will be fine.

[MakeMeTop]

I can state absolutely that it makes no difference what-so-ever.

I've been using tracking codes for years and have never seen any impact on rankings either with or without a tracking code.

[Haystack]

MakeMeTop to the rescue.

That would have been a great question for "Stump the Chumps" Highrankings Edition.

[Jill]

MakeMeTop to the rescue.

That would have been a great question for "Stump the Chumps" Highrankings Edition.

I knew Barry would know!

[AlDugan]

Thanks everyone.

Jill, I must admit though, I had no idea what you were talking about when you first said "Anyone? MakeMeTop???" Now that I know he's a Forum member it is clear to me.

Thanks MakeMeTop.

[Jill]

You never heard of the famous MakeMeTop Barry Lloyd? !!! Shame on you!

Go to any SES conference, and you'll surely find him sitting at the bar...

[MakeMeTop]

Aw, shucks

You're welcome, indepthmedia.

Can someone see if they can get my Barry at work "leaning up against the bar with a phone to my ear" photo working? It appears in my profile but doesn't seem to show up anywhere!

I may know a little bit about SEM but I'm a complete dunce at anything else

[Scottie]

You're all fixed Barry!

Nice to see ya around.

[AlDugan]

Ok, in regards to Froogle -- I have read numerous forum posts and articles that say Froogle does take link popularity into account when ranking Froogle results. Assuming this is true, how can adding a tracking parameter not matter? Does Froogle simply ignore anything with a ? and beyond and take everything before the ? to analyze the link popularity of the page? Or do they only take the home page link popularity into account?

[tramadius]

So, what if the tracking parameter/URL is set to redirect to the home page of the site after a user clicks on the banner or link? Will the search engines register/credit that link as an actual link to the home page?

BTW, does anyone out there have experience with ClickTracks software? I've giving it a test run...it's pretty nifty to say the least. The interface and reporting is quite impressive.

Thanks.