Tracking Code, revisiting the # vs. ? question Options

[arlen]

In this thread - Do Affiliate Links Count? from back in early October, the following possibility was posed:

However if you use a # sign rather than the ? mark Google will treat it as the same page.

It's been a couple months now ... has anyone had a chance to verify whether this is true or not?

Would swapping the # for the ? be supported by most 3rd party tracking / affiliate services?

[leadegroot]

I havent bothered to test it, it seems obvious that Google will identify it as the same page.
A # and a ? are not interchangeable.
A ? indicates that parameters that will drive the operation of the page will follow.
A # indicates that the page load should scroll down to a certain point in the page.
Google knows this and will see the # marked page as the same page.

No idea how the tracking services will handle it.

[arlen]

Google knows this and will see the # marked page as the same page.

As Google gives no weight to affiliate links (with the ? as the operative), I assume any ads, link exchanges, etc that utilize the ? for tracking purposes would also lack value to link pop. Good assumption?

Do you suspect substituting # for ? in order to affect link pop (assuming it's possible) will likely be viewed as trickery in time?

[Shane]

One thing you ought to do with your affiliate links, once you've recorded the affiliate ID, is 301 the user to the same URL without the affiliate ID.

Doing that:
1. Prevents search engines from indexing a URL with an affiliate's ID on it.
2. Prevents users from bookmarking (and thus returning to) a page with an affiliate's ID on it.
3. Transfers all link pop, etc. to the URL you want it to.

[arlen]

That definitely sounds good, but am I not then disabling the affiliate tracking through the shopping process? Wouldn't that be frowned upon? How will they determine whether a referral converted to a sale, or am I missing something … does the referral code stay in a visitor's memory throughout the process regardless of the url?

[Randy]

You would want to set the referral affiliates code into a cookie prior to stripping it out of the URL Arlen.

[arlen]

Got it, thanks Randy.

[arlen]

I haven't read up on 301s yet, so this is probably a completely dumb question, but I'm comfortable with that if you are ...

If I'm redirecting to the same url, what executes the redirect? If it's the page, then how do you prevent serp results from being redirected (which is a no-no)?

Or does the page execute the cookie, and the cookie trigger the redirect?

I've got some reading to do, I know.

[Shane]

The landing page would record the affiliate ID in a cookie and then 301 to the URL without the ID. This tells search engines and browsers that the initial URL isn't valid (and never will be), and that it has been replaced by the URL without the ID. Because SE's never index the aff ID URL, you don't have an issue with illegal redirects.

[arlen]

Thanks Shane, very clear explanation.

~~~

Back to my original question, if affiliate referrals don't count toward link pop, then any link I choose to track with a ? will be discounted as well, correct?

[Shane]

Incorrect, if you redirect the links with a 301.

Here's how it works:
1. Affiliate links to www.yoursite.com/?affid=123
2. You 301 that URL to simply www.yoursite.com/
3. Because it's a 301, search engines consider www.yoursite.com/?affid=123 to be a link to www.yoursite.com/ -- thus you consolidate all your affiliate URL's to count as links to www.yoursite.com/

[arlen]

Ahhhh ... that's slick. Thanks again Shane.

[arlen]

This place is so cool ... every day a new piece of the puzzle reveals itself to me ... and I know the little time I have to spend developing my site is spent productively.

[arlen]

Ok ... another quick question.

I'm on a Windows server (didn't know any better when I started out, and it seems to work fin so far).

I searched my host's knowledgebase, and can't find anything about 301s ... are they called something different on a windows platform? I'll contact them directly when I am ready to do something about it, but I'd like to know what I'm talking about.

I am busy reading the pinned 301 thread, a bit at a time.

[chrishirst]

maybe a permanent redirect. On the other hand many hosts don't have the first clue about 301 redirects anyway.

I'm on a Windows server (didn't know any better when I started out, and it seems to work fin so far).

Nowt wrong with Windows servers provided the hosting co knows how to configure them properly [Insert same comment from redirects about configuring in here (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ]

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