Analytics tagging parameters effect on site SEO

[RAPPLA]

One of the effective tools used in analytics tagging is the use of analytics parameters that starts with '?' or '#'.

Example on site tagging:

• Main link:  www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/
• www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=topnav
• www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=sidenav

All three links link to the same landing page, with an extra parameter.

Using email or campaign tagging:

• www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/
• www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?utm_source=launch&utm_medium=email&utm_term=html&utm_content=getscoop&utm_campaign=hwdyrwm2012

With that we create many tagged links based on the campaign internal strategy.  How do these effect indexing, and link juice? How do thy effect SEO in general?

[john4math]

I do lots of tagging with the Google Analytics URL parameters. It's hard to get around using them for tracking. To get around the duplicate content issues, I:

• Set all pages with the parameters to rel=canonical to the appropriate pages.
• Let Google know those parameters don't change the page content within Google Webmaster Tools. The canonical should take care of this, but it shouldn't hurt to do both.
• Let Bing know those parameters don't change the page content in Bing Webmaster Tools. Again, the canonical should be on top of this, but just in case.

[Matthew_Edgar]

From what I've seen on sites I've managed, these types of URLs create lots of duplicate content issues. All the sudden Google and Bing see that there are many different links pointing to the exact same content. For example, Google and Bing will look at it and say "hey, www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/ is the same thing as www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=whatever...they have duplicate content on this site". Trust me, you don't want this to happen to you...it can be no big deal or it can be a very messy situation.

Back to your question, using a query string on your URL isn't too big a deal if the URLs are inside ads or inside an email campaign because those links aren't likely to be found or used by the search engines. (Somebody could share that URL in a way that this URL could be found...but that is rare.)

However, if you are using the parameters in your link building efforts you are communicating to Google/Bing/the world at large that you are linking to different pages (for example, they'll see links to www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/, www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=whatever, www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?utm_source=something, etc.) and could treat those as different URLs which would dilute your link juice to a given page (I've seen some instances where they treated the URL as the same thing despite the query string - still though, why take the risk with your links?).

Additionally, if you have those links on your website all the sudden you are indicating to Google/Bing that these are distinct and different URLs that they should index (you are telling them that you have a page on your site called www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=topnav and another page called www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=sidenav). Most often I see Google or Bing pick one of these URLs and index that, ignoring the other URL(s) to a similar page. Alternatively though they could not index either URL because you are linking to duplicate content. If this is a key page, you don't want to chance it not getting indexed!

To get around this and accomplish the same tracking, I usually don't use utm tracking except in emails, ads and similar types of campaigns. To keep track of the traffic from link building efforts I watch the referrals in Google Analytics. To keep track of traffic from social, I rely on bit.ly. It isn't always as clean, but it avoids other issues with duplicate content.

For tracking on site, I use event tracking in Google. This type of link has no impact on SEO at all (it is a JavaScript onclick event). Event tracking has the added advantage that nobody can skew your data. For example, if you are using ?lid=link-location on your site and somebody copies that exact URL with that query string, puts that exact URL somewhere else AND then clicks on that link (still with the query string) all the sudden you have an ?lid source from a location that didn't come from that location. With event tracking, you can know exactly what location it came from (and a lot of other cool things in Google - for instance, did people who clicked on the product link from the top nav or the side nav convert more?).

Here is the link to Google's event tracking. http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/eventTrackerGuide.html

One other thing I'll throw out here is that if you are using these kinds of parameters (even if you aren't) you should make sure that domain.com/category/sub-category/ has a canonical element that tells Google/Bing which version of that page you'd prefer they index. That way even if you have a link out there somewhere with a query string, Google/Bing can lump that query string version into the canonical version. That said, Google and Bing have both said canonical tags are suggestions - meaning they have the right to ignore it. So, while I have canonical elements on all the sites I manage, I'm not relying on the canonical element as my only line of defense when it comes to duplicate content.

Anyway, I hope I added a few thoughts that help answer your question.