Why is Benetton ranking with tracking parameters?

[TomCritchlow]

For this search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=benetton&pws=0

I see the following URL ranking #1

http://www.benetton.com/?utm_source=centrum.sk&utm_medium=listing

Why is this happening? I could likely figure it out but I'm busy so I was hoping someone could dig around and let me know

Anyone?

Incidentally, Benetton is in the middle of a massive campaign at the moment so it's strange timing for them to have this showing up and screwing with their GA tracking...

EDIT: I should clarify, Benetton is not a client - I don't know anyone who works for or with them. I'm just curious why this is showing up.

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[evolvingSEO]

They have links on that domain with that exact tracking parameter. Maybe a campaign at one point?

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[evolvingSEO]

Tom

Looks like a crazy combination of things;

1. Search [site:benetton.com] and it reveals their Italian page it.benetton.com as their intended 'home' page.

2. The Italian page does not have a robots meta tag, therefore it is indexed but only in google.it

3. Go to google.it and search [benetton]... annnd... you get the Italian site, no tracking URLs - site-links etc, per normal.

4. So the 'robots noindex/nofollow' on the www page must be because they're trying to index the Italian site but not the US site?  I'm honestly not an expert on the correct way to handle these international issues. They have basically two identical sites on separate sub-domains, the only difference being the language. Doesn't seem like the right way to handle this to me...

5. www.benetton.com does not redirect properly for /index.html or /index.htm

6. Because of all of this, Google USA is not given a homepage on the www subdomain to index.

7. BUT, there is an internal link (at least one I can identify) pointing to http://www.benetton.com/?utm_source=centrum.sk&utm_medium=listing on this page on the blog - so the robots noindex/nofollow is ineffective because Google likely sees the presence of the tracking parameters and thinks its a different page? Or this is one of the few times where Google can choose to ignore the canonical tag (as they have said its a strong directive).

(As a side note, many of their other www US pages have noindex/nofollow, but there are still about 2,500 pages in the index from the US site.)

Conclusion

• Benetton is attempting to have their Italian version of the site be the main website, they are incorrectly attempting to not index the US site.
• Links internally and externally with that tracking parameter are the only indication to Google US for the homepage.
• Because of incomplete homepage redirection (and perhaps one of the few instances where Google ignores the canonical), they have indexed the page with the tracking parameters.

Thoughts? Does all that makes sense?

[TomCritchlow]

I'm slightly confused though - why is the tracking id using centrum.sk/?

I see that the BBC is linking to them, not sure if this is cause or effect:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15778377

Maybe they just googled Benetton and lifted the URL?

[MatthewBrookes]

I agree tweaking my google search the link drops out if i search on the last hour but shows up for other time periods. As you say it has links from all over the web pointing to it e.g BBC news is running an article on the campaign. I am guessing this a case where they are trying to limit the campaign showing up in the results judging by the write up on the various news outlets.

[TomCritchlow]

OMG - yeah not only the weird tracking parameters URL but the main homepage (www.benetton.com) is noindex, nofollow which I suspect will screw things up a little..... Wow.

[RyanKent]

While I don't have the answer, I did notice a few other curiosities....

The page is tagged noindex, nofollow

The page shows a header code of 304

There are a lot of backlinks to the particular URL. Even a Google search of the url shows over 100 listings.

A wild guess....there are a lot of sites with fresh links to the page using that specific URL. The page shows viral content, images of President Obama kissing other world leaders. It has led to a spike in traffic. One of the tweaks in Google's new freshness change may have allowed this anomaly to slip through.

I have also seen results stating Benetton pulled the Pope version of an image after legal action was taken. There may be some scrambling on Benetton end which is causing confusion as well.