Trackbacks vs Links: What's the Difference?
-
Our Google Analytics social pages report isn't showing several of our links. And several links are from high quality sources, such as about.com. Does anyone know why this may be?
-
Well said: "a trackback is essentially a notification of a link to your content from an external source." hear hear
-
Michelleh - while you got insight into what trackbacks are, I can offer this regarding why GA isn't showing some of those links.
Unfortunately, no analytics system is 100% accurate or complete, not even Google's. It's possible that if they're new or recent, they will eventually show up in GA reports, however it's not guaranteed.
That does NOT mean you don't get SEO linking value for them, only that reporting systems are imperfect AND Google's intent is to show " a sampling" even though they don't make that abundantly clear in a way most people would even know that's their stance.
If you want to get more insight into Google's Sampling methods, you can read about theme in the Google Developer site here.
-
I was just about to type that! Beat me to it Keri : )
Michelle - a trackback is essentially a notification of a link to your content from an external source. Hope that helps!
-
Hi Gigs20,
It looks like what you wrote is directly from Google's announcement at http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/05/expanding-google-analytics-social.html. In Q&A, please list your sources, and make it clear when you're saying something from your own experience versus quoting someone else.
Thanks!
-
The concept of trackbacks, a protocol by which different sites could notify each other of referencing links, first emerged back in 2002. Since then, the blogosphere has grown in leaps and bounds, but the requirement for each site to explicitly implement this protocol has always stood in the way of adoption. Many are not familiar with Trackbacks, just think of it as automated Google Alerts for all of your pages: you publish new content, Google scour the web for pages that link to it and build automated reports for you right within Google Analytics - simple as that.
These reports provide another layer of social insight showing which of your content attracts links, and enables you to keep track of conversations across other sites that link to your content. Most website and blog owners had no easy mechanism to do this in the past, but Google see it as another important feature for holistic social media reports. When you know what your most linked content is, it is then also much easier to replicate the success and ensure that you are building relationships with those users who actively link to you the most.
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
-
Explore by site - Site overview's servers
Hello, When I want to "Explore by site" and make a "Site overview", I have only 4 choices for the region : USA United Kingdom Canada Australia But the location of my business is in Chile.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sodimaccl
Does this have any repercussion or negative impact in the analytics ? Thank you.0 -
Impressions skyrocketed 10x in few days on just one keyword and I don't understand why.
Hi everyone, I found this 'anomaly' in my google search console data. As you can see from the picture the impressions skyrocketed in a few days and then sort-of plateaued. The clicks remained almost the same because the keyword is highly informational (Wikipedia takes all the traffic). The keyword has around 650 000 searches per month. Btw. We are not doing off-site SEO. I would like to hear your opinion on what could have caused this. A Google update maybe? 5lERKef
Reporting & Analytics | | filip-balun1 -
Why isn't my google analytics working on a subdomain?
I have a website with Google Analytics which works fine. I tried adding the code to a subdomain using http://www.verticalrail.com/kb/filter-in-google-analytics-to-track-subdomains/ as a guide. There is no data showing up though. Any ideas?
Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite0 -
URL open with double domain names when click on visit URL link in Google Analytics
I have configured Advance Filter to track the sub-domains traffic as follow : Filter
Reporting & Analytics | | gamesecure
Type: Custom filter > Advanced Field A: Hostname Extract A: (.*) Field B: Request URI Extract B: (.*) Output To: Request URI Constructor: $A1$B1 After that, I am able to see sub-domains record and View Full Page URL In Reports. But when I check reports in All page (e.g. Behavior >> All Pages) or selecting Landing Page as a Primary Dimension. Further I click on Icon given next to displayed Full URL to visit to same domain page, in browser the page
opened but the double domain name comes so page not open successfully. For example : In landing page list following URL given : www.sitegeek.com/compareHosting/arvixe_vs_hostgator If I click on icon given next the displayed URL, in browser following URL will
open https://sitegeek.comwww.sitegeek.com/compareHosting/arvixe_vs_hostgator Is this First Domain with HTTPs, coming from Google Analytic 'View' where this is taken ? How Can I remove double domains? Thanks, Rajiv0 -
Pinterest links have been growing in Webmaster Tools
I've been using Pinterest for a couple of years now. It has been great in promoting our brand and generating referral traffic. My question is this. I've noticed in Webmaster Tools, in the "Links to your site" section, that my links from Pinterest has really shot up.It's gone from 3,500 links, 6 months ago, to over 23,000 recently. Those of you using Pinterest, have you seen a similar increase? Just wondering if Google is recognizing more of the links, even though they are "no-follow" links.
Reporting & Analytics | | tdawson090 -
Difference between page/domain authority
could anyone explain the difference between Page Authority and Domain Authoity to me or give me a link to a site where it is explained? Sorry if It's really obvious and I'm just too stupid to find out, but I've searched and haven't found anything.
Reporting & Analytics | | mtueckcr0 -
Will javascript generated links affect my bounce rate?
Hi all, I run a site called Applicable Jobs (http://www.applicablejobs.com) and from analyising my analytics I notice my bounce rate is unusually high at around 85%. I'm keen to get this right down as I've read recently that a high bounce rate is a metric Google uses in determining positioning in the SERPs. I honestly don't think it's the quality of my content because I feel it's genuinely useful to my target audience but I'm wondering if the way my jobs list is generated is causing an issue. At the moment I have my jobs listings generated through javascript so I can have nice effects and use a bit of ajax but if Google crawls it, it obviously won't be able to see the listings. So I'm wondering if when a user comes to the site and they click on one of the job listings, does the Google analytics code recognise that click because that link is generated through javascript? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Benji870 -
Tracking Effects of Internal Linking
Can anyone suggest the best way to track the effectiveness of internal linking on a website? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | RishadShaikh590