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
-
Directory Listings the DO's and Dont's
Hi guys, We are currently working on increasing our online marketing presence and with a new website on the cards I am turning to all of our B2B business directories to update, and being tracking referrals etc to see ones that may be worth premium listings. I have a list of 200 business directories to scope and check, some are relevant some are not, obviously i dont want to sign up to them all and risk a dodgy link profile so im going to be selective, but im not sure how many to aim for etc. So im looking for some general advice and guidance at this early stage so I can properly plan my approach. What advice would you give and are there any major DO's and DONT's of sorting through these directories to look for some new ways to source customers. EDIT: We are UK based Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | ATP0 -
Types of Links
I am not sure what the difference is between the different types of links...my competitors exceed my site in certain types, and lag behind in other types...I'm trying to figure out which are more important maybe? Followed Linking Root Domains External "Followed" Links vs External links Linking C-Blocks Just trying to understand the general differences...
Reporting & Analytics | | sdwellers0 -
Get anchor text, nofollow info etc from a list of links
Hi everybody. I'm currently doing a backlink audit for a client and I've hit a small problem. I'm combining data from Ahrefs, OSE, Webmaster Tools and Link Detox. I've got around 27k links in total now, but the issue is that WMT does not provide data on target page, anchor text and nofollow/dofollow. This means I have around 1k links with only partial information. Does anyone know of a way that I can get this data automatically? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Blink-SEO1 -
Google Analytics VS target="_blank" internal links: How much wrong is it?
I am working on an e-commerce website, and our CEO is sure that having target="_blank" in internal search result is boosting the conversion (not sure, but it's not an issue at the moment). The problem is that Google Analytics sees all URLs visited from search results as entrances/direct visits, hence the Booking Funnel Tracking does not work as it was supposed to. Is there any way to recover the tracking? Or we shall get the rid of target="_blank" attribute?
Reporting & Analytics | | apartmentGin0 -
Difference between GWT and GA average position
Does anyone know why there would be a difference in average position from GA and GWT? I am seeing completely different results for the same date ranges. Thank you!
Reporting & Analytics | | bloomingB0 -
Blocking our IP's but wondering if Google still uses our search data?
The company owner here has our (company) website as his home page. I excluded our static IP’s on Google Analytics, but is that good enough to keep Google from using his search traffic as an indicator of anything negative. Does Google still take into account his activity, but simply block it from my reporting? Finally, does one person actually have that kind of influence as far as time on site, bounce rates, etc. Should I convince him to find a new home page?
Reporting & Analytics | | Ticket_King0 -
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 -
Tracing Google Analytics 'goal' back to original search phrase
I added Goals to my Google Analytics tracking. It's working; I get visitors who have completed Goals showing up in the reporting. My question is: Is it possible to trace backwards from a completed Goal to the original search phrase a user entered in Google to come to my site (for those who entered from Google.com via organic search result)? I'm trying to answer the question of which search phrases are resulting in completed Goals (as opposed to bouncing off the site or just any behaviour other than completing a Goal). It seems like this should be one of Analytics' default reports -- help identify which search phrases are converting well. It's probably there and I'm just not seeing it... Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | scanlin0