Multiple urls for posting multiple classified ads

[AllIsWell]

Want to optimize referral traffic while at same time keep search engines happy and the ads posted.

Have a client who advertises  on several classified ad sites around the globe.

Which is better (post Panda), having multiple identical urls using canonicals  to redirect juice to original url?

For example: www.bluewidgets.com is the original

www.bluewidgetsusa.com

www.blue-widgets-galore.com

Or, should the duplicate pages be directed to original using a 301?

Currently using duplicate urls.

Am currently not using "nofollow" tags on those pages.

[AllIsWell]

So you are saying 301 redirects are better?

Would amount to 50 redirects (in that ball park).

Does not affect google ranking?

[AllIsWell]

So you are saying 301 redirects are better?

Would amount to 50 redirects (in that ball park).

Does not affect google ranking?

[Ryan_Henry]

Google Analytics allows you to setup what are called tracking URLs.  They can be used when you "tag" your URLs with tracking code that allows for GA to translate which medium is generating what traffic.

http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1033867 This is a tool that Google offers to help you generate your URLs.  There are also spreadsheets available online that allow you to create the URLs in Excel but they aren't always 100% accurate.  What you are doing is ultimately creating parameters that allow for custom campaigns to be setup within Analytics.  This allows you to monitor more than just the clicks, but allows you to generate custom reports that are more insightful and provide better data.

Once your URLs and Campaigns are created and running smoothly, you will be able to look at the data of the multi-channel funnels.  This feature allows for attribution to be given to the digital and non-digital channels that don't always get the credit for the conversion.  There is a lot of data can be pulled from these models and they really help to better allocate resources if needed.

I hope this all makes sense and Google actually did a very good job of explaining these resources on their analytics guide.  I would take a look there as well to get a better understanding before diving right in.

[AllIsWell]

The reason for so many duplicate urls is that classified ads limit the number of posting to one url from one classified account. To post multiple ads, therefore, you create multiple websites with different urls.

I appreciate you bearing with me. Making headway with classified ads vs. google seo are  two different entities. And this is a area with scant information on it, as if classifieds are the black sheep of the family. But getting a 2:1 ads v. seo traffic ratio out of the experience.

Creating a couple of additional websites with different urls accomplishes the ability to reach a wider audience with classified ads. One goes where the traffic is.

But does using canonicals that way  offend Google?

I have consciously done a u-turn on this account in terms of time and seen both seo and referral traffic increase in the past couple of months.

But thinking that by increasing SEO ranking = more traffic = revenue.

Adding twitter, quora, facebook since October has given the site a nice boost. However, Yahoo Answers did nothing.

It all comes down to do those canonicals get penalized with Google? Is my seo traffic being suppressed because of it?

[AllIsWell]

Your offer is inviting. I do want to hear more about what traffic drivers are creating the most conversions on.

[Ryan_Henry]

In my opinion no.  The canonical is telling search engines that there are pages with similar content that do exist, but one of them is the one you want to be crawled for the information and content.

Best practices suggest that you only have one canonical per page, but I am unsure as to the penalties associated with having more.

I am still confused as to why you couldn't use tracking URLs to achieve your goals because it allows you to see which site is referring the traffic without having to create multiple URLs.  Tracking URLs are different from analytics tracking that you have installed on your sites.

[AllIsWell]

Goal is to post as many classified ads as possible, which takes multiple duplicate urls on different websites to be competitive, without those duplicate pages impacting the seo ranking on the original site.

Do not care about SEO ranking on those duplicate pages. Just using them to drive traffic via classified ads.

My goal is to have the same page but with multiple urls in order to post several classified ads daily without being penalized by Google.

Have Google Analytics tracking already in place.Using same tracking code for the duplicated pages on different sites as using on original site. I see the # of visitors coming to the site from those pages.

I have the increased referral traffic the customer wants.

I want to make sure I am not hurting my SEO traffic, that Google isn't penalizing me for the duplicate pages on other sites.

My seo traffic is increasing, due to intensive improvements to the content, keywords, etc.

But do those duplicate pages on different website urls using canonicals to the original page hurt my rankings?

[JarnoNijzing]

Im with brooke on this one.

Still don't see the exact point of your approach?

If I had to choose between the 2 options you are giving I would go with the rel=canonical but it all depends on the true meaning of your assignment. That is not very clear in this case.

Jarno

[Ryan_Henry]

David,

Something else you may want to try are tracking URLs.  If you are utilizing Google Analytics, you can setup tracking URLs that allow you to know which website the clicks are coming from, but also allows you to point users to the same URL/content on the website.

There are a lot of templates out there that can help you to get started using them, but once you do, it makes it a lot easier to track what mediums are driving what traffic.  If you want to get really spiffy, you can start tracking what traffic drivers are creating the most conversions and also start to utlize multi-channel funnels.

If you are interested I would be more than happy to help you get started.

Hope this helps!

[BizDetox]

Whats your overall goal . It was difficult to get that in the post.

Do you want the traffic to land on your site ?

If so then 301 redirect all url to the url you want ?