Affiliate Link is Trumping Homepage - URL parameter handling?
-
An odd and slightly scary thing happened today: we saw an affiliate string version of our homepage ranking number one for our brand, along with the normal full set of site-links.
We have done the following:
1. Added this to our robots.txt :
User-agent: *
Disallow: /*?2. Reinserted a canonical on the homepage (we had removed this when we implemented hreflang as had read the two interfered with each other. We haven't had canonical for a long time now without issue. Is this anything to do with the algo update perhaps?!
The third thing we're reviewing I'm slightly confused about: URL Parameter Handling in GWT. As advised - with regard to affiliate strings - to the question: "Does this parameter change page content seen by the user?" We have NO selected, which means they should be crawling one representative URL. But isn't it the case that we don't want them crawling or indexing ANY affiliate URLs? You can specify Googlebot to not crawl any of particular string, but only if you select: "Yes. The parameter changes the page content." Should they know an affiliate URL from the original and not index them? I read a quote from Matt Cutts which suggested this (along with putting a "nofollow" tag in affiliate links just in case)
Any advice in this area would be appreciated. Thanks.
-
I'm glad to hear you've been sorted out Lawrence Neal. I find it interesting the the other Lawrence saw something similar, and I'll ask around to see if it was a glitch that other people have noticed too.
For anyone reading this wondering what Mr. Neal was referring to in regard to rel canonical / href lang conflict, there's a good writeup of it over at Dejanseo.com and Gianluca Fiorelli mentions it in his comment on Dr. Pete's Rel Canonical uber post here on Moz.
-
Luckily it's disappeared today, which leads me to believe it was a Google-side algo error that was swiftly corrected (nothing we have done will have reflected in the serp so quickly, I doubt)
-
Lets say your site is using php?
Your system no doubt picks up the parameter with a php get and stores it as a session variable.
That is likely all that would need to be done before the page is 301 redirected.
Best thing to do is create a test page with the cod mentioned above on your site and try it
have the page redirect to the homepage and see if that affiliate code is stored.
-
I don't know if this has anything to do with the algo update, but at least your not the only one. I saw a competitor ranking with a second version of their homepage. The second version had utm parameters behind them.
Luckily the page with the utm parameters disappeared from the serps this morning. He was actually ranking first with the normal version and second with the version with the url parameters. This was on some pretty competitive keywords and lasted almost three days.
-
Thanks for your reply, Gary. I'm not entirely sure how our (far reaching and lucrative) affiliate tracking/logging works, but I would have thought 301ing all the links to the original page would sabotage it, no?!
The canonical will certainly work but we've only reinstated it on the homepage as we have 6 other sites that have hreflang alternates in place and the canonical seems to interfere with their function.
-
hmmm.. seems like Google is getting some strong linking signals that this is the popular page to arrive at.
The canonical tag on the homepage is the right way to go.
You could 301 redirect any customer that lands on you with an affiliate code in the url? This would be a very simple bit of code you could even put it in an an include at the top of each page. This way those pages never even exist and you get all the link juice.
One other thing might be to put a noindex on any page that has an affiliate parameter. But you would lose the link juice.
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
-
Which Version Url to Use for Canonical Tags and in General for Homepage.
I want to put canonical tags on the homepage of a site. cant figure out the version of URL of the homepage should be with a / at the end or without the / ( www.example.com of www.example.com/ ) if I put into the google the URL with / I get the URL without the / in my browser, and it isn't showing as a redirect in my moz extension or other tools. But when I copy the URL from browser and paste elsewhere it pastes with a / I have two questions 1 - in general how does it work with URLs of homepages - I see this happening with lots of sites? 2 - which URL should I set as the canonical version of my homepage? Thanks so much
Technical SEO | | Ruchy0 -
Using # in parameters?
I am trying to understand why a website would use # instead of a ? for its parameters? I have put an example of the URL below: http://www.warehousestationery.co.nz/office-supplies/adhesives-tapes-and-fastenings#prefn1=brand&prefn2=colour&prefv1=Command&prefv2=Clear Any help would be much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | CaitlinDW1 -
Does Google add parameters to the URL parameters in webmaster tools/
I am seeing new parameters added (and sometimes removed) from the URL Parameter tool. Is there anything that would add parameters to the tool? Or does it have to be someone internally? FYI - They always have no date in the configured column, no effect set, and crawl is set to Let Google decide.
Technical SEO | | merch_zzounds0 -
Disavowing links, Is it effective?
Looking for your experiences with disavowing back-links? We've been flooded with new clients who need spammy link removal services and wanted to hear more about your experience with the disavow tool. For sites that have been penalized, how long did it take for them to come back using the disavow tool? Did you see sites come back after the next algo update? Here's the basics of our services for link deletion: 1. Find all the spammy links
Technical SEO | | Keith-Eneix
2. Contact webmasters to delete them
3. Disavow all spammy links that are part of an obvious network
4. Implement a content plan for new quality links to get the site healthy again.
5. Report on all links removed and new links attained Just want to make sure our processes are in line with what everyone else is doing?0 -
Why is google webmaster tools ignoring my url parameter settings
I have set up several url parameters in webmaster tools that do things like select a specific products colour or size. I have set the parameter in google to "narrows" the page and selected to crawl no urls but in the duplicate content section each of these are still shown as being 2 pages with the same content. Is this just normal, i.e. showing me that they are the same anyway or is google deliberately ignoring my settings (which I assume it does when they are sure they know better or think I have made a mistake)?
Technical SEO | | mark_baird0 -
Shorter URLs
Hi Is there a real value in having the keywords in the URL structure? we could use the URL: Mybrand.com/software/tablets/ipad/supertrader.html Or instead have the CMS create the shorter version mybrand.com/supertrader.html and just optimize this page for the keyword 'supertrader ipad software'
Technical SEO | | FXDD1 -
Linking to related business?
If your working with a local business, is it a good idea to reach out to similar businesses in other states and ask for a link? Example: I own a paint shop in Minnesota, and I reach out to a paint shop in California to see if we want to link to each others site to help our SEO. Because we aren’t in competition with each other wouldn’t this help us both?
Technical SEO | | marker-3115280 -
Keywords in Vanity URL
If I set up a vanity URL that just 301's to the main site, do the search engines look at the keywords in the vanity URL when determing how to rank the site. For example, if I set up a vanity URL of www.coolnewtechgear.com, and redirect it to www.company.com/products/, would the search engines view the keywords of cool, new, tech, and gear and associate that with the page it's getting redirected to? Or does it ignore the vanity URL and only look at the content of the page itself?
Technical SEO | | ryanwats0