Shortcut Link and Referral domain in Google Analytics
-
Hello,
One of my clients has a Facebook page for his company, and his social media manager posts some promotional and educational posts on daily basis. the social media manager uses affiliate ID's in the destination URL to track traffic and leads that come from the social media and to make it look nicer he uses shortcut links service - bitly.
Now I have a few questions about this:
-
I don't see traffic comes from bit.ly or bitly.com in Google Analytics, my question: is using 301 redirect makes Google Analytics understand that the last website which sent the traffic to my website is not the actual Referral website?
-
Is using shortcut links in the social media damages the links value (even though they are <nofollow>links - but still considered as signals from social media</nofollow>
Thanks.
-
-
You don't see traffic from bit.ly as they actually redirect the user without serving any content, therefore is just a redirection, instead, you should see the actual referrer, facebook, or whatever. However, if you are getting the hit from a facebook page, it is probably an HTTPS page, and therefore, if redirected to a non-SSL page referrer information isn't passed along. However, you could see something like facebook.com/u.php?.... You should use Analytics tracking variables to better understand from which posts are those visitors coming: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en
As for your second question, just like you can interpret the redirection, so can Google or whatever search engine scrapes the page looking for signals. It won't matter if you pass them through bit.ly or services alike, the link ends up in your site (as long as there's a 300 redirection in place, which it is in bit.ly).
Hope that helps!
-
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
-
Adding links to FB, Googleplus, pininterest, Twitter
HI everyday we are posting new product detail url to FB, Googleplus, pininterest, Twitter. 1. Will this have any value at all in SEO? and also we get question related to the products, we are thinking to post on FB/Google plus with urls and answer.. 2. wht do you think? Pls suggest.. thanks We have blogs in http://domainname.blogspot.in/ and domainname.wordpress.com
Social Media | | Rahim119
we are also pasting the links and some write is happening there as well..0 -
Google Plus page - keep or delete?
Do you guys think that if we are not going to be able to maintain a Google Plus page, from a SEO standpoint is it better to keep or delete the page? Also, do you guys think there's still SEO value to having a Google Plus page in general? Is it worth it? Thanks! MS
Social Media | | MargaritaS1 -
Google negatively affect the positions in the Bing.
the longer time observed that acquiring links from google+ which is quite pleasantly accepted by Google, it is rather negatively affect the positions in the Bing. Has anyone experienced a similar problem?
Social Media | | Unigenitus0 -
How do you pass G+'s to a new domain?
If a company wants to change it's domain, will they lose all the g+ 1's they had with the original domain? Is there a way to "redirect" those pluses to the new site? Thanks, Ruben
Social Media | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Facebook fan page does not show up in Google Search
This fan page - http://www.facebook.com/AnytimeFitnessSantaRosa does not show up in the Google search results for "Anytime Fitness Santa Rosa Facebook" (broad match search). Other Anytime Fitness pages show up in position 1 and 2 and the website for the one I want to rank the Facebook page shows up in position 5 (http://anytimefitness.com/gyms/1352/Santa Rosa-CA-95407). Also I noticed something weird (but maybe unrelated - the url has a %20 in it but shouldn't - it should be a "-" (dash).
Social Media | | Intergen0 -
Where is the Link Site button on Google+?
I want my content authors to be able to associate their work with their Google+ profile. I read about an update rolled out in June that included a Link Site function on the Edit Profile -- About Tab. I don't see where to do this. Can anyone help me figure out how to enable this function?
Social Media | | wlefevre0 -
How do I start a Google Local effort?
I was wondering how can I start a Google Local effort and how is it beneficial?
Social Media | | bronxpad0 -
Facebook Analytics
HOLA! I need some questions answered by all the GREAT people here: 1. suggestions for 3rd party facebook analytics tracking (currently utilizing a custom API and raven tools) 2. who is using the open graph protocol and how are you doing so?
Social Media | | Gaveltek-1732380