Tracking links and duplicate content
-
Hi all,
I have a bit of a conundrum for you all pertaining to a tracking link issue I have run into on a clients site. They currently have over duplicate content. Currently, they have over 15,000 pages being crawled (using Screaming Frog) but only 7,000+ are legitimate pages in the sense of they are not duplicates of themselves.
The client is using Omniture instead of Google Analytics and using an advanced tracking system on their site for internal and external links (ictids and ectids) in the URL parameters. This is creating thousands of duplicated pages being crawled by Google (as seen on their Search Console and on Screaming Frog).
They also are in the middle of moving over from http to https and have thousands of pages currently set up for both, again, creating a duplicate content issue.
What I have suggested for the tracking links is setting up a URL parameter in Search Console for these tracking links. I've also suggested they canonical all tracking links to point to the clean page so the pages that have already been indexed point to the correct clean url. Does this seam like the appropriate strategy?
Additionally, I've told them before they submit a new sitemap to Google, they need to switch their website over to https to avoid worsening their duplicate content issue. They have not submitted a sitemap to Google Search Console since March 2015.
Thank you for any help you can offer!
-
Personally, I would submit a clean sitemap ASAP. It's helpful whenever you upload it, and SEO fixes are best made as soon as possible, otherwise you're just leaving traffic on the table.
Plus, I'm skeptical that a move to https will be fast.
That said, there's no reason why you can't move your site to https without already having a clean XML sitemap for the http version. So it's really up to you.
Sorry, that's a little ambiguous! Such is SEO.
Good luck!
Kristina
-
Hey Kristina,
Thanks for the reply! Yes, I have already gone ahead and changed their URL parameters accordingly. I've asked their developer to go through and canonical all tracking link URLs to the clean URL.
The sitemap is a more complicated issue as they haven't had one created in a little more than a year, so it is very out of date. We are working with them to get a clean version of their sitemap in place after we restructure some of their navigation and content.
Do you think there is value in submitting a clean sitemap (without the tracking links) before switching over to https or just wait until after that change is made?
Thanks again for the reply. This is one of the most complicated sites I've ever tackled. Glad to hear I am on the right track!
-
Hey there,
I think you've given your client some good advice. Just to make sure we're all on the same page about how to handle duplicate content created by tracking parameters:
- Make sure to keep the XML sitemap up to date, and only include the canonical versions of URLs
- Canonical all parameter-ed URLs back to a single source, without parameters
- Mark those tracking parameters as "Doesn't affect page content (tracks usage)" in Google Search Console
The parameter issue is something I would fix ASAP, then tackle https when that comes around. At that point, you'll need to make sure ALL http pages 301 redirect to https versions of the page. I haven't worked with Omniture much, but make sure that doesn't break tracking.
Good luck!
Kristina
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
-
I have a WP site which uses categories to display the same content in several locations. Which items should get a canonical tag to avoid a ding for duplicate content?
So...I have a Knowledge Center and press room that pretty much use the same posts. So...technically the content looks like its on several pages because the post shows up on the Category listing page. Do I add a Canonical tag to each individual post...so that it is the only one that is counted? Also...I have a LONG disclaimer that goes at the bottom of most of the posts. would this count as duplicate content? Is there a way to markup a single paragraph to tell the spiders not to crawl it?
Reporting & Analytics | | LindsayiHart0 -
Not Provided Filter is not tracking goals
I have setup ‘Not Provided’ filter, but it is not tracking conversions accurately. Basically the filter displays goals url’s as conversion urls & not the landing url’s. For example – I would expect home page to have maximum conversions, but its shows higher visits & no conversions. Has anyone experienced this? I have attached screenshot of the ‘Not provided’ Filter. 0L0fS3h SxzRP7w
Reporting & Analytics | | mozwoz0 -
Has anyone experienced Google Analytics track the page visit to a "thank you" page, but not the goal conversion?
Has anyone experienced where Google Analytics would track the page visit to a "thank you" page, but not the goal conversion that should result? The goal had worked for a long time as it is as just a goal url with head match. No funnel. Not case sensitive. For about four days now, no conversions have been recorded, but Google Analytics shows hundreds of people visited the page that should trigger the goal. Additionally, we have received the hundreds of leads. A Screaming Frog search shows the code is embedded throughout the site. For the interested, the GA code looks like (and the 8 Xs are the correct number on the site): Am I missing something?
Reporting & Analytics | | 352inc0 -
What is the best way to track mobile sites in Google Analytics?
Hello! I am wondering what the pros and cons of using the regular Google Analytics tracking code on a mobile site versus the tracking documentation from Google specifically on it found at http://code.google.com/mobile/analytics/docs/web/ which is still in labs mode. Does the mobile specific tracking have the same features as the regular one to be able to track events and report the same statistics? Thanks for the help on this one!
Reporting & Analytics | | CabbageTree0 -
How do you track badges?
I have had some success these days with a couple of badges I have created. It wasn't too difficult for the efforts to result in a bunch of links as they where on topics people are very passionate about. My question is how do people usually keep track of what websites their badges end up on besides watching for analytics visits? There has to be an easier way to know who has used your badge on their website?
Reporting & Analytics | | connectiveWeb0 -
On what report do I get to know where do the external links come from?
I need to get a list of the external links. I don't find that report, where do I get it?
Reporting & Analytics | | carloscontinua0 -
Linking domain dropped followed by significant decrease in Domain Authority
A relatively high ranking site disappeared from the linking root domains of a client site, and the site dropped significantly in domain rank, authority, and trust. Oddly enough, traffic is almost double the previous week, and search results for keywords remain strong. I checked OSE and the linking domain is not listed. There are also several other linking root domains that have never shown in the domain analysis, but we'll leave those for a later topic. I visited the linking root domain that disappeared from the analysis and found everything to be in order. The site is a major local forum with a relatively high domain authority. All links are still there, and there hasn't been any change to the site as far as links are treated according to the owner. The only thing that has changed since the last site analysis is an event campaign ran with unpaid ads posted throughout the forum. The site being analyzed is a catering company that is cooperating with the forum owner and local bar to host a local celebratory event. Of course I'll wait for the next indexing to see if things change, but what could be going on here? This is more of an SEOmoz question, as we're talking over 10 point deduction in domain authority, although search results are still strong.
Reporting & Analytics | | kwoolf0 -
Tracking SEO tests
Trying to get some best practices on testing SEO changes. We are going to make a bunch of changes on subsets of pages. Say testing about 5 different on-page changes. Originally we were going to submit separate Sitemaps to GWT and see if our test sets get indexed, how quickly, etc. But we noticed that GWT says some pages in our Sitemaps aren't indexed even though we know they are (what gives?). So we thought, for each test, let's put a unique code on the page so we can see how many get indexed by Google. But that doesn't solve the issue: how many people clicked on our test pages. So we are thinking of putting a tracking pixel on the test pages, specific for each test. But then I am thinking, why not just create a separate Google Analytics profile and place that code on the test pages (set up goals to track visits per test since we aren't going to change the actual URLs). and on and on This is where you come in. What kind of tracking do you implement when you set up tests? Advice appreciated! E
Reporting & Analytics | | ErinTM0