Best way to link from press releases

[Kyle_M]

I'm wondering what people recommend for linking from press releases; specifically, what kind of tracking parameters people add to their links, if any.

My first thought is to add UTM tracking parameters for Google Analytics, but I have a few concerns:

• bloggers that copy our link from the release include the tracking parameters in the links from their site, which would only identify the traffic as coming from the release and not the specific sites
• UTM parameters in the link may make it look less natural to Google

Also, I've considered using shortened URL's without parameters in the release that get 301 redirected to the relevant pages, which I thought might have a few benefits:

• the links look more natural (no tracking parameters)
• UTM parameters could be added as part of the redirect after the fact
• if the release attracted links from spammy sources for some reason I could kill the redirect, which I'm hoping would effectively kill the link

My company doesn't rely on press releases for link building, which we understand to have been ineffective for a long time, but we do send them out occasionally and want the most effective links for tracking and SEO.

I'd love to hear if anyone has thoughts on these assumptions, or if anyone has different linking strategies that they have found strike the right balance of SEO and tracking considerations. Thanks!

[Jal__Jaun]

I think UTM is one of the best methods to track all of your Marketing Campaigns. It has helped me a lot in reducing the complexity of securing a network.

You can find the below link helpful to you.

https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-Analytics-Reports/UTM-tracking-Removal/td-p/1276751

[Kyle_M]

I found some tools online that address some of my concerns about using UTM codes that I think will help a lot.

First, this poster developed a script that removes UTM codes from the URL in the address bar of a user's browser so they are gone when a user copy and pastes the link from there. Doesn't help if people copy the link directly out of the press release but my feeling is that more people get it from the address bar anyway. That should go a long way to make sure there aren't links out in the wild with inappropriate UTM codes attached.
https://websiteadvantage.com.au/Google-Analytics-UTM-Removal

Second, this poster created a script that dynamically replaces the utm_source code with the name of the referring site any time it processes a link where the utm_source code is set to the word "dynamic". That means any traffic that comes from sites that have UTM codes on the links will still have their source tracked properly.
https://www.bounteous.com/insights/2014/06/11/campaign-tracking-dynamic-source/

Now that I have these tools, I'm planning on including UTM tags in my press release links. To build links conservatively per the Whiteboard Friday I mentioned earlier, I'm going to point the links at canonical versions of my pages or at URL's that are 301 redirected to the relevant pages. Still not sure if this is a great strategy so I'd love to hear people's thoughts, but I will try it out and see how it goes in the meantime.

[Kyle_M]

Thanks John. That post does include a good tip about keeping UTM tags SEO-friendly, although it doesn't address whether or not UTM codes are good way to track press release traffic. The issue with UTM codes that concerns me the most is that anyone that copies and pastes links with the UTM codes elsewhere on the web does not have their traffic source tracked properly.

[JohnSammon]

Hey Kyle! Roman had a great answer to this when he answered a previous question - https://moz.com/community/q/do-long-utm-codes-hurt-seo - take a peek.

[Kyle_M]

Yes we moved to https in the last year and I just confirmed that all properties and views are set to https. Good thought, though!

[JohnSammon]

Hey Kyle,

Another side question before I answer (sorry for the delay). Have you moved your site to https and have you changed the admin parameters to https in property settings and view settings?

Most change the former but some miss the view settings. We saw similar things with organic traffic over this year and the issue was that the view was not set to https.

Let me know and I'll give you feedback on the link question after.

Thanks!

John

[Kyle_M]

Hi John,

I feel like over the years more and more of my traffic is incorrectly showing up in Google Analytics with a "direct" source and have confirmed that is the case with some of my referral traffic, so I've been using UTM codes more often to correctly credit referrers in my reports.

Ideally the only UTM parameter I'd use would be the "Campaign" parameter so I could easily see aggregate statistics about traffic generated by the press release in GA regardless of source. However, I believe you're required to include source and medium parameters when using UTM codes, which is what makes all traffic look like it's coming from the same place when the link is copied to other sites. If I could just set a campaign parameter and let Google fill in the blanks for source and medium that would be great. Does anyone know if that works?

Alternatively I'm considering creating new pages on my site that are duplicates of existing pages with appropriate canonical links and linking to the new pages in my release. I was inspired by the concept of "canonical burn pages" that I first heard in this Whiteboard Friday.
https://moz.com/blog/risk-averse-link-building-whiteboard-friday

This method would address quite a few of my concerns:

• links look natural
• traffic from any source that ends up using this unique URL will be inherently aggregated when viewing reports for that URL
• Google should report accurate "source" data
• can kill the page if I end up with a lot of spammy inbound links

The only downside I can see is that we'll have to maintain duplicate pages, but I suppose we could put a 301 redirect on the URL at some point down the road and abandon the duplicate.

This strategy is still a work in progress so I'd still love to hear anyone else's thoughts about the best ways to link from press releases.

[JohnSammon]

Hey Kyle,

This is also a good question. I'm curious as to why you would want to add the UTM parameters as you could just look at the referring source of traffic and attribute it to the specific site that the e-release is on. I'm looking forward to the discussion as I know some others will provide good feedback.