Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Do tracking codes screw up Google's link tracking?

I'm in a process (apparently never ending) to improve our SEO techniques. This time, I'm working with an external consultant, a guru if you will, having him in for a few hours every week or so. We use him entirely for advise and instruction and staff training, not for implementation. So his upscale rates (btw, he has been worth every penny of it) do not affect our low-end financials. (We offer a low cost online educational service and live on thin margins).

Joe Laretro is his name. He's great.

When I first engaged him, I said that he might learn a few things from us. He's a nice guy so he gave no external sign of what I'm sure he felt inside. "How could a self-taught marketing guy teach anything to to a guy with a bright mind, years of experience, insider contacts, and regular attendence at all the big industry get-togethers?"

Well, one reason is that I'm a total skeptic and I never really believe much that I can't prove myself (ie in terms of seo stuff).

So Yoda (Ie Joe) told me the other day that all the tracking links that we were putting on our links from other sites where preventing the google juice from flowing. Well, I can't prove that google doesn't discount links with tracking codes. It would make some sense since a tracking code more or less proves that the link is not a pure third party link situation and highly suggests a commercial relationship.

But I can prove that these links get counted by showing that in my webmaster tools, the incoming links are properly grouped by page irrespective of whether they were burdened or not by tracking links.

Joe seemed to think that this was cool.

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