Link Advice

[grandin]

Hi,

I bought a high profile link but the website insisted on a tracking mechanism. Looking at the link on their website (using submit express) it shows as:-

BUY TO LET MORTGAGES - 2

Is such a link detrimental when trying to SEO?

The text used on the website was: buy to let mortgages...I assume that bit is good but not sure if the search engines will like it going via a tracking company

Please help?

Lee

 

[grandin]

Thats weird...soon as I pasted the link code onto the post above it changed to show buy to let mortgages - 2

I have added space to show the code:-

http: //anm.intelli-direct.com/e/PExit.dll?m=365&p=32330&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2Elml%2Eco%2Euk - 2

Lee

 

[aquanuke]

Be careful buying links for PR, Google banned a site of mine a while back for doing that.

Only takes one person here to drop an email to Mr G.

 

[grandin]

buy links

this was linked to a press release and therefore not 'buying links'. I just wanted to know whether the set up was positive or negative for seo

Lee

 

[aquanuke]

Most folks would say it would have a negative effect but G. is a bit more intelligent so it should still pass PR. But yep in an ideal world a direct link to your URL is best.

 

[mishmash]

It's a 302 redirect.


That's not the way to do it.

 

[grandin]

whats they way to do it?

What is the way to do it?

The contractual relationship is this:-

They will ensure that the link is SEO friendly BUT I agree that either they have tracking or us.

We can change tracking to be on our site but is that detrimental to my site?

I need a tracking set up either at their end or ours that will not adversely effect seo...any ideas?

Lee

 

[BFTUK]

What tracking do they require?

Just to know the number of visitors that follow the link? Almost every standard stats package will show you referrers (ie no. of visitors that click through a link on any site.)

Ideally you want a clean URL, with no tracking like they show.

I believe Google can read tracking and even affiliate URLS, but make things simple for the SE's in my opinion.

 

[grandin]

I have to provide tracking

I have to provide tracking...currently they provide it (as detailed in my original post). Will google follow the link and say.... the text on the web page is.... buy to let mortgages and this links to BUY TO LET MORTGAGES via this tracking url and thats ok????

Lee

 

[BFTUK]

I'm not sure i quite follow Lee, are you saying in the example URL you post has tracking attached?

If so this is much more prerable than there tracking system.

What type of tracking do they require? Do they just need to know the number of visitors or are they an affiliate? as in they need to know that a visitor then makes an application.

 

[grandin]

I will try and explain better

I will try and explain better:-

Every month we provide this big website (not disclosed) a press release ie. buy to let mortgages.

They agree to have the words 'buy to let mortgages' with a link through to BUY TO LET MORTGAGES

If you put their site page into www.submitexpress their link shows as

http ://anm.intelli-direct.com/e/PExit.dll?m=365&p=32330&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2Elml%2Eco%2Euk - 2

So the question is.... Will the link above be picked up by google as good ie. it doesnt look as good to me as a link ...www. lml.co.uk ???

So if it is considered detrimental then I have an option to install my own tracking system but want to do one that isnt detrimental.

And they only require me or them to verify how many click on the link

Lee

 

[BFTUK]

What you've got at the moment is not good.

If you install your own tracking software do both parties need to be able to login to see the number of visits?

Or will they trust you and a print out?

Look at StatCounter Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats, simply install the code on each page of your site (you'll need to pay statcounter to track unlimited visits), you can then give them a nice printout or even provide them with account login details to see for themself (but they then would be able to see all your other webstats!)

Statcounter off a free version, so you could set it up to see if it suits your needs.

 

[aqls]

The best sort of link you should ask them for is a straight <a href .. link direct from them to lml.co.uk.

Any redirection between thisis money and lml (even an affiliate link) is detrimental to the benefit you could get.

Therefore the counting as BFT says should be on your servers using the referrer details passed on when someone clicks on a link into your page. This information is in your logs, but there are many tools that can help you fish it out. I have no experience of BFT's software recommendation, but I'm sure it provides the details.

What BFT is saying aswell is that because the information is gained on your server and not theirs, then there may be a trust issue, which may or may not be important in your case. It looks like it is not important so in my opinion you should ask them for a straight link.

-aqls-

 

[BFTUK]

Statcounter is great, but i always use the free version.

Statcounter.com is a PR10 website, so i think that shows their reputation.

Equally any stats package would show you who the referrers are. Your hosting account usually has some built in.

 

[grandin]

thanks

Thanks for all your feedback.

I only need to show them click throughs....will the tracking software (if i install b's recommendation) on my site allow me to produce a report for the link traffic only?

Lee

 

[BFTUK]

I would guess a simple screen print with other details blurred would suffice for them.

 

[grandin]

Tracking

Equally any stats package would show you who the referrers are. Your hosting account usually has some built in.

Above is a good point b...I will have a look

Lee