Tracking-cookie-redirect = No Back links?

[Bojon]

When our banner ads and sponsored listings are clicked on, they first go to our ad agency’s partner where they pickup a tracking cookie before they are redirected to our website.

For example: An Overture sponsored listing will look something like this when you arrive at the home page.

It will start off with my-website.com followed by...

index.asp?source=XYZ-OVERTURE-GEN&ABCDE=ABC-XYZ-OVERTURE-GEN

A person clicking on the banner or sponsored listing has no idea this is happening. They click on the banner and arrive at our website.

We have also been purchasing banner advertising and text links on a very popular website in our industry for about a year. So far so good… But… when I look at our back links they don’t show up anywhere. Small mom and pop websites show up but not the big site with all the page rank.

If we sold Blue Widgets and we said “Click here for Blue Widgets” in the alt tag of the banner or anchor text of the link… How does Google credit the anchor text?

Would our ad agency start ranking well for Blue Widgets or is Google smart enough to know that WE are the ones that should benefit from the anchor text and the link?

Or is Google unable to navigate the tracking-cookie-URL-redirect system that we have in place?

Do you have a better system?

Thanks.

[Nick W]

Sounds like you need to rethink the way this all works. From what you describe, you'll get very little benefit from anchor text/PR as google sees all those urs as seperate pages.

Your agency should really be aware of this....

Nick

[Bojon]

Thanks.

I believe I need to educate myself on the options available.

[Bojon]

We do want to track the clicks and visitors if they leave then return and purchase etc… but we would also like the back link to show up.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

[Elisabeth]

Bojon,

Based on your initial thread about your agency (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=556), I think what you really need to do first is distinguish between two distinct parts of Internet Marketing:

Organic/Natural search engine optimization, online PR (public relations, not PageRank)
-
Search Engine/Online Advertising (ppc keywords, banner ads, etc)

the latter really isn't meant to assist in the end result of top rankings and free keyword traffic, its main purpose is to drive sales/conversions and support branding efforts, and tracking through cookies, redirects or other scripts is critical to measuring the response of these efforts. it's far less important (and a bit unreasonable actually) to expect to see any backlinks, anchor text or related impact from these types of advertising on your natural SEO efforts.

though, you do mention that some of your other sponsored text links do use redirects as well for tracking - if the links are for the sake of PageRank, then yes, you'll want to try everything you can do to avoid using the tracking links - but in some cases, it's unavoidable.

Organic results (free listings and traffic from search engines) rely more on your agency's ability to make your website search engine and user friendly, with a clean navigational structure and keyword rich text within unique content, and employ other tactics to ensure the site achieves maximum visibility for its target keywords (well researched for optimal conversion rates), which includes a solid link building campaign, which may extend into what's known as Online PR efforts - getting 3rd party endorsements essentially from quality outside sources. You'll also want to keep track of all natural efforts as well.

for the best results, particularly in a competitive industry, you need to have a good balance of both.

[Bojon]

Thanks,

I understand most of what you are saying.
I don’t have a problem with my agency. I think they’re doing a great job.

Is Google is not capable of following a cookie-redirect to my home page?

Or are we using the wrong kind of cookie-redirect?