Woah! Google's Listing My Ad URL Instead Of Our Regular URL

[neato]

Ok, I am the Internet Marketing Manager for a company called Neato, www.neato.com. We always show up number one when you type in "neato" in Google (of course) and also number 2 for the search term "cd labels". I just checled today and we are still number 1 for neato but on the second page for "cd labels". Here is the kicker. The actual URL that they show in the listing is from one of my pay per click campaigns. We use our own tracking url in house to give to this pay per click engine. Check it out: This is the Google listing now:

NEATO - CD/DVD Labeling Products, Blank Media, and More
NEATO. Design, print and apply custom CD labels, CD jewel case inserts, vhs video sleeves, vhs video labels, Zip labels, Zip inserts, minidisc labels, ...

http://64.233.161.104/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en&q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neato.com%2Fxt_adtrack.as p%253Faid%253DIB%26tid%253D62521

- 48k - Jun 21, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Can anyone explain this. I am also sure this is why we dropped for the term "Cd labels" , we have been at number two for that keyword since I started working here, which was about 9 months ago.

This is rattling my brain!!!!! :confused:

[mick g]

using google.com from the UK with keyword "neato" your number one and keyword "CD labels" your number 4 both on page one of the serps

this works ok for me anyway??

now if you check this
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&sa=G&q=site:www.neato.com
you are showing 10,500 pages all url only

this could be a problem with your site or yet again another glitch with google as there are a lot of sites showing url only from the last update so dont go into panic mode just yet....

[mcanerin]

Hi neato - I've used your products in the past and was very happy with the results - welcome to the SEW Forums :)

In answer to your question, I suspect it's a temporary glitch, since I just did the search and your homepage now comes up for "cd labels". Google just went through a major update and many odd things happen temporarily during that process :http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=6037

Cheers,

Ian

[neato]

Hello Ian,

Glad to hear our products worked for you.

This is for the organic listings. I just checked "cd labels" and we are number 11. What's really weird is that fact that they are grabbing a tracking link from a PPC campaign.

[mick g]

using keyword "cd labels" enclosed in speech marks your showing at number number three and I dont see any tracking url in the search results, it goes straight through to your home page.

[mcanerin]

This is for the organic listings. I just checked "cd labels" and we are number 11.

Odd - from where I'm sitting you show up number 2. I'm wondering if this is location based.

Go to www.seo-browser.com and put in this Google search:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-07,GGLD:en&q=cd+labels

Then hit simple. That will show you what I'm seeing (in text only mode) Right now you are at #1 for PPC and #2 for Organic for that search.

Ian

[neato]

Yeah, it has to be location based then. Just weird since it just moved today. But taking the tracking url of a PPC Campaign, thats wierd. I found exactly where it is grabbing it from, the URL is
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1738,1638433,00.asp

Our link will be on the right hand side half way down under "Online Classifieds"
It has the industry brains link ad. Very weird

[Marcia]

It's a common problem with affiliate links - like here, with Yahoo

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=5707

[dannysullivan]

I've got some Neato markers for my DVDs :)

Are you running contextual ads? I'm wondering if your URLs may have been spidered that way. Or some site may have scraped Google results and reposted them, then Google spidered your paid URL -- especially as you aren't blocking that landing page via a robots.txt file. Just a few quick thoughts as haven't had a chance to explore fully. The fact the home page default changes from neato.com to http://www.neato.com/ushome.asp?mscsid=JBMGMM0B81H08P34BB016ARLH75K8LH6 (at least for me) prob. causing some problems, too.

Also changed the title of the thread so people better know the issue at a glance but tried to keep the spirit of your mind being blown :)

[telNform]

Take into consideration that someone may have copied a PPC link from your campaign and published it somewhere on a website ... GoogleBot crawled it and decided to index the page - due to the massive flux in the index lately, this page may have trumped the original


Scott
telNform

[neato]

Yes, it is contextual advertising with Industry Brains not an affiliate program, we have that with Commission Junction. This is where they are picking up that tracking code. We just use our own tracking system to see how many sales we get from it. The only thing I dont get is the link has Industrybrains code in it as well.

[neato]

Now my rankings are gone. Even for the keyword "neato" I am no longer listed. Was there a big update or something?

[dannysullivan]

Actually, I see you still there but with the www.uk.neato.com domain. I'm going to guess someone at Google may have spotted your earlier problem -- or it could have been spotted some other way -- and the main domain to list was adjusted. It went with the uk version.

I'd suggest this. You seem to have solved the redirect for neato.com. Over time, that should help more people linking to you with your name to that URL, and I'd expect you'll get back full credit.

As for Neato UK, if that's really a UK site, get a co.uk domain for it. That's going to help especially for those searching for UK specific stuff to find it. Right not, you're redirecting neato.co.uk to www.uk.neato.com. Stop! Neato.co.uk is fine, but it may help ensure Google doesn't think your UK site is global in nature and use that URL for it.