What's up with this URL structure

[KelvyTheBlacky]

Hey Amigos,

Just came across this article by a well-renowned SEO and couldn't help but notice the URL structure of the article. Can someone as experienced in SEO as Brian Dean make such a rookie mistake. Or is this a new thing in town?

The URL is - https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors#:~:text=You might already know that,ranking factors in their algorithm…

 

[Ajeet Ghuman]

i am getting the normal URL.. it might happened because of some plugin or theme problem..

 

[MisterXYZ]

Well actual url is https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors

So the url that you have mentioned might be used for tracking purpose or some other purpose.

 

[Elvlin]

I got normal URL.
do you use some plugin?

 

[KelvyTheBlacky]

i am getting the normal URL.. it might happened because of some plugin or theme problem..

Well actual url is https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors

So the url that you have mentioned might be used for tracking purpose or some other purpose.

I got normal URL.
do you use some plugin?

I guess there is something up on my end. Gracias!

EDIT: Seems good on mobile but still can't figure out why it's showing me the awkward structure on desktop. Anyways, it was just an observation nothing more.

 

[Ajeet Ghuman]

I guess there is something up on my end. Gracias!

EDIT: Seems good on mobile but still can't figure out why it's showing me the awkward structure on desktop. Anyways, it was just an observation nothing more.

There is nothing wrong in your side.. its the website problem..

 

[Starblazer]

# is a fragment identifier. I've never seen :~: or text= in the url. They might be less popular or wrong. You should ideally ignore url after # to find the post link. For example, you can check the following sub-heading of the article:

https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors#onsitewebspam

 

[ChristineAshe]

Well deja vu, I was about to ask the same thing today.
A competitor is using the same structure like the one you posted OP, and what it does is, it highlights some H tags and some text.
You can literally see it in serps. It's not happening after you click on the link.
Now that you mentioned it, i'm gonna try again with different browsers, or incognito mode.

 

[ChristineAshe]

It happened again today.Its a google chrome function i think.
It only happened so far in chrome (incognito too) and chrome-like browsers( like brave), but not in MS Edge. And it appeared only in first google snippet.
I think chrome tries to highlight the area of interest, for better user experience.
So if you are looking for "yorker toaster review" and you click on the snippet, you will land in site with a url like this
www. inovativetoasters. com/best-reviews/yorker-toaster-review/#:~:text=This%20yorker%20toaster%20is,a%20high%20quality%20budget-friendly%20toaster. ,
and more specifically you will land in a yellow-highlighted paragraph that describes the model thoroughly.

What i also noticed, is that in the above url, what i highlighted with yellowish-greenish color,
is the beginning of the paragraph google highlights, and the rest after the comma, is the end of it.
So the paragraph starts with " This yorker toaster is", and ends with "a high quality budget friendly toaster".

 

[KelvyTheBlacky]

It happened again today.Its a google chrome function i think.
It only happened so far in chrome (incognito too) and chrome-like browsers( like brave), but not in MS Edge. And it appeared only in first google snippet.
I think chrome tries to highlight the area of interest, for better user experience.
So if you are looking for "yorker toaster review" and you click on the snippet, you will land in site with a url like this
www. inovativetoasters. com/best-reviews/yorker-toaster-review/#:~:text=This%20yorker%20toaster%20is,a%20high%20quality%20budget-friendly%20toaster. ,
and more specifically you will land in a yellow-highlighted paragraph that describes the model thoroughly.

What i also noticed, is that in the above url, what i highlighted with yellowish-greenish color,
is the beginning of the paragraph google highlights, and the rest after the comma, is the end of it.
So the paragraph starts with " This yorker toaster is", and ends with "a high quality budget friendly toaster".

Totally on point @ChristineAshe. Yea it appears to only happen in Chrome-based browsers like Chrome, Chromium, Brave etc and not in IE and others. So seems the issue is from the browsers themselves and not from webmasters.