Tracking Code in Backlinks

That's a good question, but I don't think so. Something tells me Google knows how to filter URL parameters.

Treeofl1 said:

That's a good question, but I don't think so. Something tells me Google knows how to filter URL parameters.

Click to expand...

What I was thinking, I'll keep looking as it's probably buried in their product support somewhere. Thanks

My understanding is that Google is a lot more basic than people realize. The URL form that gets linked to gets the PR boost. Alternate URL forms are all considered duplicate pages and the one with the highest PR generally appears in the SERPs.

So links like the following would accrue PR separately from backlinks even though they are the same page:


http //www.mysite.com/
https //www.mysite.com/
http //mysite.com/
https //mysite.com/
http //mysite.com/?var=test
...


which is why it is super important to be very consistent with your URL structure when link building. Yes you can 301 to pass authority, but every layer of redirection counts as a layer of linking and diminishes PR passed to those pages from links.

The best plan is to be very strict and consistent with your URLs wherever you can be.

An update on this, after looking at my "most linked pages" in webmaster tools none of the most linked pages included the tracking part of the URL, and most of my links should have the tracking in it. So it would appear to me that google disregards the adwords tracking part of the URL, at least when looking at SEO value...