Link Tracker and SEO Question

[Frank Benjamin]

Does anyone know the answer to this. If I have a link to another website (not an affiliate link) as part of an agreement. However, I would like to track the link to see if it worth to continue the agreement after the current agreement expire.

I have a link checking program that changes the link to something like http://www.thebettorguide.com/cgi-bi...ick.cgi?id=333.

My question is will that compromise the backlink of that link? After all the reason for the link is for a backlink. Will search engine not see that link and the anchor text the same as it would if I would use the website's actually domain name?

I really want to track how many clicks this link gets, but don't want to compromise the backlink and my agreement.

Thanks in advance!

[Frank Benjamin]

I think I found the answer at another webmaster forum. If I make a 301 redirect in my .htaccess file, the link juice should pass through just fine.

Anyone have an opinion to this. Its always nice to have a second opinion.

[universal4]

I agree that a 301 should pass the link juice, however....

If you are talking about links that you exchange, and that the actual link on your website that you put up for your partner will be different from that of a regular link, then in my opinion, I would NOT exchange links with you based upon that.

I don't care if the link is 301'd or not, if I give you a link in straight html on my website and we agree to exchange links, then the link you put up for me must be in straight html also....

Rick
Universal4

[baldidiot]

If you just want to see how much traffic you receive from the site, can't you just check your server logs? Seems much simpler and you could just give them the regular link.

[thebookiesoffers]

If you just want to see how much traffic you receive from the site, can't you just check your server logs? Seems much simpler and you could just give them the regular link.

thats what i was thinking

[Frank Benjamin]

It wasn't a link exchange. It is a one way agreement.

Universal, I agree with you though. The good faith of the agreement is that the it would be the link that I am provided. After digging into it more and thinking about it, I shelved the idea. That is why I asked it before doing it. Just thinking of a simple way to track it without view the server logs.

In case anyone cares, I did find a video from Google explaining this exact topic: http://www.google.com/support/webmas...n&answer=93633

[Frank Benjamin]

Well, I found something even better to track all links, Google Analytics. No need to any coding, special links, 301 redirects or anything. Just what I needed and more!

[thebookiesoffers]

Well, I found something even better to track all links, Google Analytics. No need to any coding, special links, 301 redirects or anything. Just what I needed and more!

it is also good for seeing where traffic goes on your site and which pages need work to improve conversion

[Colossal]

don't use 301 redirects in this case, that's a permanent redirect

adding a referrer code can confuse some spiders

use Google Analytics or Piwik

that and also use canonical tagging to tell search engine which URL is the most important

hope that helped!

[best.hands]

Well, I found something even better to track all links, Google Analytics. No need to any coding, special links, 301 redirects or anything. Just what I needed and more!

This is what I was thinking when I first read the OP. Google analytics shows direct traffic stats which is in a way can help webmaster to track specific traffic referrals. Additionally, same thing can also be achieved using statcounter. Tried them both and they're really useful. Though statcounter is a bit simple compared to google analytics which is a bit more complication. Interestingly though, these tools provide different direct traffic referral everytime I checking mine. Statcounter is showing a bit more numbers than analytics. There might be some filtering going on with google analytics which I still have to find out.