Canonicalisation and SEO

In an SEO campaign you want as much authority to go to your homepage as possible. You submit your site to directories, write articles, post on social networking websites and make regular blog posts that appear on twitter. All this to increase the number of backlinks to your website. And this is a good thing. The problem arrises when you have more than one way to view your homepage (or any page, for that matter).

URL Canonicalisation refers to two or more ways to view the same content, for example http://www.example.co.uk/, http://example.co.uk/, http://www.example.co.uk/index.html, and http://example.co.uk/index.html all load the homepage.

Clever search engines will be able to tell that these are all the same page and pass the authority all to the same place, but other search engines will follow all these links and pass authority to each of them seperately, the overall result being that you do not rank as high as you should. Worse, they could see these as seperate pages and penalise them for having duplicate content.

By removing the additional ‘copies’ of the homepage, the remaining page will get all the authority and your site will raise in the rankings.

There are a number of ways to fix a canonicalisation problem, but it depends on the server you are using. What works on an apache server may not work on a windows server. Below are the most commonly accepted ways of fixing a canonicalisation problem:

Apache:

On an apache server we will use a .htaccess file. If you have an .htaccess file, open it in your text editor of choice. If you do not have a .htaccess file, then you will need to create one. Most text editors will have a problem with saving the file as .htaccess as you have not specified a filename, only an extension. To get around this, open your text editor of choice and save the file as htaccess.txt. When you upload the file to your server, rename it to .htaccess. Now, in your .htaccess file, copy the following code (changing the domain name, obviously):
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.example.co.uk$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9} /.*index.html HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index.html$ http://www.example.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

What this is saying to the server is:

Turn on the URL rewriting module.

If the host is not www.example co.uk,
Redirect the browser to www.example.co.uk.

If the file being requested is www.example.co.uk/index.html,
Redirect the browser to www.example.co.uk/

Other Methods:

The simplest method of pointing a search engine to the right page is the canonical meta tag:
<link href="www.example.co.uk/link-to-right-page.html" rel="canonical"/>

This is an example of what it would look like in xhtml. If you are using html then remove the trailing /.
By putting this code in the head tags of your page you will effectively be telling search engines 'This page does not belong here. If you are reading this content, then please list it under this other url instead, as this is where it DOES belong.'

Source: http://www.seoconsult.com

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What is auto-tagging and how will it affect my ads?

In order for Analytics to display details about your AdWords keywords and costs, you must do one of the following:

• Use Destination URL auto-tagging, or
• Manually tag your keyword destination URLs with tracking variables.

Google created auto-tagging (turned "on" by default) so that large and small accounts could easily see how their AdWords keywords were performing from click to conversion and back to cost. Auto-tagging automatically associates a parameter with the click on your ad which then allows Analytics to report the details of the click, including which AdWords keywords brought a visitor to your site, which campaign that keyword was from, and how much that click cost. This information can then be associated with richer information within your Analytics reports, such as goal or e-commerce conversions, to give you a sense of how your AdWords spending is really performing.

The parameter used in auto-tagging is called "gclid" and will show up in your landing page URL when a user arrives at your site from your ad. For example, if your site is www.mysite.com, when a user clicks on your ad it will appear in the address bar as:

www.mysite.com/?gclid=123xyz

Note: A small percentage of websites do not allow arbitrary URL parameters and serve an error page when auto-tagging is turned on. Please consult with your webmaster to find out if this is the case or turn on auto-tagging and do a test by simply clicking on your ad. If the link to your site works then you can use auto-tagging. If you are getting an error, you'll need to turn auto-tagging off from your AdWords account (see steps below). Then, ask your webmaster to allow arbitrary URL parameters before turning it back on.

To disable auto-tagging:

• Sign in to your AdWords account
• Click the My account tab and select 'Account preferences'
• In the Tracking section, click Edit
• Deselect the Destination URL Auto-tagging checkbox
• Click Save changes

Source : http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55596

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What are referrals coming from googleads.g.doubleclick.net?

Referrals from googleads.g.doubleclick.net are clicks on your AdWords ads being shown on the content network - specifically, ads showing on publisher sites in the AdSense programme - for which the Destination URLs have not been tagged.

If you have noticed googleads.g.doubleclick.net appearing in your reports, please check to see if auto-tagging is turned on in your AdWords account or that your own campaign variables are correctly labelled.

Source: http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=55581

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Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Guide

Conversion tracking involves placing a cookie on a user's computer when he/she clicks on an ad. Then, if the user clicks on your ad and reaches one of your conversion pages, the user's browser sends the cookie to a Google server, and a small conversion tracking image is displayed on your site. When such a match is made, Google records a successful conversion for you. This information is presented within the Campaign Summary section of the "Campaign Management" tab in your AdWords account.

Definition of Terms

• # of conversions: A conversion is counted when an ad click leads directly to a user taking an action on your site. Multiple conversions from a single ad click are counted only as one conversion.
• Average value: The total value of all conversions divided by the total number of conversions.
• Code snippet: A small piece of HTML and JavaScript code that is inserted into the conversion completion page of your website (the Thank you for your purchase/sign-up/visit page).
• Conversion: When a user completes a desired action on your site, such as a purchase or request for information. A conversion is the desired end result from a user visiting your site.
• Conversion page: The page on your site that is displayed to confirm the completion of a desired action -- this is generally the Thank you for your purchase/sign-up/visit page.
• Conversion types: The type (purchase/sale, signup, page view lead, or self-defined/customized) recorded in the generated code, allowing you greater specificity in your conversion statistics.
• Conversion rate: The number of conversions divided by the number of eligible ad clicks. Conversions are only counted on Google and some of our ad network sites. The conversion rate is adjusted to reflect only the ad clicks on which we can track conversions.
• Cost / Conversion: The total cost divided by the total number of conversions. This statistic gives you the amount spent per conversion. Conversions are counted only on Google and some of our ad network sites. The cost-per-conversion is adjusted to reflect only the cost of ad clicks on which we can track conversions.
• Cost / Transaction: The total cost divided by the total number of transactions. This statistic gives you the average amount spent per transaction. Transactions are counted only for conversions from Google and some of our ad network sites. The cost-per-transaction is adjusted to reflect only the cost of ad clicks on which we can track conversions.
• Total value: The total value generated by conversions of a specific tracking type, or tracking label. (Advanced option only.)
• Transaction: A single occurrence of a conversion event. Multiple transactions can occur after a user clicks on your ad. For example, if a user clicks on your ad and makes two separate purchases on your site worth US$11 and US$12, you will see a report for one conversion from the ad, two purchase transactions and a total value of US$23. You can also consider a transaction a lead generation if a visitor fills out a form and provides particular information that your business finds valuable.
• Value / Click: The conversion value generated per click. For example: Value / Click = Total value (total_value) / Total number of ad clicks (num_clicks). Conversions are only counted on Google and some of our ad network sites. The conversion rate is adjusted to reflect only the ad clicks on which we can track conversions. (Advanced option only.)
• Value / Cost: Total value divided by total cost for all ad clicks. If you've entered in your revenue or profit value, this statistic will be equal to your ROI. For example: Value / Cost = Total conversion value (total_value) / Total cost (total_cost). Conversions are only counted on Google and some of our ad network sites. The value-per-cost is adjusted to reflect only the cost of ad clicks leading to conversions. (Advanced option only.)

Source: https://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//intl/en_us/adwords/select/library/convtracking_jan05.pdf

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