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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SEO Glossary

A

• A/B Testing: Creating two nearly identical documents (webpages/newsletters/ads, etc) for the purpose of testing which copy produced a better result. The best producing document is then kept as the “control” and a new nearly identical document is created to test against.
• Above the fold: This is a term used to describe content that is near the top of a webpage and is visible without having to scroll down the page to view it.
• Agent: Crawlers/Spiders are also referred to as “agents”. This is when Google or another search engine visits your web page and “crawls” the contents to determine what your site is about, if it has been updated recently, or if it down.
• Alt Attribute: Used in images, this HTML tag provides alternative text or description of the image.
• Alt Tags: Used in images, this HTML tag provides the image name or description that you see if you hover your mouse over the image. This is often used to make your page more accessible to individuals with disabilities such as people who may have a vision impairment and use a device that reads the contents of a webpage to them.

• Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project is an initiative to improve the mobile web and enhance the distribution ecosystem. If content is fast, flexible and beautiful, including compelling and effective ads, we can preserve the open web publishing model as well as the revenue streams so important to the sustainability of quality publishing. AMP HTML is a new way to make web pages that are optimized to load instantly on users’ mobile devices. It is designed to support smart caching, predictable performance, and modern, beautiful mobile content.  

• Anchor Text: Anchor text is the text portion of a link that you click on when an address isn’t displayed. An example of this would be (Bay Area SEO). Google uses anchor text to help determine what keywords your site may focus on, and using appropriate anchor text is an important search engine optimization technique.
• Authority: A site that is deemed as an “authority” site will generally have better search engine result placement and page-rank. Authority is primarily determined by relevant content and incoming links.
• Average Page Views: The amount of pages within a site a user visits within one session (one session is equal to one visit, meaning if the user leaves and returns later this counts as two sessions)
• Average Time on Site: The average amount of time a user spends on your website.

B

• Backlinks: Backlinks are links from other sites that point to your site.
• Bait & Switch: This is a technique used by black hat SEO’s and involves displaying one web page to search engines and a completely different page for other user agents at the same URL. It generally creates an optimized page targeting specific keywords and submits this page to a search engine or directory, but replaces that page with the regular page as soon as the optimized page has been indexed.
• Banned: If your website has been penalized and removed from the search engine results, it is considered to be banned.
• Black Hat SEO: This is a term used in the type of SEO you want to avoid and is against search engine guidelines. Using Black Hat techniques can get your site banned from Google – and chances are you won’t be able to get it back into search results.

Following are Black Hat tactics to avoid:

• Hidden text or Hidden links – Links or text which is the same color as the background of your page.
• Artificially increasing the number of links to your site: Sites which hold are wide repository of links are considered by Google as “link farms” and receiving a wide number of incoming links from “link farms” will have a negative effect on your site.
• Duplicated content: Content copied from other sites and used on yours.
• Excessive pop ups
• Bait & Switch techniques
• Spamming other websites or forums to place your link on their site.
• Keyword stuffing: Using a keyword so many times that the context makes little to no sense.
• Cross linking: An excessive amount of cross linking with sites to increase your websites popularity.
• Blacklist: Black lists are created by organizations to create a database of websites, ip addresses or users who are known for black hat tactics, hacking attempts or other shady practices.

• Body (Body Copy): The body of your text – text that is visible to users and doesn’t include code, navigational content, or images.
• Bot: Another name for Agent, Crawler or Spider

C

• Cache: Copies of your web pages that are stored locally (on a visitors computer). This helps web pages to load quicker as it will show the “cached” version of the webpage if you hit the back-button instead of having to re-load the entire contents again.
• Canonical URL: Choosing a URL structure that will be your primary structure, and notifying search engines to ignore all others. Not having a proper canonical URL setup results in duplicate content penalties, as search engines will view all URL versions of a webpage as different websites. Examples would be:

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