Outbound links better without script?

[silverbytes]

I have several links to other websites (gizmo directory linking to gizmo services) but in order to count clicks I link to an internal php script

example: ../clicks_counter.php?http://www.example.com

I'm wondering if am I missing the benefit to have those linked directly, since they are so close related to site theme.

Would you personally remove the link to click counter in order to gain some google love related to linked sites?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 12:24 am (utc) on Sep. 23, 2008]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]

[tedster]

It depends on how many links there are and how well you police them for turning into a bad neighborhood.

If you remove the script you are definitely passing PageRank. So Google will scrutinze them a lot more for evidence of link selling.

That's the downside, or at least one of them. One upside may be that Google uses those links to better understand your page's relevance.

[silverbytes]

Doesn't Google actually understand my page's relevance even when I use a click counter script?

[Lord Majestic]

These days it might be wiser to count clicks using JavaScript rather than redirect scripts - if you have got a lot of such outlinks that get redirected, then it would certainly fit link pattern of directory and you might not want that to happen.

[incrediBILL]

I know someone that removed their click counters and suddenly the site took a nasty penalty.

I would suspect that a sudden surge in raw links signals a filter to engage.

[restless]

using the link: operator I have seen evidence that Google counts these redirects as backlinks, and why shouldn't they? if that is the page where the user is ending up then it's still the same as a normal link.

[silverbytes]

Seems like all click countered links are bad because you look like a directory and straight links passes page rank what means less pr for your internal pages and having an eye on how good are linked sites.

[Lord Majestic]

using the link: operator I have seen evidence that Google counts these redirects as backlinks

Google's behaviour when it comes to backlinks and redirects is very interesting - they would show backlinks to a URL A that redirects to URL B as backlinks for link: URL B command. This certainly does not happen for all redirects but it does happen. In theory this should channel all PR value of URL A backlinks to be assigned to URL B.

[tedster]

Google will even show backlinks that have a rel="nofollow" attribute. The report is more for webmaster information than a direct statement that "these links are helping your rankings."