Can I add query strings for tracking, & then rel="canonical" to fix urls?

[ReturningSEO]

Hi All,

One of my sites has a drop down navigation that links to the fast majority of pages on my site. The area additional links for drilling through the structure (as if the navigation didn't exist).

I want to track which links are being used by my visitors as they navigate the site. I'm think of adding query strings to links so I can identify which link was used to get to the next page.

The issue is that I don't want to dilute the link juice between the different query string versions of the pages. Therefore, I am planning on using the cannonical tag (pointing to the non-query string url) to maintain the reputation across the site.

Can anyone spot any glaring problems with this plan?

[tedster]

The basic idea is OK, kind of - but thinking of a canonical link tag as the equivalent of a 301 redirect (preserving PR and all that) is giving Google too much trust, IMO.

You can implement your own 301 redirect to the canonical version and also store those query strings in a table for later analysis at redirect time. You can combine this approach with the canonical link tag for an added layer of protection: one that you control and one that Google controls.

There are also other ways to track visitor's click paths that are better than modifying the URL (are you listening, WebTrends people?) One is good old-fashioned cookies and another is the referrer string. There are analytics solutions that let you use both these approaches.

Still, the query string plus canonical tag you propose can work, and especially if you only intend to use it moderately, and just once in a while - it can be OK if the other approaches seem prohibitive in some way.

[tedster]

I just thought of another more down-and-dirty approach that might be better. Instead of using query strings (?) use page fragment identifiers (#) - they do not create a new unique URL in Google's view. Only the specially modified type that use hash-bang (#!) will do that.

I do think that canonical link tags are almost always a good backup plan, however - no matter what else you're doing.

[ReturningSEO]

Thanks Tedster, sound advice. I might look into using the # instead of a querystring. However, I'm not sure if the CMS solution being used strips it before I can get to it.

>> There are also other ways to track visitor's click paths that are better than modifying the URL (are you listening, WebTrends people?) One is good old-fashioned cookies and another is the referrer string. There are analytics solutions that let you use both these approaches.

Cookies and referrers will only show the page they came from, not which link they clicked on, if more than one exists.

[Planet13]

Google analytics has a click map as well as a navigation summary.

so you would use the navigation summary (I am not sure exactly what it is called) to find out which page most of the visitors came FROM.

then use the click overlay and it will show you the hot spots that people clicked on the most.

So if on Page A you have three links to Page B, you can quickly tell which link was clicked on more often.

It's a good visual tool but it is not something you can really download into a spreadsheet.

[ReturningSEO]

I'm not looking for the page. I want the actual link and Google overlay only works if the link is to a unique URL. It doesn't work if there is more than one link to the same page.