Links over Google instead of direct to domain

[einserpirelli]

Hi,

my Facebook page has good follower numbers, but the homepage shop unfortunately has very few visitors due to a lack of brand awareness. Of course, I occasionally post direct links to the shop domain.com

If I put a link to google.com/search?q=domain.com instead of linking directly to the homepage, does that affect the branding for Google? It's not cheating, because they are my own followers.

I've tried that, it works quite well, but does it have a long-term effect on ranking? It shows Google that there is interest in the shop. I can then check the numbers in the Search Console. I also realize that this currently means around 30% of the clicks from Google to the domain are lost.

Has anyone tried that for a long time?

[aristotle]

If I put a link to google.com/search?q=domain.com

Where do you put this link? I don't understand

[lucy24]

I took it to mean that instead of

<a href = "https://example.com/page/">linking text</a>

it would say

<a href = "https://google.com/search?q=example.com">linking text</a>

(Heads-up, einser, this site recommends using “example.com”--or example.org, example.net and so on if you need to name more than one--to protect against auto-linking.)

Wouldn't this annoy the user, though? If you click on a link you expect to be taken somewhere, not just to a results page.

[aristotle]

Well in a link to google, shouldn't the "linking text" contain the word "google"?

[einserpirelli]

There is no link text in a Facebook post.
Yes, I mean:

"This is my shop. Take a look: www.example.com"

Instead:

"This is my shop. Take a look: www.google.com/search?q=example.com"

Yes lucy. This is not the best way for my followers. My main concern is branding at Google.

[aristotle]

If there isn't any anchor text, then what does the link look like on the facebook page? In other words, what exactly does the visitor see?

[einserpirelli]

The visitor see
"This is my shop. Take a look: www.google.com/search?q=example.com"

Does Google then register the click as a search for the brand?

[aristotle]

So you're trying to trick google, even though you confuse your visitors and also give up some of the traffic you could have gotten with a direct link to your site. In my opinion this scheme will probably do more harm than good.

[einserpirelli]

Thanks for the feedback. What you say is of course correct. It's not tricking me because they are my followers.

Isn't that the same as when a visitor searches for a brand on Google? They will do the same thing.

You are of course right. Some visitors could be confused and that creates a bad UX... Hmm...