Does googlebot see ad tracking URLS as duplicates or doorways?

[crankin]

Does googlebot see ad tracking URLS (i.e. mysite.com/index.htm?ad1, mysite.com/index.htm?ad2, etc) as duplicates or doorways? I've had the bot come in a bunch of times lately, requesting specifically these kinds of URLS, which originate from my Adwords ads pointers.

My worry is that Google may decide that I'm running a bunch of duplicates or doorways, and cut me off.

Am I just naive and paranoid, or is this a valid concern?

thanks,

Chris R.

[Traveler]

You're not being paranoid. Happened to us. Got penalized big time, just now 'back on track'.
Are you sure you got crawled from adwords?

[crankin]

"Are you sure you got crawled from adwords?"

100% sure. The bot is asking specifically for the codes I use to track the different ads, all in sequence.

What happened to you, and what advice can you give me? Should I get rid of the tracking URLs in my Adwords?

thanks,
Chris

*grumble* how is an honest advertiser supposed to track their furshlugginner sales... (rhetorical question)

[jatar_k]

I don't see using tracking urls as a way of inviting a penalty. I have used them on over 200 sites since the dawn of adwords and have never had a problem.

[NFFC]

>tracking URLS

I'm removing them until I see what happens with the next update. They have picked up one of mine [non-adwords] and a competitors [adwords] lately, I'm not comfortable with that.

[wackmaster]

There's a phrase for what's going on here: "living in fear."

1) If Google can't even sort out tracking URL's without penalizing the advertisers (especially since they run AdWords), heaven help us all.

2) This is not healthy...i.e., that anyone is suspending use of an important marketing tool, for fear of Google reprisal.

[jatar_k]

sorry, given NFFC's verbal slap in the head I noticed that I was somewhat inexact in my first response.

I don't see using tracking urls in AdWords (or any other PPC) as a way of inviting a penalty. I have used them on over 200 sites since the dawn of adwords and have never had a problem.

I don't use tracking urls on spidered links to avoid any possible problems. I use scripts to track them.

That is interesting NFFC that your competitor's adword url got picked up.

[NFFC]

>I don't use tracking urls on spidered links

Neither do I but they seem to be following stuff that I honoestly thought they wouldn't.

[jatar_k]

Neither do I

That's another smack ;) hehe

I think I am going to have to wander around then and check on some links, interesting.

[Traveler]

What happened to me, you ask....

I added links from an ad source
[mysite.com...]

THAT page got picked up somehow instead of the main page-
[mysite.com...]

As a result, ONE of my sites was banned as a duplicate of the other.* Suddenly, just the [mysite.com...] was showing up in Google.

Since then, we have set up separate SITES for PPC stuff, and the jury is still out (we use a NO CRAWL command for GoogleBots

*From what I could tell...of course, G never admitted banning, but it took a letter to G for re-submission to have it re-appear in their index.

[Jenstar]

I have also had URLs that were only used for PPCs, and not linked to from anywhere else, that have shown up in the new index. And they are all PR0, I assume for duplicate content, although possibly just because they are new.

[coolasafanman]

I have a similar dilemma. I run one of those sites that requires the user to agree to certain terms before entering the area of the site intended for those that agree to the terms. Outside of this area of the site are links to pages regarding what can be found inside - how the distribution of widgets works, how to return widgets, etc. Inside the site are pages with identical information, since going back outside the site to retrieve these pages would involve users having to re-accept the terms of the site. I tried resolving this by making page.html on the outside portion of the site, and page.html?inside=yes on the inner pages. Same file name, with a variable after that I can track. Will this prevent these pages from getting listed on google?

My second question is, if page 1 of the site has a PR4 and inner pages have PR0 or grey bar due to a penalty, can they reachieve PR after a period of time? Due to my lack of knowledge regarding what's considered spam, I had multiple instances of every widget in my inventory, since each widget can be found using various characteristics. I wanted to track how each widget was found by including the desciptive terms used in the url. Hence widget/red/fat/round/1234 led to the same widget as widget/fat/1234...

[dmorison]

For those people with pages indexed under tracker URLs:

It seems that if Google comes across a 302, it indexes page content under the URL that sent the 302 - not the destination URL

This is because 302 only means "moved temporarily".

Of course, because Google finds the destination URL through other mechanisms, you end up with a DUPE :(

I have fell foul of this. One of my sites has ended up being indexed under my Adwords tracker URL :(

I just hope Google doesn't end up penalizing me for dupe content because it has ended up spidering and indexing all my different Adwords tracker URLS and seeing the same page but all using a slightly different URL :(

I would be mad if that happened because I am feeding Google $$$$$ with those Adwords, and if i'm not careful their own AI is going to whack my site because of it. :(

[PatrickDeese]

It seems that if Google comes across a 302, it indexes page content under the URL that sent the 302 - not the destination URL

Yep. I can confirm that is a problem. I have gotten several consulting jobs in the last 45 days bcz of it. ;)

Changing to 301, and using a "noindex,follow" seems to fix it.

[buckworks]

<<I added links from an ad source
[mysite.com...]

THAT page got picked up somehow instead of the main page-
[mysite.com...] >>

Google isn't the only SE to do this; I've seen the same thing happen in AllTheWeb.

In my own work I'm experiencing a real tug-of-war between the desire for tracking and the need to keep variant URLs out of circulation.

[canuck]

I noticed that Googlebot was seeing these tracking URLs from Adwords, so I ended up setting up a subdomain that disallowed all robots from it (due to concern for duplicate).

However, this raises another concern, these Adwords webpages will have a PR0/gray-bar, so for informed visitors this could look like a negative. :(

[dmorison]

I guess one possible reason for this becoming a problem only recently is Googlebot's new found dynamic URL skillz.

One solution might be to make your redirection URLs look REALLY scary.