When I set up any PPC campaign I always put in a tracking URL so I can track the user once they have landed on the site.  This URL may look like this:

http://www.yourwebsite.com?utm_source=google&utm_medium=adwords&utm_campaign=xxx_campaign&utm_term=blah_blah

When I read the article on Google Analytics Blog I was stunned that they recommended putting 301 redirects on these urls:

‘If this link is popular enough, then search engines will begin to index this URL. It may supplant the same version of this page without tracking parameters in the search results. Clicks on this new organic result will increment the visits number for Google(cpc) when it should really be attributed to Google(organic).’

I was always aware that the spider that indexes PPC landing pages shared data with organic search results (why duplicate processing power?). However the implication of this is that the data from PPC has a great impact on your SEO results, especially is the content on your website is inaccessible to the search engines (either flash or search queries).

I had heard that running a PPC campaign is a sure way to boost your SEO rankings……but this is proof from Google that actually is the case. Especially if the PPC landing pages are more popular than your main pages.

So what action do you need to take?

• Download a report from Google with your destination URLS, key phrases and clicks
• On the terms which have a high number of clicks you need to implement a 301 from the tracking URL to the main URL
• That way if the natural listings pick up your tracking URLS, then the traffic is being directed through the main site and any PR associated with this is transferred across too.

Tags: 301 redirects, Google Adwords, tracking URLs