0

I've seen a site linking to external sites like this : 

<a href="http://www.example.com/layouts/lorem/linktrackinglayout.aspx?redirUrl=http://www.othersite.com" target="_blank">
    <img style="float: left; margin-right: 15px;" src="/-/media/countries/uk/sjuasana.jpg?la=en-gb" alt="">
</a>

In the above example, www.example.com is the name of the site the link is coming from, i.e. the above HTML was on a page on www.example.com.

I guess they are doing this to be able to track outgoing clicks and were users are leaving their site from, but does linking this way remove any SEO benefit of the link? If they are crawled and indexed do they have the same weight as a normal link?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

The idea is usually to track such clicks and remove the SEO benefit. Most such links will not be counted by Google and will not have a direct SEO benefit for your site.

Even if Google does process the JS redirect script and discovers your linked page via such a redirect, it wouldn't give it the benefit of being counted as a regular plain-text editorial link - mainly because it's obvious that the editor of the source site doesn't wish to directly attribute your site.

Improve this answer
2
  • Whether the link carries any SEO value is dependent on how the redirect is implemented and whether the redirect URL itself is crawlable. The above link could carry as much SEO benefit as any other 301 redirect, but from the information given in the question it's impossible to tell. "the JS redirect" - there is no indication that this is (or isn't) a JS redirect.
    – MrWhite
    Jul 20, 2015 at 19:04
  • Fair point. There is a chance the redirect might actually be perfectly 301ed, in which case it would pass on SEO juice. The only way to know for 100% sure is to check the headers and verify this on the real link.
    – FarhadD
    Jul 20, 2015 at 20:23

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.