BKSEO’s SEO Blog

If your company is like the company I am contracting with, then you will have multiple partners pointing to your site each one with a unique query string. Those query strings are important for your statistics, so that way you track which one of your partners’ sites your users are coming from.

But as you may already know there is an SEO problem here. Because Google treats sites with different query string as different pages/sites when it comes to ranking, your website will not get the ranking it truly deserves no matter how many partners are linking to it.

To solve this issue without rewriting your site and its logic, there are 3 options, or should I say SEO Methods that you can choose from.:

SEO Method 1: Block all affiliate landing pages from search engines. This takes out duplicate content issues.

SEO Method 2: Record the click transaction right away, then do a 301 redirect immediately to a URL without the tracking code and just pass the session as a cookie and if page a does a 301 to page b and a link goes to page a it is like having a link to page b. If it redirects using a 301 redirect.

Note: This is by far the most common implemented technique.

SEO Method 3: Convert querystring symble from “?” to “#”. Google ignores everything after # sign as comment. This will require some javascript coding and URL rewriting.

For example: domain.com/path/file.aspx#param=value

Note: I have not tried this myself but I have seen it done and also my fellow SEO experts who have tried it testify that it works:

Remember when developing websites, it is important to try to stay away from query strings as much as possible. If you MUST use query strings, then I suggest you try to keep them as short and as possible as possible. And if you have multiple partners and affiliate website pointing to your website with different query strings, then choose the best option, or “SEO Method” mentioned above that seems to be feasible for you and the one that is right for your site.

Let’s say you work in an SEO firm and you only have two hour budget to update and optimize a client’s website. And let’s assume the site already has all the Meta tags, alt, and title tags in place. The site does have a sitemap, all the pages are indexed, and basically all the basic SEO techniques are implemented a. How would you spend those three hours optimizing your client’s websites?

While many SEO experts would divide up those two hours equally dedicating one hour for website content update and the other hour for link building and link baiting, I would spend most of that time on content updates on the website. Content is the single most important element when it comes to search engine optimization as search engines evaluate and rank your website mainly according to its Content of your website and its relevancy. The more targeted Content you have, the better your website will rank among search engines.

And make sure your main keywords are internally linked within your website to relevant pages. This will give more weight and value to your keywords and will help with ranking of your website when user searches for those keywords.

Content is still king in the world of internet and it is important to have correct and relevant content in your website. Remember, if your website has enough good relevant content and it is resourceful, there is a high chance that others will link to your website because of the information you have on your website. So focus on content.