Refferal links

[Heinwest]

I have a site where I can pick up where my hits came from. So if somebody clicks from another website link to visit my website, I will then pick up from which website they came from and also which page they landed on. Will google penalize me for this and see this as paid advertising?

[seoman10]

It would be helpful if you could provide a bit more detail.

Paid links are against Google's Webmaster guidelines and can get you penalised.  But there are specific ways of handling product adverts (which may contain a link to your site).

I would encourage you to look at Google's Webmaster guidelines.

[Heinwest]

I would not say it is a paid link. I simply capture the site from where the link came. So for example. Somebody click on Moz, on a link to my site. I would then capture that the person came from Moz. or they googles me, and clicked from there. I would then capture they came from google.

[seoman10]

Is the particular reason you are not using analytics to do the tracking?

[Heinwest]

Yes. We have assessments. So the result of these assessment we will send back to the referral company. Like a recruitment company for example. We can also track the referral company when they fill in the inquiry form, and if we generate business out of that inquiry, can pay a commission back to the ref feral company.

[seoman10]

Ok. Sounds like all you need to do is to no-follow the link in accordance with Google Webmaster guidelines see https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604774?hl=en.

[Paddy_Moogan]

Hi Heinrich,

Thanks for the question.

If I've understood correctly, you're not talking about building links, you're talking about recording where someone comes from when they enter your website? Much in the same way that Google Analytics does, but using your own scripts?

If that's correct, then there is nothing to worry about from a Google Penalty perspective. The only thing to be aware of is whether you're also recording personally identifiable information about the person that clicks through, which is a whole other area.

If I've misunderstood, please let me know and I can help further

Cheers!

Paddy

[Paddy_Moogan]

It sounds like this wouldn't be an issue (see my reply below) but if Heinrich says different, I'll reply again