Do links with tracking count as backlinks

[driver105]

I've gotten some mixed information on this one. Two similar but separate questions.

1) We currently advertise on some industry sites and have paid links on these sites as part of sponsorships. Many (if not all) of these sites like to track the clicks on our links so they can either report to us, or charge on a per-click basis. A new site we'll be advertising on allows us to choose whether or not we want to be tracked. Without the tracking codes, we have naked links directly to pages on our site. WITH the tracking code, our web address is no where in the link URL and it appears as though it gets passed to the tracking software and then the tracking software passes the user along to the correct page on our website. Does this count as a backlink, or should I opt for the non-tracked version?

2) Along those same lines, we have an affiliate program. When someone places our link for the affiliate program on the site, it's in a format such as http://www.angel.com/p?command=apply&code=2006ASC5555 Are these being counted as backlinks since our domain is at least in the URL, or are we wasting good opportunities for backlinks through our affiliate program?

Thanks for any help!

[rustybrick]

Most links that run through a redirect of some sort will not count towards your link popularity.

[toprank]

Barry's right on. No link popularity is pased with the redirects.

With the affiliate situation, there is duplicate content no? Different urls, but the same web page content? With the search engine's focus on finding cannonical urls, I don't think the affiliate links are going to pass much other than traffic and direct sales. I would not count on your affilate program as a source of link popularity.

[bpcombs]

In addition to the redirect issue, you should realize that BackLinks are page specific, not domain specific, so there is no benefit to the domain being in the URL.

When you add the tracking code, the search engines see it as a different page than the URL without the code. Plenty of pages with tracking codes make it into the search engine indexes, but for linking strength, they are calculated seperately than the same page without a code.

Does that make sense?