Google Upgraded URLs: Sitelinks Best Practices & Self-Migration Guide
INTRODUCTION
As part of Google’s Upgraded URL initiative, all paid search URLs will be updated with new template structures and creation/update workflows. Sitelinks have several important considerations detailed in this document related to deprecated/disallowed features, common templates and migration methodology.
OVERVIEW
Google’s Upgraded URL Changes and Considerations for Sitelinks
- Google’s {copy} ValueTrack
- Redirects
Marin’s Assisted Migration Options
- Auto Migration: Customers who have opted in to Marin’s Assisted Migration and who are currently using Marin’s Sitelinks URL Builder will be opted into this option by default. Sitelink bulksheets will be posted in Held status to the Marin Client Account.
- Sitelink Standard Migration: Customers that are not using Marin’s Sitelink URL builder will be opted in to this option by default. Customers must manually download, review/edit, and upload sitelink QA bulksheets that are provided in the QA file directory.
- Sitelink Bulksheets for Manual/Self-Migration: Customers with unique requirements for sitelink URL structures that require sitelinks to be built manually or externally (and cannot be managed with the ‘Standard’ Migration) can request this option by reaching out to your customer/support representative. Customers must manually download, review/edit, and upload sitelink QA bulksheets that are provided in the QA file directory.
GOOGLE’S {COPY} VALUETRACK
Google has noted that any Landing Page URLs or Tracking Templates with {copy} will not be approved. Therefore, with Marin’s assisted Upgraded URLs service, the {copy} parameter will be removed from the URLs via Marin’s upgrade process.
With upgraded URLs, Custom Parameters can replace the ‘copy’ ValueTrack functionality. Please note that in order to maintain tracking values previously set by the {copy} parameters, customers may need to do one or more the following if those values are not represented in the proposed Account/Campaign/Group Tracking Template:
- Create custom parameters and add these to the appropriate Tracking Template
- Hard-code values into the sitelink Landing Page
Replacing {copy} with Custom Parameters
In the example below, the Upgraded URLs Custom Parameter {_mkwid} is defined at the keyword level, Therefore, Google will insert the tracking value associated to the keyword. In this sense, the output will be the same as if the URL was still using {copy:mkwid}.
For more information regarding the setup of Custom Parameters, please review the following: A Guide to New URL Builder (Post-Upgraded URLs).
REDIRECTS
With Upgraded URLs, Google will no longer allow redirects in Landing Pages. Therefore, customers with third-party redirect URLs must now place redirects into a Tracking Template. If using obfuscated redirects, please work with Google directly.
The Final URL/Landing Page may contain internal redirects (i.e. the redirect points to another URL within the same domain); the advertiser must also be the owner of the domain.
Marin’s assisted migration options
Sitelink Auto Migration: Marin Uses Tracking Template Best Practices
Marin’s best practice recommendation is to place the Tracking Template at the highest hierarchy level. In most cases the Tracking Template is set at the Account level; however, some configurations require the template to be set at a lower level such as Campaign or Group.
With the Sitelink Auto Migration option, Marin will automatically post Sitelink files to Marin Client Accounts in the HELD status.
- Sitelink Auto Migration is the default configuration for customers currently using Marin’s Sitelinks URL Builder.
- Just as with other objects – such as keywords and creatives – sitelinks will also inherit the URL structure and tracking values from the proposed Tracking Template.
- If your Sitelink URL structure is not compatible with the Account/Campaign/Group Tracking Template, please review the options for Sitelink Manual Migration and for Sitelink Standard Migration to determine the best option for your needs.
Sitelink Standard Migration: Marin Creates Suggested Structure
With the Standard sitelink option, Marin assists our customers by analyzing sitelink URLs and restructuring them to fit into the components outlined by Google’s Upgraded URLs.
Customers with sitelink Standard Migration must manually download, review/edit, and upload sitelink QA bulksheets that are provided in the QA file directory provided in the Upgraded URL Portal.
- This option is recommended for customers who are manually tagging sitelink URLs and for whom the proposed Tracking Template differs from the sitelink URL structure.
- This is the default option for customers that do not have Marin’s Sitelinks URL Builder enabled. As such, sitelinks bulksheets will not be uploaded directly to the MCA (Marin Client Account), and sitelink URL management will continue to be a manual/external process during and after migration.
- The Standard Migration will not strip off any tracking parameters (other than {copy}).
- The Standard Migration approach will create Tracking Templates and Landing Pages for each individual sitelink in the sitelink QA files.
- When multiple instances of ‘http://’ values are detected in a current sitelink Destination URL, this is identified as a ‘redirect’.
- Marin will then find the inner-most (i.e., last instance) of ‘http’ or ‘https’ and designate the URL that follows as the Landing Page.
- The preceding text will then be set as the sitelink Tracking Template (containing the redirect domain).
- For non-redirects, the Tracking template will simply be set as {lpurl}
Please review the Additional Considerations for Marin’s Assisted Standard or Manual/self-Migration of Sitelinks for more information regarding the Sitelink bulksheets.
Sitelink Manual/Self-Migration: Customer Completes Sitelink Migration Autonomously
Marin will provide sitelink bulksheets for customers who will manage their own sitelink migration process. These bulksheets can be modified to meet individual customer needs.
With sitelink Manual Migration, customers must manually download, review/edit, and upload sitelink QA bulksheets that are provided in the QA file directory provided in the Upgraded URL Portal.
- The Manual Migration approach will create Landing Pages for each individual Sitelink in the Sitelink QA Files, and it will strip off tracking parameters that are defined in the current Google Keyword URL Builder.
- When multiple instances of ‘http://’ values are detected in a current Sitelink Destination URL, this is identified as a ‘redirect’.
- Marin will then find the inner-most (i.e., last instance) of ‘http’ or ‘https’ and designate the URL that follows as the Landing Page.
Please review the Additional Considerations for Marin’s Assisted Standard or Manual/self-Migration of Sitelinks for more information regarding the Sitelink bulksheets.
Additional Considerations for Marin’s Assisted Standard or Manual/self-Migration of Sitelinks
Bulksheets will be delivered to an FTP location for QA and action. This location can be found on the ‘QA’ tab of your Upgraded URL Portal. The name of this file follows this syntax: ‘sitelinkQA_u2_<cid>_qa_google_00.zip’
When reviewing/editing sitelink bulksheets, please consider the following:
- These bulksheets are intended as a tool to help customers with their current manual process during this migration.
- Rows with blank ‘campaign’ and ‘group’ values within the sitelink bulksheet are provided for completeness in reviewing the changes needed for your URLs and should not be included in Bulksheets uploaded to Marin. These are identified in the ‘comments’ field of the QA Bulksheet with the code [sl03].
Managing Sitelinks via Bulk Upload
Marin’s QA bulksheets for sitelinks will contain additional information fields not required during upload. Please assure that the final bulksheet used for upload only contains the following fields:
- account
- campaign
- group (optional)
- sitelink id
- landing page
- mobile landing page (optional)
- unique id
- tracking template (optional)
Placeholder Keywords
In most cases, Sitelinks using the Placeholder Keywords cannot use the Account/Campaign/Group Tracking Template from the Upgraded URL Portal. Note: this excludes customers with custom proposals.
By default, customers that do not have Sitelink URL Builder enabled will have the Standard Migration for Sitelinks option selected.
However, this example represents how to manage placeholders for the Manual/Self-migration for Sitelinks option and this section of the guide will provide insight on how to identify segments of Placeholder Sitelink URLs that require manual processing.
We will use the example below to highlight various segments of a Sitelink URL and how these can be changed into components for Upgraded URLs.
In the grey shaded area, we include the Tracking Template proposal from the Upgraded URL portal. This Tracking Template will be used to identify differences in the current Destination URL in relation to the Tracking Template and the Landing Page.
Proposal from Portal Marin-Generated QA Bulksheet Account/Campaign Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL {lpurl}&mwkid={_mwkid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&{copy:prodcode}
Figure 1 – Tracking template proposal and values from QA Bulksheet
In this example, the {_mwkid} custom parameter represents the dynamic value assigned to the keyword at the time the ad is served. With Placeholders, the “mwkid” is not dynamic. It is manually hard-coded in the Sitelink Destination URL.
Proposal from Portal Marin-Generated QA Bulksheet Account/Campaign Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL {lpurl}&mwkid={_mwkid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&{copy:prodcode}
Figure 2 – Hard-coded value for “mkwid”
The value for “pcrid” is also hard-coded for Placeholder Sitelinks. However, as you can see in the proposed template, this value is Dynamic:
Proposal from Portal Marin-Generated QA Bulksheet Account/Campaign Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL {lpurl}&mwkid={_mwkid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&{copy:prodcode}
Figure 3 – Hard-coded value for “pcrid”
Because there are conflicts of dynamic vs. hard-coded values of the Tracking Template and the current Destination URL, the management of these URLs will be manual.
We now introduce the values that are needed for uploading an edited Sitelink bulksheet. These values are shown in the green shaded columns. Again, because Marin is not currently building these, these will need to be manually built for the migration process. These Sitelink bulkhseets are a tool to assist you with this process.
Proposal from Portal QA Bulksheet Manually Updated Bulksheet Account/Campaign Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL Landing Page Tracking Template {{lpurl}&mwkid={_mwkid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&{copy:prodcode} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&prodcode=abcd&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} {lpurl}
Figure 4 – Introducing the Manually Updated Bulksheet
How to build Tracking Template and set the Landing Page
For non-redirect Placeholder sitelinks, the Tracking Template in the Sitelink bulksheet can be set to {lpurl}. For instructions regarding how to manage redirects, please refer to the alternate PDF available from the Sitelinks Upgraded URLs article.
Proposal from Portal QA Bulksheet Manually Updated Bulksheet Account/Campaign Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL Landing Page Tracking Template
{{lpurl}&mwkid={_mwkid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&{copy:prodcode} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&prodcode=abcd&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} {lpurl}
Figure 5 – Set the Tracking Template
Next, ensure that the Landing Page in the “Manually Updated Bulksheet” does not contain any “{copy}” parameters. Please note that for the Manual/Self-migration Sitelink option the {copy} parameter is automatically removed from the Landing Page value.
In some cases, the value of the {copy} ValueTrack may be variable and dependent on the keyword. For these instances, Custom Parameters may need to be created and appended to the Tracking Template. Please note that the generated Sitelink bulksheets will not create any custom parameters based on “{copy}” values. These will be the responsibility of the customer.
Proposal from Portal QA Bulksheet Manually Updated Bulksheet Account/Campaign Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL Landing Page Tracking Template {{lpurl}&mwkid={_mwkid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&{copy:prodcode} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&prodcode=abcd&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} {lpurl}
Figure 6 – Hard-code values previously set by “{copy}”
Any other hard-coded values in the Destination URL should be represented in the Landing Page of the “Updated Bulksheet”:
Proposal from Portal QA Bulksheet Manually Updated Bulksheet Account/Campaign Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL Landing Page Tracking Template {{lpurl}&mwkid={_mwkid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&{copy:prodcode} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition}&prodcode=abcd&mkwid=a1b2c3d4&pcrid=sitelink&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype} {lpurl}
Figure 7 – Hard-code values
This brings us to the conclusion of this example.
In summary, here are the steps taken to determine the final Tracking Template for this Sitelink:
For non-redirects, set the Sitelink Tracking Template to {lpurl}
Copy any hard-coded tracking values from the Destination URL and paste them into the new Landing Page URL.
Ensure that any tracking parameters that were formally set by the “{copy}” ValueTrack are represented in the Landing Page.
o Customers may need to create Custom Parameters in order to dynamically set values previously represented by {copy}.
As a final test to ensure that you have assembled the Landing Page correctly, you can simply paste the Landing Page into the browser. Because the Sitelink Tracking Template is set to “{lpurl}”, the Landing Page value contains the complete URL that will be served. This overrides any other Tracking Template that may be set in a higher level in the hierarchy, and no other custom parameter or other values will be used in serving the Landing Page.
Redirects
This section of the guide will provide insight on how to identify segments of Redirect Sitelink URLs that may differ from those used in the Account/Campaign/Group Tracking Template.
Example 1:
We will use this example to highlight various segments of a Sitelink URL and how these can be changed into components for Upgraded URLs.
In the grey shaded area, we include the Tracking Template proposal from the Upgraded URL portal. This Tracking Template will be used to identify differences in the current Sitelink Destination URL in relation to the Tracking Template and the Landing Page.
Proposal from Portal Marin-Generated QA Bulksheet Account/Campaign/Group Tracking Template Landing Page Destination URL {lpurl}&utm_content={ifsearch:s}{ifcontent:c}{_mkwid}|d{device}_{creative}_{matchtype}_{keyword} http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&target={target}&adposition={adposition} http://www.redirect.com/path/?campaign_id=1234456&url=http://www.domain.com/path?this_tag=thisvalue&{copy:utm_content}&target={target}&adposition={adposition}
Figure 1 – Tracking template proposal values from QA Bulksheet
When multiple instances of “http” values are detected in a current sitelink Destination URL, this is identified as a “redirect”. Marin will then find the inner-most (i.e., last instance) of “http” or “https” and designate the URL that follows as the Landing Page URL. An example of this is shown in the highlighted text below.
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