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[kurdt]

Does anybody know if search engines care ranking-wise if I use outbound.php?link_id=123 which would then use header() to do 301 redirection to external site like foo.com instead of putting straight up link? And I'm after experiences, not what Google says in their public docs

[nutballs]

I am not sure, but I think they don't care. Do you mean for link juice? Or just for spidering?
Spidering, no difference. Link juice, not sure. I would assume it counts. Tracking clicks is common. Though on the flip side, that would mean ads could pass juice. So maybe not.

[DangerMouse]

I believe that cross domain 301's carry some sort of dampening factor in terms of link juice passed if that helps - can't prove it categorically but its what I've observed and I've seen it referenced in other places.

In terms of spidering I'm with Nuts and don't think it makes a difference.

DM