Is it hard to rank sites that have affiliate links on page?

[Marhelper]

I have a site that I am doing SEO for that has one CB affiliate link per page. I heard about "G" coming down on PPC side of things ... does this include naturalized ranking?

[jaggyjay]

Considering what's going on the PPC side of G, it stands to reason that it may soon happen on G's organic listings. However, this is just hearsay - I've no evidence to support the theory.

Still, the best thing to do is to cloak all your affiliate links. I have affiliate pages that rank in the Top 10; however, all the aff links are run through a redirect/cloak script.

Best!
- Jay

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by jaggyjay

Considering what's going on the PPC side of G, it stands to reason that it may soon happen on G's organic listings. However, this is just hearsay - I've no evidence to support the theory.

Still, the best thing to do is to cloak all your affiliate links. I have affiliate pages that rank in the Top 10; however, all the aff links are run through a redirect/cloak script.

Best!
- Jay

Would the hoplinks that CB provides qualify?

[entrepreneurjay]

I've never heard of that google ranks a page by the content. The more and more optimized content will rank higher, links, etc... Pretty much everyone's selling stuff online nowadays especially with there own website. They would be penalizing everyone lol... I don't believe that one bit... google uses google adsense on a lot of peoples pages they don't get penalized. Just concentrate on qualiy content and you will be ok!

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by entrepreneurjay

I've never heard of that google ranks a page by the content. The more and more optimized content will rank higher, links, etc... Pretty much everyone's selling stuff online nowadays especially with there own website. They would be penalizing everyone lol... I don't believe that one bit... google uses google adsense on a lot of peoples pages they don't get penalized. Just concentrate on qualiy content and you will be ok!

I gotcha ... just wondering b/c I heard all about G's slammin on the affiliates (PPC).

[Sean Ski]

If you're really paranoid about it just redirect to the aff link (yoursite.com/affproduct) instead of having a direct link to on your page and make the link no follow - i.e -

<a href="http://www.site.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Site</a>

[JesseT]

If you are properly no-following your cb links you should be fine. I do not know if google holds sites that offer affiliate programs in a negative light but I know google does give your page a lesser ranking if you link to some sites so tagging no follow should do the trick. I use a php redirect to my affiliate links. Makes life easier imo.

[blase40]

If your site is chock full of affiliate links and is low on unique content, your site will most likely not rank in G for very long as it falls into the category of a "thin affiliate site". These are still fine on Yahoo! and Bing for the time being...

[acedalright]

Michael Gray (Graywolf) has stated that he believes that pages with aff links are devalued by google because they compete directly with adwords and google is a company and they want to make more money, so it's in their best interest to rank adsense content pages above aff linked ones.

Nofollow and cloak your links to save link juice and google jealousy

[Doctor Article]

I don't believe it for a minute. I promote the company I write for and yet my site has been on page one of google almost since the day I launched it. Of course it does sometimes drop back to page two, but always only for a limited time. In fact, it's usually within the top three spots. What's more, it's hosted free and yet I still get the traffic I'm after.

Bottom line:- Google doesn't give a damn whether you're promoting a product or not.

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by Doctor Article

I don't believe it for a minute. I promote the company I write for and yet my site has been on page one of google almost since the day I launched it. Of course it does sometimes drop back to page two, but always only for a limited time. In fact, it's usually within the top three spots. What's more, it's hosted free and yet I still get the traffic I'm after.

Bottom line:- Google doesn't give a damn whether you're promoting a product or not.

I'm a little confused. Are you referring to your site promoting your own site on page? If so, that is very different from a site promoting an affiliate link to CB product, etc... .

[Doctor Article]

Hi Marhelper

My site is need-a-rewrite and while I did originally intend making something of it, I decided against it, at least for the time being.
The site I promote is Need An Article. I am also a full time writer for them, which is partly why I chose to become an affiliate.

Trust me, I wish it was my site

[linkedinlincoln]

Pretty sure that if people found out Google was giving adsense sites preferential rankings, the backlash would make Yahoo #1 in a matter of weeks.

Besides, the people at Google actually working on the search algorithm are the geeks that believe in relevancy and semantic variance and all that stuff.

Bottom line: Good content and plenty of it. You can link to whatever you like. But for SEO you should def no follow all the links to outside sites. (affiliate links included)

-Kathy

[Paul Ho]

I think as long as you're offering real value and not just spamming aff links it should be fine. I don't think the links themselves affect the Rankings. It's the overall package of your site.

[JNFerree]

Use Firefox, get and install the Bit.ly applet, use the default or customize if you want your links to have appeal, watch this YouTube vid (social media marketing tip) to see what I mean and how its done

PS: this is one my Bit.ly links and its on page #1 w/ Google, so I'm not sure what's the fuss is all about?

[blase40]

Thin affiliate sites will not rank well. Period. It is essential to add some original content. Here it is, straight from Google:

Little or no original content - Webmasters/Site owners Help

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by blase40

Thin affiliate sites will not rank well. Period. It is essential to add some original content. Here it is, straight from Google:

Little or no original content - Webmasters/Site owners Help

I am referring to a site with good original content and an affiliate link to a CB product (1 link).

[Preciseim]

Honestly in my opinion you have nothing to worry, many affiliates are making a lot of money, getting sites ranked with affiliate links.

As everyone has said just for good measure, no-follow and cloak your links.

But honestly there are a lot of sites that get ranked and have affiliate links.

[Richelle123]

I don't know if it hurts your search engine rankings in the long run, but I have links on a lot of my blog pages, and I never had a problem with it.

Recently I've started redirecting my affiliates links to a domain name. Some of the domains are paid for, while others are free domains.

Right now I'm using dot.tk domain redirection, but I don't know if it's a good idea or not to use a free domain. I'm sure the paid ones are always better.

[tferraro]

This is a great thread! I like the idea of no-follow and cloak your links. However can some one lead me into the direction on how to cloak these links such as aff?

Thanks for your time,
Tony

[Catalyst eMarketing]

Originally Posted by tferraro

This is a great thread! I like the idea of no-follow and cloak your links. However can some one lead me into the direction on how to cloak these links such as aff?

Some affiliates use PHP redirects, most affiliates I know use .htaccess redirects. This creates a redirect link on your own domain that looks like mysite.com/keyword

Here's a good article on doing .htaccess redirects for affiliate links.

Using .htaccess to Hide Affiliate Links | Click Consultants Affiliate Marketing Blog

Hope this helps and best of luck!