Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO?

Jonathanbj · 03-15-2011, 06:14 AM

People all over internet cloaks their affiliate links so that they look nicer, (Like /recommend/theCBproduct/), and then block Googlebot from following the links that go through /recommend so that Google would not see that you are hosting affiliate links and therefor punish your site.

But is this needed? Dont you think that Google still will see that you are having affiliate links on your site? Is there any other reasons for cloaking?

TravisHarper · 03-15-2011, 06:18 AM

I don't see any SEO benefits to cloaking outbound links. It is good to do, however. It makes your site look more professional in the readers eyes and it makes it very difficult for someone to hijack your affiliate link.

For SEO, you should set these links up as "No-Follow" links.

Jonathanbj · 03-15-2011, 07:17 AM

Yep, I have the links as nofollow now, but I wonder if I should cloak them also, and put nofollow for the whole folder "recommends" in robots.txt instead.

Anyhow, you do not see the link target site if you do not check the source or hover the link, so I wonder how many people really sees that there are affiliate links..

echaz · 03-15-2011, 07:32 AM

As far as I know google punished sites because they DO cloaking and not for affiliate links.

Google doesn't like sites where the visitor actually does not know where he gets after clicking a link because it is cloaked. Therefore I think it's still better to not cloak links.

In my personal experiences I never saw a difference between not cloaked and cloaked links on my sites...

Rob Greco · 03-15-2011, 07:39 AM

Do you need to cloak? Depends on your affiliate network and how they display your ID in the URL. You can easily set up a bit.ly for links on your own site. Most people will never catch the fact that you are posting an affiliate link unless you say so.

For the search engines, its usually best to set up the no follow to be safe.

paulgl · 03-15-2011, 07:42 AM

nofollow has nothing to do with anything in this case.
Complete nonsense as far as the use of nofollow.

People have all sorts of strange ideas as to what nollow
means or does. It does not mean "no see." It was created
for one reason and that has nothing to do with putting links
on your own site.

Cloaking is neither good nor bad. Just don't stuff a page with
several affiliate links and create some decent surrounding content
and other on-page factors which are the main things.

I have never heard any good argument for cloaking. Seems to be
something someone made up to charge people for a perceived danger.

Paul

Jonathanbj · 03-15-2011, 08:14 AM

Nice to hear this kind of respons sometimes also! I always hear that you HAVE TO cloak links, but I have always been wondering if it is any good.

I have some affiliate links, un-cloaked, and with nofollow on some of my sites, and the sites does rank as good as they did before, so it seems like Google does not care about my affiliate links..

TravisHarper · 03-15-2011, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulgl

nofollow has nothing to do with anything in this case.
Complete nonsense as far as the use of nofollow.

People have all sorts of strange ideas as to what nollow
means or does. It does not mean "no see." It was created
for one reason and that has nothing to do with putting links
on your own site.

Cloaking is neither good nor bad. Just don't stuff a page with
several affiliate links and create some decent surrounding content
and other on-page factors which are the main things.

I have never heard any good argument for cloaking. Seems to be
something someone made up to charge people for a perceived danger.

Paul

The only reason I brought up the "no-Follow topic is because he asked if "cloaking" effected SEO. I brought up the no-follow because it does affect SEO.

I agree with you that "cloaking" has no effect at all on SEO but it does look much better and there are many case studies stating that people click on cloaked links more often then non-cloaked. It looks better and is much more professional.

TravisHarper · 03-15-2011, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by echaz

As far as I know google punished sites because they DO cloaking and not for affiliate links.

Google doesn't like sites where the visitor actually does not know where he gets after clicking a link because it is cloaked. Therefore I think it's still better to not cloak links.

In my personal experiences I never saw a difference between not cloaked and cloaked links on my sites...

This is not true at all. There is no "slap" from Google for having cloaked links.

MarketingTorch · 03-17-2011, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathanbj

Nice to hear this kind of respons sometimes also! I always hear that you HAVE TO cloak links, but I have always been wondering if it is any good.

I have some affiliate links, un-cloaked, and with nofollow on some of my sites, and the sites does rank as good as they did before, so it seems like Google does not care about my affiliate links..

I had everything cloaked, and then I decided to find out if it mattered. So I split-tested and found that cloaked links get more clicks. You can't get conversion without clicks, so there ya go. In my world, cloaked links = more clicks = conversion.

Your mileage may vary.

zoddyzz · 06-09-2011, 09:21 AM

Hello all,

First off I like to say hello, my first post here. Google led me to this post and I have a question on it.

I use masking of links as well to make my site afffilate links look pretty and also to give me the ability to change a link and have it change through out my site in one step.

I have not been no following them or blocking them. But I have noticed taht google is now indexing them. I wonder is this a bad thing cause the go url is on my site person clicks the index link and poof off to the affiliate site.

I been considering blocking an urls with the /go/ in robots.txt but not sure, what do u guys think?

1. I dont want to make google grumpy
2. Also thinking on a user level if they click a go link and it takes them to another site they might not click my site again in the future even if it is a non go link....

usearchme2 · 06-09-2011, 10:29 AM

Personally I would nofollow them as essentially your passing backlinks to your affialtes pages

Woc

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoddyzz

Hello all,

First off I like to say hello, my first post here. Google led me to this post and I have a question on it.

I use masking of links as well to make my site afffilate links look pretty and also to give me the ability to change a link and have it change through out my site in one step.

I have not been no following them or blocking them. But I have noticed taht google is now indexing them. I wonder is this a bad thing cause the go url is on my site person clicks the index link and poof off to the affiliate site.

I been considering blocking an urls with the /go/ in robots.txt but not sure, what do u guys think?

1. I dont want to make google grumpy
2. Also thinking on a user level if they click a go link and it takes them to another site they might not click my site again in the future even if it is a non go link....

03-15-2011, 06:14 AM	#1
Jonathanbj Warrior Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Finland Posts: 15 Thanks: 3 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking	Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? People all over internet cloaks their affiliate links so that they look nicer, (Like /recommend/theCBproduct/), and then block Googlebot from following the links that go through /recommend so that Google would not see that you are hosting affiliate links and therefor punish your site. But is this needed? Dont you think that Google still will see that you are having affiliate links on your site? Is there any other reasons for cloaking?
	Jonathan. Add plus one button to wordpress

03-15-2011, 06:18 AM	#2
TravisHarper Traffic & SEO Expert Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 49 Thanks: 0 Thanked 9 Times in 9 Posts Contact Info	Re: Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? I don't see any SEO benefits to cloaking outbound links. It is good to do, however. It makes your site look more professional in the readers eyes and it makes it very difficult for someone to hijack your affiliate link. For SEO, you should set these links up as "No-Follow" links.
	I have been quietly working in the Internet Marketing industry for over 10 years and have become an expert in driving traffic and SEO tactics. I have a new site all about niche marketers and I would love for you to check it out. Don't worry, this site is all about free content, not a sales page.

03-15-2011, 07:17 AM	#3
Jonathanbj Warrior Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Finland Posts: 15 Thanks: 3 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking	Re: Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? Yep, I have the links as nofollow now, but I wonder if I should cloak them also, and put nofollow for the whole folder "recommends" in robots.txt instead. Anyhow, you do not see the link target site if you do not check the source or hover the link, so I wonder how many people really sees that there are affiliate links..
	Jonathan. Add plus one button to wordpress

03-15-2011, 07:32 AM	#4
echaz Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 81 Thanks: 1 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts	Re: Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? As far as I know google punished sites because they DO cloaking and not for affiliate links. Google doesn't like sites where the visitor actually does not know where he gets after clicking a link because it is cloaked. Therefore I think it's still better to not cloak links. In my personal experiences I never saw a difference between not cloaked and cloaked links on my sites...
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03-15-2011, 07:39 AM	#5
Rob Greco Active Warrior Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 34 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Social Networking	Re: Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? Do you need to cloak? Depends on your affiliate network and how they display your ID in the URL. You can easily set up a bit.ly for links on your own site. Most people will never catch the fact that you are posting an affiliate link unless you say so. For the search engines, its usually best to set up the no follow to be safe.

03-15-2011, 07:42 AM	#6
paulgl Plundering the Web War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 4,849 Thanks: 804 Thanked 1,199 Times in 886 Posts	Re: Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? nofollow has nothing to do with anything in this case. Complete nonsense as far as the use of nofollow. People have all sorts of strange ideas as to what nollow means or does. It does not mean "no see." It was created for one reason and that has nothing to do with putting links on your own site. Cloaking is neither good nor bad. Just don't stuff a page with several affiliate links and create some decent surrounding content and other on-page factors which are the main things. I have never heard any good argument for cloaking. Seems to be something someone made up to charge people for a perceived danger. Paul
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03-15-2011, 08:14 AM	#7
Jonathanbj Warrior Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Finland Posts: 15 Thanks: 3 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking	Re: Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? Nice to hear this kind of respons sometimes also! I always hear that you HAVE TO cloak links, but I have always been wondering if it is any good. I have some affiliate links, un-cloaked, and with nofollow on some of my sites, and the sites does rank as good as they did before, so it seems like Google does not care about my affiliate links..
	Jonathan. Add plus one button to wordpress

06-09-2011, 09:21 AM	#11
zoddyzz Warrior Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Is cloaking affiliate links needed for SEO? Hello all, First off I like to say hello, my first post here. Google led me to this post and I have a question on it. I use masking of links as well to make my site afffilate links look pretty and also to give me the ability to change a link and have it change through out my site in one step. I have not been no following them or blocking them. But I have noticed taht google is now indexing them. I wonder is this a bad thing cause the go url is on my site person clicks the index link and poof off to the affiliate site. I been considering blocking an urls with the /go/ in robots.txt but not sure, what do u guys think? 1. I dont want to make google grumpy 2. Also thinking on a user level if they click a go link and it takes them to another site they might not click my site again in the future even if it is a non go link....