Affiliate link impact on ranking

[hikerguy777]

On my last two sites, as soon as I added an affiliate link the site was either severely punished (new site ranked 52 pushed to 114) or removed completely (site ranked 9 and no longer is in top 1000).

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm wondering if I should use bit.ly or some other service to link.

[Emarketing Excellence]

Originally Posted by hikerguy777

On my last two sites, as soon as I added an affiliate link the site was either severely punished (new site ranked 52 pushed to 114) or removed completely (site ranked 9 and no longer is in top 1000).

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm wondering if I should use bit.ly or some other service to link.

I heard lot of stories that people got hit using affiliates on website. However, it depends on number of factors. You need to do few things to make sure you are covered and recover from ranking drop.

1. Do not use too thin content. Content should be rich.
2. Do not use affiliate links too many times (Stuffing)
3. Use rel="nofollow" for affiliate links.
4. Try to keep your affiliate links in bottom of the content.
5. It is a MYTH that website with affiliate links get a massive ranking drop. What I have observed it is poor user experience and poor content that is recently filtered by Google Panda so a massive ranking drop!!

It would be good idea if you use 301 redirects for masking the affiliate links. I hope this will help you in recovering. However, do remember there are many other factors for ranking drop and it may not be affiliate links.

Lawrence

[Oranges]

Cloak 'em.

[hikerguy777]

Will the pretty link plugin work or do I need to create 301 redirects using a header redirect?

[Emarketing Excellence]

Originally Posted by hikerguy777

Will the pretty link plugin work or do I need to create 301 redirects using a header redirect?

If you are using Wordpress, then you can also use the plugin Go Codes. It is a good plugin having option of making affiliate links no-follow too.

[iamseo]

Link Cloacking will be good option for that and make those affiliate link nofollow

[friendclk]

Always make sure the affiliate link your posting is worthy of being posted. A lot of affiliate offers aren't very good offers if you think about it, especially CPA offers.