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Amazon affiliate + Elf Links

by GGpaul
3 replies
Hey,

Has anyone ever used Elf Links - ? And if so, is it against amazon affiliate policy or not? And if not, does it really matter about hiding your links from Google?

Please verify.

Thanks.
#affiliate #amazon #elf #links
  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Elf links hide your affiliate links from your html source code.

    This means that the Google-Bot spider cannot see them and therefore cannot follow them to see if they are affiliate links. This is different than Pretty Links (eg.) that cloaks your links but puts the cloaked links in the code.

    As soon as Google sees a link, cloaked or not, it can follow the link to see if it is redirected to an affiliate URL. Elf prevents this by keeping links out of the code completely so the Google-Bot cannot see the links in the first place.

    Elf Links is written by lawyer and long time Warrior, Kindsvater.

    1) I believe it conforms to Amazon's ToS.
    Amazon has rules about cloaking links but those mostly apply to how the cloaked link is resolved and appears in the browser after the user clicks. As long as the "cloaked" link resolves to an Amazon URL and it is clear the user is on Amazon and Amazon can clearly see it is your web site that the traffic came from then cloaking is fine.

    You get in trouble with iFraming or cloaking links in such a way that an Amazon cookie can be set without the user clicking a link.

    You also get in trouble if the link does not resolve to an Amazon URL and keeps the browser URL display on a non-Amazon site.


    2) It depends if you believe Google punishes "affiliate" sites
    Some believe that having affiliate links on a website is one factor Google uses to determine value and ranking in the SERPs. A website with Amazon links on almost every page and every article -no matter how much value is provided- may get penalized by Google as an affiliate site.

    Being "penalized" in the SERPs is not the same as "delisted".

    Do you worry that Google will come to your "Camping Gear Review" site and see dozens of Amazon affiliate links on almost every page? In this case I would prefer Google not know about my links.
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    • Profile picture of the author GGpaul
      Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

      Elf links hide your affiliate links from your html source code.

      This means that the Google-Bot spider cannot see them and therefore cannot follow them to see if they are affiliate links. This is different than Pretty Links (eg.) that cloaks your links but puts the cloaked links in the code.

      As soon as Google sees a link, cloaked or not, it can follow the link to see if it is redirected to an affiliate URL. Elf prevents this by keeping links out of the code completely so the Google-Bot cannot see the links in the first place.

      Elf Links is written by lawyer and long time Warrior, Kindsvater.

      1) I believe it conforms to Amazon's ToS.
      Amazon has rules about cloaking links but those mostly apply to how the cloaked link is resolved and appears in the browser after the user clicks. As long as the "cloaked" link resolves to an Amazon URL and it is clear the user is on Amazon and Amazon can clearly see it is your web site that the traffic came from then cloaking is fine.

      You get in trouble with iFraming or cloaking links in such a way that an Amazon cookie can be set without the user clicking a link.

      You also get in trouble if the link does not resolve to an Amazon URL and keeps the browser URL display on a non-Amazon site.


      2) It depends if you believe Google punishes "affiliate" sites
      Some believe that having affiliate links on a website is one factor Google uses to determine value and ranking in the SERPs. A website with Amazon links on almost every page and every article -no matter how much value is provided- may get penalized by Google as an affiliate site.

      Being "penalized" in the SERPs is not the same as "delisted".

      Do you worry that Google will come to your "Camping Gear Review" site and see dozens of Amazon affiliate links on almost every page? In this case I would prefer Google not know about my links.
      Thanks. Are you currently using Elf links?
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      RIP Dad Oct 14 1954 - Mar 14 2015.

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      • Profile picture of the author onSubie
        Originally Posted by GGpaul View Post

        Thanks. Are you currently using Elf links?
        No, but I am thinking about it. Even if you're not paranoid about Google rankings it's a good way to hide any affiliate links you do not want seen by other bots, spiders or spys.

        Before he published the Elf Links plugin he had a script that did the same thing and explained how it worked- how I know the info above.

        Now that it's a plugin I have been more interested in picking it up. But I haven't yet.
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