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Hiding Affiliate Links for SEO does not help!!

by GeorgR.
18 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I read a few times it is good practice to cloak affiliate links, also in terms of SEO and present a "cleaner" site to Google.

This is very obvious, and on my own sites i never use eg. clickbank hoplinks, i always do redirects like www. mysite.com/recommends.php and then a PHP redirect to the affiliate link.

NOW...i don't think google is "fooled" that easy!

Yesterday i downloaded a program called "Xenu Linksleuth", this tool is used to simulate a spider on your site and to check and test all the links.

I found out that the PHP cloaking of the affiliate links does not really help, since the spider/google does ALSO follow and see the external links...even if they are cloaked they will eventually resolve and show the hoplink...like MYID.VENDOR.CLICKBANK.NET...since this is what i have in the PHP redirect.

In other words: You can cloak what you want...google will still see your affiliate links even if they are not evident on your site at the first glance.

#affiliate #hiding or cloaking #links #seo
  • Profile picture of the author hotftuna
    I figured that that would be the case. That is why I always wondered what the point was for masking these links.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    I think this issue deserves MORE attention than what some people think.

    We have a problem here since we can safely assume that Google, to a certain extent, might penalize sites with affiliate links. Why do you think sites like wikipedia etc. rank so high??

    Now...i read on renowned sites like John Chow's site about "Hiding Affiliate Links for SEO", or you can do some googling and you will see how everyone will recommend hiding the links either using Meta Refresh or PHP refresh.

    As i simply showed (see picture in 1st post!)..it does not matter. Google sees and follows your cloaked link...and immediately also sees the CLICKBANK link.

    Now, there are a few possible solutions for this, and i am experimenting right now with some of my own scripts. One problem for example is that we always need to assume the WORST case, eg. that Google can read javascript....and also that Google is smart and can also read encrypted javascripts, etc..etc... furthermore i don't think that replacing affiliate links with some encrypted links will do anything good either in terms of SEO. Hiding stuff is always BAD for SEO and Google.

    Right now i am sitting over some code of mine..the problem is a little more complex since affiliate links can result in various actions: MOST of them simply go to the destination/vendor URL. No problem. But there are also certain types of affiliate links where the visitor clicks and then gets a download, and i try to support this in one of my scripts right now.

    Thinking about an elegant solution.

    All i can say is that 98% of what you see on the net how supposedly effective "hiding" affiliate links for SEO is is utter nonsense!!

    Go to your sites where you have your meta refreshes and php redirects...and let some spider simulator run (like Xenu) and you will run away scared seeing all those references to clickbank <-- if we are shooting for top ranking then we need a good way to get rid of those affiliate references!!

    (Noindex, Nofollow certainly wont cut it either )
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  • Profile picture of the author affiliated survivor
    You could use a cloaker. Like wpCloaker - Cloak Wordpress Blogs
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  • Profile picture of the author affiliated survivor
    As far as I understand WP Cloaker, it cloaks the whole page. There are 2 pages. 1 with some spider friendly content and one with your sales page. It has a database of IPs used by the search bots and shows them the content page, without affiliate links. Correct me if I´m wrong.
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    • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
      Originally Posted by affiliated survivor View Post

      As far as I understand WP Cloaker, it cloaks the whole page. There are 2 pages. 1 with some spider friendly content and one with your sales page. It has a database of IPs used by the search bots and shows them the content page, without affiliate links. Correct me if I´m wrong.
      Then it is indeed a "real" cloaker, but i would never risk a money-site on it. This is as bl@ckhat as it gets. Needless to say that if the bot-list is outdated or incomplete (which can easily be happen since google has thousands of bots/IP) you're ***ed. Such cloaking (in a sense: "present search engine A but show visitor B") is one of the worst "crimes" you can do in Google's eyes.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    How does this help if someone promotes off clickbank or CJ?
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetMarketingIQ
    Put a nofollow tag on them and then rethink what you said.
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    • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
      Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ View Post

      Put a nofollow tag on them and then rethink what you said.
      Uhm...you think this will catapult your site up in the SERPs? The links might not get indexed/followed, all right. But Google will certainly know whether you have affiliate links, even if they are NF/NI.

      I wish it was that easy...
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  • Profile picture of the author bha
    I have never had any of my sites not rank due to affiliate links. What makes you think that Google is penalizing sites due to affiliate links only? (hope that did not sound rude) Could it be the type of programs being promoted (ie - work at home, **** berry, etc)?
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  • Profile picture of the author SeanSupplee
    With all honestly I have heard the opposite. Cloaking your affiliate links is actually bad practice and Google dislikes them. At least thats what I heard form SEOmoz.org when they survived the top people who know what that are talking about when it comes to SEO.
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    Sean Supplee -Expert Insight of an Affiliate Marketer (Blog)
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    I wouldn't call a PHP redirect "cloaking", really. But its often used in that regard. Real "Cloaking" is actually more what the other guy described, eg. you have a bot-list and present the google bots something different than what your visitors see. Real cloaking also would get you totally banned - but that being said, i just dont think that many affiliate links (or PHP redirects, doesn't matter) are *beneficial* and there is for sure *some* penalty.
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    • Profile picture of the author butters
      Thats why in the process of building my site I leave it non profit until it is established . Best way is to sell via a list, means google likes you and people like you.
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      • Profile picture of the author pcalvert
        I think you're worried over nothing. It's only a problem if your pages offer little or no value to visitors and only serve to funnel traffic to the sales pages of other sites (i.e., a thin affiliate site).

        Phil
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        That cat won't sit on a cold stove either." - Mark Twain

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