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SEO: Impact of Outgoing Affiliate Links On Website

by ChocolateCheese
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

I'm wondering: does it have any impact on my site if I have many outgoing affiliate links (basically in every blog post).
The affiliate links are relevant and lead to related, high quality products, but with Google you never know.

Also, does it make a difference whether I use a direct affiliate link (http://myaffiliatecode.merchantsite.com) vs. a masked affiliate link (http://www.myowndomain.com/redirect/bluewidget).

Anyone has experience with that?
Thanks
#affiliate #impact #links #outgoing #seo #website
  • Profile picture of the author eternalwarrior
    If your content is valuable and not salesy, then affiliate link won't be a problem.
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    • Profile picture of the author cooler1
      Originally Posted by eternalwarrior View Post

      If your content is valuable and not salesy, then affiliate link won't be a problem.
      What does the value of the content have to do with the SEO impact of using many affiliate links? The search engine robots don't know if content is valuable or salesy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Les Blythe
    Originally Posted by ChocolateCheese View Post

    Hi,

    I'm wondering: does it have any impact on my site if I have many outgoing affiliate links (basically in every blog post).
    The affiliate links are relevant and lead to related, high quality products, but with Google you never know.

    Also, does it make a difference whether I use a direct affiliate link (http://myaffiliatecode.merchantsite.com) vs. a masked affiliate link (http://www.myowndomain.com/redirect/bluewidget).

    Anyone has experience with that?
    Thanks
    Your outgoing links should always be "no-follow" links as this prevents you leaking "link juice" to the affiliate site in Google's eyes. This is especially important if you are relying to any extent on search engine or SEO type traffic.
    You should always mask affiliate links to prevent "theft" of you affiliate commissions and also to track hits (if you want to). By theft, one of the things I mean is that if someone sees the website name in the link they may go straight there instead of through your link = no commission for you
    Hope it helps.
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    Find out how I've made $1,000s every month since 2011
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffreydominic
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Les Blythe
      Originally Posted by jeffreydominic View Post

      Your informations are very usefull. Can you be more specific about affiliate links.
      You have been a Warrior member since 24th July this year - 2 days. Your signature link leads to a PR3 site that you are obviously trying to promote.

      Please add value to your posts - your intention at the moment is a little errr...obvious?

      :rolleyes:
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      Find out how I've made $1,000s every month since 2011
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  • Profile picture of the author mickeyroad
    Its very useful, great! but be more specific on details about the links.
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  • Profile picture of the author TotalWebsiteControl
    Unless you -nofollow tag that link you will be giving link juice to your affiliate link. You do not want to do that!
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    The Cuttster has actually mentioned that Google DOES recognise affiliate links (even cloaked ones probably, and it probably sneakily follows nofollowed, noindex ones too) - Here’s What Google’s Matt Cutts Says About Affiliate Links And Nofollow | WebProNews

    The concern is always, is the content actually providing value or is it just a vehicle for the affiliate links? If you think about it, major review sites like CNET etc. all have affiliate links aplenty, but no-one is penalising them...

    Thing is, most small-time affiliate site creators are just way too hung up on trying to make money and almost always falling short content-wise.
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    Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

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