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Does the number of affiliate links of a site effect SEO?

by danp142
10 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys, just something I've been wondering.

I have a website which, by nature, offers many options to visitors and therefore includes quite a few affiliate links.

I was wondering if Google picks up on this and punishes for it? I'm not spamming or creating a dead affiliate site, my site is (attempting) to be authority.

Cheers.
#affiliate #effect #links #number #seo #site
  • Profile picture of the author Ghoster
    Yes, it does.

    Content that is awash with links looks spammy. Google doesn't care about why.

    Each link you add to the page degrades the total link-value of that page. Basically, the more links on your site, the more Google will wonder whether it's a bridge page.

    Let's say Google prefers thick soup over thin. Unique content is milk, useful information is the potatoes, and links are water.

    This is one reason I like Amazon, although I know that many people here hate them. I don't care what people buy once they hit Amazon. I just need them to go through my 1 or 2 links to the site.
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    • Profile picture of the author danp142
      Would 6 or 7 affiliate links in a 1300 word article be considered excessive?
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
        Originally Posted by danp142 View Post

        Would 6 or 7 affiliate links in a 1300 word article be considered excessive?
        6 or 7 is not excessive, but don't go beyond that. If you experience any difficulty with ranking in the future, try reducing the number of affiliate links in your content.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dr los3
        No it doesn't. You aren't making your website for google, you don't know what they want. What you do know is what your audience needs or may need.

        My landing pages have 30. 2/3 of my content has 2-3 links on them. and 1/3 don't have any. I do really well for myself.
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      • Profile picture of the author patco
        Originally Posted by danp142 View Post

        Would 6 or 7 affiliate links in a 1300 word article be considered excessive?
        Why do you need to do this? You won't get many sales. I would prefer writing 6 250-300 words articles with ONE link in each as the visitor knows WHAT to do in order to buy, otherwise you could distract him!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ihate9to5
    Try cloaking your affiliate links with a 301 of your own domain and set your links to nofollow.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Has nothing to do with the number of affiliate links in some proportion.

      I don't know why people keep shuffling chairs on the titanic, or looking under
      the same rocks.

      If google hates affiliate links, then with one they will only hate it a little? And a
      lot of affiliate links they will hate it a lot? So you if you can keep the hate down,
      that's sucess? Or keep them in the middle, and you have mediocre success?

      Look at what you are affiliate-linking to. Is it junk? There's your answer.

      If some of your so-called affilliate "stuff" was great, nobody would ever ask this
      question.

      Paul
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      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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    • Profile picture of the author Jonny2spoons
      Originally Posted by Ihate9to5 View Post

      Try cloaking your affiliate links with a 301 of your own domain and set your links to nofollow.
      There's your solution right there
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  • Profile picture of the author Casey Hicks
    why not link the page you are wanting to promote to another page deeper inside your website, like a page you created to review the product yourself....then have your affiliate link on that review page?
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    Casey Hicks

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    • Profile picture of the author huffdoggie
      Originally Posted by Casey Hicks View Post

      why not link the page you are wanting to promote to another page deeper inside your website, like a page you created to review the product yourself....then have your affiliate link on that review page?
      Was coming here to say this exact same thing, with an example of my own.

      In my case, I have a table on my home page that shows various products I review on my site. For quite a while I had only amazon affiliate links in said table. I decided to do a test by changing all those links to point to inner pages of my site. I removed ALL affiliate links from my main page. Within 3 days a number of my important keywords jumped from page 2 and 3 all the way to the top of page 1 in Google search. Some are sitting on the top spot to this day. Others are hanging around in the top 5. In all, I removed about 30 affiliate links and pointed to my other pages.

      Does google hate affiliate links? I'm still not sure, but that change had a huge positive effect on my SERPS, as well as traffic and commissions. I also saw a boost for keywords on my inner pages.

      Your mileage may vary, but it certainly worked for me.
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