Now i know some people think google doesn't care about affiliate links. However, i'd like to play this safe. What is the easiest way to cloak affiliate link and hide them from the search engines?
here are some ways that links can be cloaked - thread Now for the piggy back questions. At what point do you think cloaking becomes necessary? In other words say you have a content page with 1 or 2 affiliate links. Will this page been flagged or penalized? thanks JS
Thanks, to be honest i really don't know. And from what i've read people seem to disagree on this point. Therefore i'm just playing on the safeside. Looks better for the visitors too
Step 1: Use affiliate link protectors to protect your affiliate links. Step 2: Create a single folder on your site. (I would call it "recommends") Step 3: In your robots.txt file add this line (in a new separate line) Disallow: /recommends/ Step 4: Upload all your protected affiliate redirect files to this folder. Step 5: Change all your affiliate links as applicable. For example, your new links would look like www.yourdomain.com/recommends/affiliateprogram That's it! Now you are done You now have: * Well protected links, your commissions will not be stolen, * The SEs will not be frustrated by the redirecting links, * Your links are more professional looking. This will increase your click through rates. In fact they will have no option but to click your links since they will have no way of knowing the site behind your link * Your stats to analyze your affiliate promotions like click thru rates, conversion rates etc TIP 1: Make subdirectories within the "recommends" directory for each affiliate link you are promoting for example "ClickMyLinkIfYouAreNuts" and then save your redirecting "index.html" files within it. Your link will then look like: www.yourdomain.com/recommends/ClickMyLinkIfYouAreNuts instead of www.yourdomain.com/recommends/ClickMyLinkIfYouAreNuts.html Tip 2: Create a blank "index.html" file within the "recommends" folder to prevent folder browsing by your visitors. The is a security measure and you should do it for every folder that you have that does not have and "index.something" file. TIP 3: You can call the recommends folder anything you like e.g. "loves", "likes", "whatever" just remember to be consistent
advice is dont to use cloaking. u can use asp redirect command. or META refresh to hide the affiliate links. PS> still need little tricks. not all links will work
I wonder if using only the anchor link URL when cloaking is enough. What I mean is I get an html code like this from CJ. <a href="http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-2168757-10443196?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatewebaddress.com%2FproductDetail.aspx%3FProdId%3D55910% 26region%3DUS%26goChar%3DC&cjsku=05589780505" target="_top">Product</a> <img src="http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-2168757-10443196" width="1" height="1" border="0"/> So when cloaking, cloaking page uses only "http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-2168757-10443196?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatewebaddress.com%2FproductDetail.aspx%3FProdId%3D55910% 26region%3DUS%26goChar%3DC&cjsku=05589780505" but do not use the <img....> part. Is this how it supposed to be or am I doing anything wrong? Should we include or use this <img src...> somehow? Thanks
As described in the video, using PHP really is the best way to do it. The last few techniques don't provide the same final result. For example, if you're running a PPC campaign, most engines will be able to fingerprint the links with a technique like using no follow
I blogged about Jeremys link cloaking video this week and was just coming to post the link. Just be sure you test your links. Some types of cloaking can cause the link not to track properly so then you are really screwed.
I am not sure what you mean by that. When you use redirects, you are, in effect, cloaking your links. You are right there. As long as it is an 301 permanent redirect... Any 301 permanet redirect is SE friendly AND user friendly. This includes php, .htaccess etc I have to disagree with you here. I only recommend a META refresh as a desktop shortcut. You should never use it on your pages. Why? SE hate it! You could say you can block it in robots.txt or META tags but then... Your visitors will hate it too! It breaks the back button.
I agree on the meta refresh. Bad thing to use with affiliate links. It used to work well 4 or 5 years ago, but now search engines are on top of that method.
Thanks BlogLover. I understand from what you say,when cloaking "img src" is not used in any manner in our html codes. I want to be sure about this since I did not get any sales from CJ, and I suspect if this could be the reason.
Right. Some still use META refresh too Some even JavaScript! Hey I love java too so this is not personal. Only that some users disable it in their browsers. Those could be lost commissions you know... If you are buying or downloading any cloaking software, I suggest you check the source code of its output pages first. Since I have not seen the the videos, I am not sure of the code you are using. But if it has anything to do with redirecting pages then php is not the best way to do it, but .htaccess. SEs look for it first and it's the fastest of all the redirects. P.S. Don't get me wrong here. I am not saying it's bad to use php, in fact I am using php for my affiliate redirects too. But .htaccess is the best I understand your concern Thoth, but when surfing the source of the image is NOT visible to your lead unless they check the source of the web page. You know very well that not many have time for that Besides, they are not interested in where the image is hosted but the link behind it. Hence this link is the one you should mask. So as long as you mask the link, you can rest assured, your commissions will not be stolen
Thanks a lot again BlogLover. I was using meta-refresh for cloaking so I would change it to asp-redirect after this thread. I haven't actually setup a separate page for each affiliate link. All affiliate links are directing to one page. That one page then set the meta-refresh parameter for whichever affiliate link is calling it. And this page is defined under "Disallow" in robots.txt. Now, I plan to change this page to asp redirect, so it will redirect to the affiliate site instead of using meta parameter for redirection. People mention that using a 301 permanent redirect is SEO friendly. Is it still SEO friendly if one page is redirected to many different pages(affiliate sites), as in my case. Or do we need to care about seo since this page is not indexed by search engines. Thanks