Does affiliate links harm SEO

[ElaineGardiner]

Some of you may already know all about this, but I came across this article today and thought some of you might find it helpful...

Does affiliates links harm SEO?

Happy Reading

[Nibor]

interesting I didn't realise that the search engines were clever enough to tell the difference between affiliate links or not. Although you can never know with search engines.

[AceOdds]

I think it's treat the same as link selling. A number of high profile websites have been penalised for not adding the nofollow attribute to their adverts and 'advertorials'.

Google has even been known to penalise itself
https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/NAWunDzJSHC

[Nibor]

haha that's a funny story! Almost strikes me as PR stunt from Google though to promote their 'guidlines' (which as far as I'm concered are total farce), but hey nothing you can do about that! It is what it is...

[edgarf76]

That is a good article but doesnt the no follow tag defeat the purpose of the engine and people finding your page and clicking on your link? It is interesting because a new algo can come out and change everything drastically? I like the part about changing the anchor text, that is something that i need to implement.

[tyler65]

I'm just new in internet marketing and know that affiliate marketing is a major part of internet marketing so I don't think so, it's links harmful for SEO. I try to find some more information about this question.

[CoopersPick]

Its fairly easy for the site to determine an affiliate link and usually AFF sites are of low quality.

[muffincrumbs]

Aff lunkz themselves are not all low quality though, it depends on the program. You will find that some go directly to the host domain, like Slotland. Since it is a good domain, old, established and referenced many times, linking out to it could only help, not hurt.

On the other hand, most programs use entirely different domains then the one the aff link leads to. e.g. ads.online-casino... This would be viewed as landing page (as it technically is, but with a cookie only) to the main domain. It does end at the location it is "advertising", but in a low quality way. In this instance it would provide little to no benefit and should have the no follow attribute tag.

After trying all my links rewritten to look pretty, and made to look like they lead back to my site when they don't through the .ht access... comparing it to using just the aff links nofollowed as is.... has shown no difference at all after months of testing.

Why would an online casino decide to use a different domain and host severs to run their marketing campaigns? So when thousands of low quality sites link to them, it would sink the ranking of their site due to algo penalties, spamminess etc. Older companies have sites that rank so well anyway, they can handle the ill-favored juice with sub-domains.

[casinorecommender]

Hello Elaine & All,

Affiliate links are not different than any other outgoing links. Unless you add "nofollow" attribute to the links, they give harm by decreasing the overall PR value juice of the corresponding page.

All the best

[casinogambino]

I think one of the main problems you will find with affiliate links/banner ads is the dramatic increase in link velocity - the rate in which you gain links. This is something to watch out for with any link building program. Any website can get dinged in the SERPS if link acquisition doesn't follow what Google considers 'normal' linking practices. For example, you have a website that you have built a few links to, but have not consistently added quality backlinks. Now, all of a sudden, you purchase a banner network from multiple sites. Their banner ad network is not 'nofollowed' and they update their website everyday, resulting in multiple pages be adding daily. If you have a site wide link or banner (footer, sidebar, banner that appears on every page), every single one of those pages becomes a link going back to your site. So, if you started with a site that was maybe acquiring 20-30 links per month prior to doing the banner ad purchase (or accelerated affiliate program) you will potentially be generating thousands of links in a matter of weeks. Now, putting yourself in Google's seat - doesn't this seem like suspicious / low quality linking practices? There you have it.

I was never sandboxed, but did see a drop in SERPs for doing this same thing. The strange thing is, you will typically see a BOOST in SERPs at first and then you will slowly see this evaporate over the coming weeks. Affiliates can have this same affect on your site. Watch out for this.

By the way, I agree with @casinorecommender: an affiliate link in itself has no negative affect on you. In fact, it more times than not is a good thing. Just remember that the more links you receive from one source, C-block, or site, the less overall value they have. MORE links is not the answer: you can do far better by being picky about your link sources and getting QUALITY links that are relevant. If you are trying to BUILD REVENUE, a link by itself is not truly the answer. Quick wins with easy links can help out, but you want your link appearing where YOUR TARGET MARKET will be at.

[betmark]

It's good practice to use the nofollow tag on all your affiliate links. You can also use php redirects to help mask them.

[sweetbet]

It's good practice to use the nofollow tag on all your affiliate links. You can also use php redirects to help mask them.

Excellent advice. That way your site won't leak pr or risk being penalized for linking to a questionable site.

[casinorecommender]

One quick note: PHP Redirect Plug-Ins only makes easier for you to update all of the same links through the site via only 1 link source. You have to use "no-follow" attribute besides to these plugins. And some of the SEO Plug-Ins have auto-no-follow the outgoing links option. So by this way, you will not have the chance to forget to add "no-follow" attribute.

[abhinavarora]

If you have affiliate links on the landing page make it no follow so that yours website link juice would not be given to them and try that from your landing page user go to detail page of affiliate i.e within your website it decreases the bounce rate and effect of interlinking content,give you a high serp(search engine results process)

[edgarf76]

I have a question regarding making a link no follow. I am using wordpress, and I can make a page no follow but I don't know how to make a specific link no follow. Can anyone help me out with this, I use affiliate links on my homepage and it could be taking away from my site.

[abhinavarora]

<a href="URL" rel="nofollow"> ...this is the format to make your link no follow.....

[ocreditor]

nice to see the forum community help "solve" the issue and provide valuable advice from experience. kudos!

[abhinavarora]

Your welcome plz ask me more related to seo m specialized in it

[KristiW]

Vital information. Thank you.

[xecutable]

The thing is, over the years, Google changed its interpretation of the "nofollow" tag. Nowadays, no matter if the link is follow or nofollow "link juice" of that very page leaks. In the first scenario it's passed to the other site, in the second it just goes into the nothing.

For more info you can check : http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-sa...-with-nofollow

So while in terms of "SEO Penalties" you will be safe more or less, that juice keeps on leaking as long as you have tons of links per article etc. Hence many of us started linking once or twice per page.