How do you handle affiliate links and clicks?

[MichaelCorfman]

About 2 1/2 years ago GPWA member Ash Ketchum ask what type of affiliate links folks used: follow or no-follow?. The response was universal - everyone used no-follow links.

In addition, many folks in that thread also noted that they use target-"_blank" and it was also pointed out, that from a security perspective, rel="nofollow noopener" should be specified when that is done to improve security.

For this week's poll I thought I would follow-up further on that discussion regarding affiliate links and ask how folks handle their affiliate links.

Please vote in the poll so folks can get a sense of general practices followed. But, beyond that, please post explaining the practices you follow with affiliate links.

Let me share our practices:

First, we never link directly to an affiliate site. The first step is always a rel=nofollow link to an internal page on our site where that link is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt exclusion. The second step is to record the click so we know where traffic is being sent, and only then do we redirect the user to the target site in a new window.

The process we follow is actually a bit more sophisticated than what I outlined above. We also consider the ip address of the person clicking the link, and may decide to serve them alternate content if the site does not accept players from the location implied by their ip address, or if there are regulatory reasons we should prohibit the player from visiting the target website entirely. We also consider whether or not we consider the target site to be rogue, although in that case we are obviously not talking about an affiliate link. Then we suggest other sites that might be a better and more reputable place to play.

Michael

[gil.langelaan]

We keep track of affiliate link clicks and use noopener tag to keep user on our website too. To make sure they will search for another casino if they didn't like something in the 1st one they chose.

[artrust99]

Doing pretty much the same as Gil.langelaan have said. All of them are rel="nofollow noopener"

[xecutable]

Track, open in existing browser, don't hide in robot.txt, don't consider IP.

I believe most affiliates will have similar choice and the only difference will be 'new tab/browser' vs 'existing tab'. For the longest time, it was considered that opening an external link was the best and it was taken for granted without much testing. Some 6-7 years ago, someone here posted his experiment in opening links in the same tab.

After I followed the same experiment, for my traffic and my website at the time, I came to the same conclusion and I started opening links in the same browser. These days I believe it's even more relevant as CTRL + click will open ANY link in a new tab. Looking over other affiliate sites, I can say that most of the results show 50/50 in terms of who opens what in a new tab.

[promotiontailor]

Most of the affiliates are doing the same. smarter affiliates will use conversion tracking per click so they know their player value per page

[CasinoDefence]

Have always used no-follow explicitly on all affiliate links out of the main site.

[SammyBingo]

We do the same as Gil.lagelaan and artrust99 as we feel its essential that if the user doesn't like their first choice, they still have the tab open to choose again.

[xecutable]

They still have that choice via the back button. In fact a new user UI experience study suggests that New Tabs cause confusion as the back button stops working. This is especially true for mobile users, which have an easy access to a back function whether it's a swipe or a button. A new tab on mobile goes over your old one .

I encourage webmasters to test their ideas in real time, as what you might think is best for your visitors, might not be overall. Especially if they are not as advanced as us, webmasters. You'd be surprised how many things we take for granted and easy, are extremely difficult for others.

[SammyBingo]

They still have that choice via the back button. In fact a new user UI experience study suggests that New Tabs cause confusion as the back button stops working. This is especially true for mobile users, which have an easy access to a back function whether it's a swipe or a button. A new tab on mobile goes over your old one .

I encourage webmasters to test their ideas in real time, as what you might think is best for your visitors, might not be overall. Especially if they are not as advanced as us, webmasters. You'd be surprised how many things we take for granted and easy, are extremely difficult for others.

On iOS with mobile, after opening the new tab, when pressing the back button it automatically closes this tab and returns to the previously opened. You do in fact have a valid point which is worthwhile looking into.

[LuckoftheSpin]

We keep track of affiliate clicks and open in a new tab, again so that our website remains on their device to possibly be used in the future.