How to mask affiliate links?

[universal4]

Also,

There are methods which can be used which do NOT require a plugin. The same method works with html websites.

A simple php or html page which redirects the visitor containing the affiliate link. Like others have said, link to it using a no-follow and it is recommended to put the pages in their own folder and then restrict the robots to t hat folder with robots/txt.

If links need to be changed, there is only one place to change the link.

This results in a cleaner/leaner htaccess file, lower overhead since database calls are not needed to call the aff id, and MUCH FASTER visit redirects.

Rick
Universal4

[Storebuilder]

The problem with using an affiliate link such as /goto/youraffiliatelink.php is that you then have no idea which link generated the click through. Also you can't use affiliate media tracking or promotion tracking where it is available with this method because you are just redirecting everything through your PHP redirect.

In google analytics you get the option to add a tag to track each link so doing it the long way around provides better tracking and analysis of what works.

Doing it that way though is a huge amount of work, especially if you have a lot of listings.

If you send all your traffic through a php redirect (like I have done on many occasions) you lose the tracking info and ability to implement any conversion optimisation.

Putting everything through a single .php redirect is the simple option but it's definitely not optimal practice because you will be left scratching your balls when you want to find out which links are being clicked on and subsequently finding which links or banners lead to conversions.

This is something that really deserves it's own chapter and verse (conversion optimisation) but of course you have to balance how many programs you are going to support with how many links you are going to generate/support and how you track them.

Building a big site with loads of operators means you need to go the redirect route because updating all those links is a huge effort.

Building a niche site with just a couple of affiliate programs makes link and conversion tracking a lot easier.

In between is just a world of Hurt.

[universal4]

Most affiliate programs that allow for campaign tracking help with this.

Just create a different link for each one you want to track differently.

Also, when using analytics, you can assign events to different links if you want to give google the extra stats too, you can do so with that method.

No matter what method is used, the amount of links to be updated will be the same number, whether in the htaccess, a wordpress plugin, seperate go links etc.

Rick
Universal4

[Storebuilder]

But not tracked idividually

[TheGooner]

If you make it an internal PHP page that has the client jump links then you can record anything you want.

You will have to do it internally in a database - as the affiliate site will only record the links coming from a central point - but it's relatively easy to do so - and you can capture a lot of data that the affiliate site reports never give you.

Date / Time / Country / Browser / OS / Referring page / etc.

It's interesting, but not actually much value, other than when you finally work out that program X no longer accepts (say) Canadians and you've sent 100 Canadian clicks there last month !! Doh!

[universal4]

I generally just try and track down to the individual site level, and once in a while will use a campaign for a specific link or promotion.

This allows me to make good use of individual campaigns at each of the programs and thus I normally only need one link per property at each of my sites.

But like this thread has shown, there are many ways to mask links as well as track progress.

Rick
Universal4

[Progger]

i use my own shortlink script... http://fun-automat.com/sl/ - is not the shortest but always online.

regards

[universal4]

There should never be any reason to use any link shortener that is external to your own site.

One of the many plugins (if you prefer) or a custom script, or just linking to a no-followed non-indexed page, or by use of htaccess, all of those choices are faster than calling out to a third party website.

Rick
Universal4

Edited to add?: A script such as progger recommends is helpful for pinterest, twitter etc where character count works against you though.

[oddsguy]

I built my own link masker/redirect tool, it's actually quite straight forward and has many benefits (like keeping track of which event, result etc got clicked on). Google probably wouldn't approve of the way I do it but Oddschecker do it the same way...

Essentially there is never any links in the code, just data attributes, when someone clicks on the cell of the table or img, jQuery/Javascript takes care of the rest.
If a user has Javascript disabled (very rare these days) then it obviously won't work.

If you use Wordpress I would recommend a plugin called 'GoCodes', it's quite old now but it still works well. A couple of other affiliates on here use it.

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Interesting thread, I'm rebuilding my site from scratch and was wondering if anyone knows what's the best way to code the linked html page to make it redirect in a way that's not going to upset google and adblocker? Don't fancy using tinyurl or equivalent.

[universal4]

Good question,

Usually a simple html redirect page using the refresh= is sufficient, and in most cases it might be recommended to no-index the page. At the very least most if us place the pages in their own folder and restrict the folder with robots.txt.

If using a php site (or of the site supports php) you can use the header location. See example
https://www.gpwa.org/forum/better-lo...tml#post737743

Rick
Universal4

[ARZ]

Still the best choice is Pretty Link, if you´re not using Wordpress, just google

[universal4]

Sorry but an html/php straight link is WAY faster than a plugin that has to read the link from another database table.

The lower number of plugins used on a site, means less database calls and provides more speed and lower security risk.

Rick
Universal4

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Is Google wise to that technique though? You'd think they would be by now..

[Scampi]

Is Google wise to that technique though? You'd think they would be by now..

It's not to trick Google, it's for the readers who may not want to click an affilate link for whatever reason, it also makes your site look tidier (in my opinion).

[Zara Brown]

useful thread, have learned some new things, thanks

[pokeraussie]

It's not to trick Google, it's for the readers who may not want to click an affilate link for whatever reason, it also makes your site look tidier (in my opinion).

It also makes it easier to change aff links should you need to, since you only need to edit it from one location.

[bettingtop10]

I suggest using the WP plugin called Thirtsty affiliates . it is not blocked by adblock and it "hides" the affiliate URL and instead you see /recommends , or /go.

[eenzoo]

Hey guys. A friend of mine (and my server admin) launched a very useful Wordpress plugin (regarding adblock problems)
https://wordpress.org/plugins/moreads-se/

Some pretty cool features (Free Version):
normal grafic banners, html ads and popups supported
GEO targeting - different ads for different countries
ad rotation
device detection - deliver best ads for any device
schedule your ads - maybe deliver live betting ads during a game
AND deliver your ads (just jpg, gif, png) despite an active Adblocker


Feel free to ask any question. i´ll forward your concern …

[Ares]

This is a great thread with very valuable information. Thanks guys.

However I'm a bit shocked by the original post.
I mean how does adblock work? It is really disturbing (or even offensive) for an extension to modify your own site will work. I really think it is unfair.