Affiliate links

[Chris Douthit]

I am wondering how affiliate links respond in search engines compared to the normal default page.

So if my domain was www.mywebsite.com and I had affiliate links in the format of www.mywebsite.com/?aff=12345 would having a 100 links pointing to my website in this affiliate format score higher or less with the search engines compared to just having a 100 links pointing with my default URL?

Just curious and I know Charles is expert on the subject ;)

[charleskirkland]

Chris

From a SE stand point the links will take you back to the home page in the END. So the engines just see it as a vote for your site. The more vote the better.

But it is what is happens in before you get to the default url in the end that will hurt you. Some affiliate programs are better at handling this then other.

The most important thing is what the anchor text for the link is saying. If they just have the term as "Click Here" with your link then you don't gain a lot as far as ranking from your JV's on a spec. search term.

But there are other factors to look at.

You are gaining a huge amount of trustrank from your JV partners which is something that you couldn't buy otherwise.

Trustrank is HUGE.

With so many site all pointing back to your site it makes getting a top spot a snap if you have the time to work on your SERP's.

Also the links will pass Google PR back to your site unless they have a nofollow tag on the page or link.

Most blogs use the nofollow tag. But if you want I can give you my software that I use to find blogs that do follow.

The tool is still in beta right now, but is works.


But one way to leverage the JV's is by having a domain with your keywords in it. This will help you in the rankings becouse some people will use the name as the anchor text.

Right now for the term garage plans in google I'm #3 with garageplansplus.com. I got my main keyword in the domain name. Now as people link to me they are using the name in the anchor text and the link.

This allows me to have a lot less links then other people who are listed around me.

So try to fit your main keyword into your domain name if you can. ;D

Another example of this is a project that I'm almost done with wordpresscodebreaker.com. I'm planning on having it set up with the butterfly script.

So the affilate links will look like this
http://www.wordpresscodebreaker.com/?vip=2

now if I changed the link to read this
http://www.wordpresscodebreaker.com/?free=2

This should look much better to the SERP's even if it dose not help the SE's.

Thanks
Charles

[Chris Douthit]

Thanks for the response Charles, the reason I ask is because I have many link partners. Most have just used my default URL. I have now added a tracking program that benefits to those who send the most traffic. However that requires them to add a ?aff=14567 to the end of the URL.

I have a very generic keyword that sends me most of my traffic. I am ranked 1 in yahoo, 1 in msn, and 3 in google. I am just concerned if I ask them to change to the tracking URL if its going to mess that ranking up.