Does an affiliate link bring the same SEO juice as a standard link?

[maciek-]

I wonder if affiliate links, like the ones offered by Amazon Associates program bring the same SEO as would a link to the same page without this additional "ref=..."?

[YannickVeys]

In my understanding, affiliate links' value are demoted. I think it's pretty easy for google to see a link is an affiliate link. Clicking it will add a certain type of cookie and I believe Google can easily distinguish between these links. Adding a reL=nofollow to the link is the appropriate way to have these links on your site. Beside that, Amazon's affiliate programme is well known, so Google will definetly compensate for that.

However, people aren't convinced that the rel=nofollow attribute doesn't give any value to the link. Some believe it still adds to domain diversity and other fankers besides the "plain" link juice.

[EricaMcGillivray]

I'd also add that if you using Google's Affiliate program, the links are their own which then redirect to your site.

[maciek-]

Hi Yannick, thank's for replying to my question. I came up with similar conclusions and this was actually the reason for posting this question. I am sure that it's a piece a cake for Google to distinguish affiliated links from standard links and I see a logical reason behind putting different value on those, but I was hopping that somebody would speak from experience, e.g. tested both kinds of links and knows what difference in strength they carry.