Gaining juice from affiliate links

[Martin_S]

Afternoon Mozzers,

We run a basic affiliate program whereby we distribute banners and tools to affiliate sites who then link back to our homepage via these, often through a tool that incorporates an HTML link with our primary keyword term embedded. This banner/tool/link heads to our homepage, and will then incorporate that particular affiliate's unique code in the URL, eg. www.example.com/1A-265-GNH

Seems pretty standard practice so far?

So, considering this, that we include our primary keyword term in HTML in some banners, some also link to our homepage via an embedded image (and others then just work off cookies as per usual), can anyone hazard a guess, or know for certain, the beneficence of this as a link building means?

I ask in terms of trying to determine whether to continue punting our tools and banners as a decent link building opportunity, or concentrate more on other link building means.

Hope I've been clear enough, but am happy to elaborate if need be.

Cheers

[RyanKent]

Concentrate on other link building efforts.

Affiliate links should be nofollow. If Google determines a link is related to an affiliate program, they will devalue the link.

http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts-012510.shtml

[Martin_S]

Thanks, Ryan.

Great link, too.

[heatherrobinson]

Hi Martin

The parameters in the URL are a big giveaway that this is an affiliate/paid link, so it's not a good idea to rely on these solely for your link building campaigns. There are ways round this by using cookies to store the affiliate details and keeping your URL clean, but your current system may not allow this.

As Ryan says, never have all your link building eggs in one basket. It's much better to diversify. This will look more natural to the search engines and hopefully mean any changes in Google's algorithm, should affect you too badly.

[Martin_S]

Thanks, Heather. Getting a clearer picture now.