Best option for Affiliate links on your website?

[Whittie]

Hello!

I have a website which is completely affiliate based.

What is the best option for the links on-page?

Examples would be:

• affiliate.website.com/12901730?2=3532523=user12342901730?2=3532523=user?Whittie
• www.website.com/affiliate=user?Whittie=load-of-tracking=date=blah=blaH?blah
• And So on...

Which look ugly as sin when you hover over the Anchor Text.

Ideally I would like a 301 redirect to mysite.com/goto/affiliatename, which would then have a rel nofollow.

This way I could also track the exit pages via Analytics too guess, which I've not currently got set up and i'm desperate for it to be done.

Does this method effect anything on search engines though? I've seen mixed report, but going back to 2011 which is too long ago in the SEO world.

Another option is to use the likes of "Bit.ly" or use another domain and host 301s on there? The new bit.ly integration from moz might come in handy here.

Please advise on the subject, I really appreciate any help on this, as i'm at a brick wall. Thanks

[donford]

Hi Whittie

My opinion would be to use the actual url, avoid using bit.ly anything.

What I am hearing is you're primarily concerned with the hover text on the link. If this is the case, this brings up 2 questions.

1. Are we talking about the Title Text which is which is what should be displayed when you hover over a link? If that is the case it is as simple as fixing/changing the title tag.

2. Are we talking about the browser displayed URL usually in the lower left hand corner? If that is the case, I think it is of little concern as long as the URL directs to a non-frightening website. Most people from my research, do not even pay attention to the browser displayed URL unless they are very security conscience or in the industry. As one of those people who actually look at links, it brings me back to my very first sentence. If I see something like  (amazon.com/affiliate/AID=200282xx/Moreblah/Otherstuff=2222422) I am fine clicking the link. If I see any sort of obfuscation link like bit.ly I will not click the link unless I 100% trust the website I'm on.

There are other points that can be made about about SEO practices but I don't believe that is the core of the question being asked.

[Whittie]

Hi Donford,

I appreciate your reply, in reply to your points;

1 - Sorry I wasn't clear on this, and completely wrote Anchor text when I actually meant the URL usually in the lower left hand corner which you mentioned in point two! Doh!

2 - I see what you're saying, I guess I just want nice clean URLS! Other issues have appeared such as

• Page Load time - Links are tracked currently on the site for impressions, therefore using a script and slowing the site down.
• Image size out of my hands - Images are hosted on the affiliates site and can be up to 80-100kb (which starts to take its toll on the page loads, although it doesn't sound a lot)
• Tracking the links in Analytics - If the links stay as they are, do you know of any solution to track? Never had to add a goal to an outbound link before now.

I feel like moving them to mysite.com/donford/link1 i'd be helping the above 3 points. On the other side of things, i'm assuming Google would see it as cloaking / hiding the url?

[donford]

The sub issues,

I'll have to preference my response with I have no direct experience with sites that derive their income from solely affiliate clicks / impressions. I have been on the other side of the coin though, where my site was the one doing the affiliation recruitment.

Page load time, always a concern. Thankfully this has a myriad of ways to control it. Script optimization, less affiliates per search, using pagination, etc.

Image size this goes back to the page load time, is it possible to host the images locally? When you start pulling images from everywhere and their brother you end up waiting for their site to relay that information.

Tracking and Analytics, I have no good suggestions here. I know of course you want to compile your own data, but most affiliates sites provide you with inbound metrics.

Good luck hope it helps sort things,

[Whittie]

Great thanks for that donford.

I've noticed a well ranked competitor is using 302 redirects to do what i'm after. Would this benefit me at all?