Choosing an Affiliate Software & Link SEO-Value
-
Hello everyone. I'm looking for recommendations for affiliate software. I'm also curious if there is any truth in the "SEO-value" that some softwares are touting as a benefit.
Choosing a Software:
This Moz Blog Article says to build it yourself. However, I'm inclined to use an out-of-the-box software for advanced features such as real-time analytics for the affiliate, w-9/1099 processing, etc.
MozPerks promotes hasoffers.com which seems overly pricey ($230/month with perk discount) and OMNISTAR who just left me on hold for 10 minutes (and still no anwer from their sales department).
So I'm still looking. Any recommendations?
SEO-value of Links from Affiliates:
Here's an example of what OMNISTAR claims about the SEO value of the way they structure the links from affiliate sites to my site. I hear a variation on this pitch from each software and none of them seem to agree.
-
Does Google want me to clearly tag promotional vs. editorial links?
-
Is there SEO-value in promotional links on affiliate sites or is that a load of bologna?
Thanks a bunch!
-
-
I don't know much about the various types of affiliate software, so I'll leave that to the experts. But I can tell you what Google says (at least publicly) about the "SEO value" of links on the sites of your affiliates.
At an SMX conference, Matt Cutts (Google's head of web spam) said that Google essentially knows how to "handle" the major affiliate networks but that affiliate marketers may want to add nofollow tags just in case. (See the YouTube video.) What does "handle" mean? I would suggest that it's Google's aim NOT to have such affiliate links pass "credit" to the original site because Google views them essentially as paid links or links that are not placed naturally and editorially. Cutts suggestion to use nofollow is a way to stop this from happening for any smaller affiliate network that Google might not know about.
Short version? I'd be highly skeptical of any claim that affiliate links help your "SEO." Sounds like snake oil. Given enough time, I project Google will become good enough that any link that is not 100% earned (rather than built) through good old-fashioned marketing and PR will not help websites (and may, in fact, hurt them).
Moz also has a good post here with some affiliate SEO suggestions and further commentary on the issue.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do I easily no-follow my affiliate links?
Hi, I am in the process of setting up an affiliate marketing campaign for my site. I have done a bit of research and understand that it is safest in terms of SEO to add no-follow to the links from the affiliate sites. What is the easiest and simplest way to implement this?
Affiliate Marketing | | whiteonlySEO2 -
Affiliate marketing for our Amazon Products ??
Hi Guys. Can any recommend or is it possible to build an affiliate marketing programme to generate sales from our Amazon product pages rather the the traditional way of generating sales through your own website ? Can anyone advise ? Or recommend any companies ? Thanks Gareth
Affiliate Marketing | | GAZ090 -
SEO Implications For a Technical Functionality Fix
Our Magento based affiliate extension is not working, due to a conflict with the Varnish caching system. Varnish has a known bug which does not allow multiple cookies to be set. Our workaround involves redirecting any request with the affiliate tracking parameter to the HTTPS version of the site. Varnish does not run on HTTPs and therefore our affiliate cookie will be set. Note: the main content of our site runs on HTTP. My SEO concern is how to handle this for the search engines. We have a few things to consider: Redirect: Should we use a 301 or 302? Canonical: It seems to make sense to include a canonical on the HTTP version of the site without the affiliate tracking parameter - right? Robots Meta Tags: "noindex, follow" or "index, follow" Am I missing something? Thanks for your time and consideration!
Affiliate Marketing | | 19prince0 -
Where can I find best resources for Affiliate Marketing?
Any suggestion for Affiliate training, forums, seminars, etc. for newbie? I'm doing my research but would like to hear from pros. I'm experienced web developer and Adsense publisher, now want to step in the world of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate Marketing | | webplex0 -
How to prevent affiliates from bringing negative SEO?
Hi there, I'm just about to integrate iDevAffiliate network for one of my sites, however it occurred to me that affiliates may (unfortunately) resort to black hat methods without me becoming aware of it, which could pass negative link juice to my site. Is there any way to use affiliate networks such as iDev without causing this problem? I was thinking of simply using a different URL, but the problem is that 301 redirects won't mitigate the issue. Thanks!
Affiliate Marketing | | freeunlocks0 -
Google Panda & Effects On Affiliate Sites
Quick Question, We all have heard that outbound links for affiliate marketing will be filtered via Panda however how does this work when using the Google Affiliate Network URL's? Has anyone found different signals with using Google vs. Another Network?
Affiliate Marketing | | Ben-HPB0 -
Link exchange
Folks I just thought to myself that this forum must be filled with lovely SEOs who are busy working on multiple clients.... I'm very new to the industry myself... about a month into it 🙂 Any-hoots I was just wondering if anybody is working in a category that may be suitable for a link exchange with http://bluetea.com.au/ .... Please let me know
Affiliate Marketing | | PHDAustralia680 -
Promoting an Affiliate Scheme
I have to promote an affiliate scheme, and am drawing up a list of techniques that I can use to get people interested and sign up to it. Currently I have: Promoting the scheme in any article promotion. Identifying relevant websites to the scheme, and contacting them directly. Networking in affiliate forums and communities. Promoting on Facebook and Twitter. Possibly producing a video reviewing the scheme and posting it onto YouTube and other video sites. Can anyone think of any other techniques that I could try using? Cheers.
Affiliate Marketing | | speedyseo0