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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!

Eric, I'm really confused.  AddThis automatically adds a tracking code each time the page is loaded.  If you click refresh you'll notice that the code changes.

What do you mean the URL isn't being indexed?  Google is ranking that page for the keyword.  And I might be mistaken but my understanding is that Google disregards everything after the "#" so there shouldn't be a duplicate content issue.

We've begun using AddThis for tracking our social sharing.  AddThis has been adding the snippet to the end of the URLs on our pages and we've been finding that people linking to us are linking to the URL with the snippet.  AddThis says this isn't a problem for SEO.  Is this correct?

Here is an example:

https://www.harborcompliance.com/information/how-to-start-a-non-profit-organization-in-colorado.php#.UunCfPldVig

I want to make sure this is not affecting our SEO in any way, particularly that Google would see this as an affiliate or paid link since it has the "#".  I may be crazy but I just want to make sure!

Hello everyone.  We recently posted some of our research to Wikipedia as references in the "External Links" section.  Our research is rigorous and has been referenced by a number of universities and libraries (an example: https://www.harborcompliance.com/information/company-suffixes.php).  Anyway, I'm wondering if these Wikipedia links have any value beyond of course adding to the Wiki page's information.  Thanks!

What would you give someone as a general rule for extrapolating Google search volumes from the Bing volumes?  I'm looking at the Moz keyword analysis tools and only Bing search volumes are listed so I'm wondering how I could those figures to estimate Google search volumes.

Thanks, Miriam.  This is exactly what I was looking for.  Btw our BBB page has PA1 so I'm not sure we're going to get much link juice from that link anyway, unless we build to it like Cyrus suggests.

Your first link didn't work.

Links from these shallow sites probably won't help much for passing link juice (low authority presumably) but if they're getting traffic then you might want those visitors to see your flagship brand where you have the bulk of your content.  In that case, it would benefit the visitor and therefore would be worth doing.

As always be careful with linking to your flag ship site if the shallow sites are linked to by spammy sites.  It seems to already doing pretty well so taking chances for minimal benefit probably wouldn't be worth it.

Branding and visibility issues aside, from a pure link standpoint those links don't count (or shouldn't per Google).  Google wants affiliate links to be nofollow since they're advertorial (Matt Cutts on the matter - <a>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmlsfSqmOw</a>).  Cutts also says affiliate links should be disclosed adequately.  Now on the other hand, you're right that these links are benefiting a company that has these relationships set up.  I'm sure they're getting visibility, traffic, and ultimately sales.

I think you're right to keep them on the site.  The biggest reason is probably so that people can still have access to the information through search and other means.  As for linking to them from the site, I think the same idea applies.  If you get a new follower and they love your content, they may want to read all of your historical posts.  And you shouldn't make it difficult for them to do that.  When I first discovered what is now one of my favorite blogs, I went back and read every post since it was started 3 or 4 years earlier.

Just a clarification.  We have already purchased the BBB Accreditation.  We found it was very important to have that logo on our site and the link to BBB so people can view our report.  What I was asking about, is should we pursue the link from BBB.  They actually charge extra for this link.

Your first link didn't work.

Links from these shallow sites probably won't help much for passing link juice (low authority presumably) but if they're getting traffic then you might want those visitors to see your flagship brand where you have the bulk of your content.  In that case, it would benefit the visitor and therefore would be worth doing.

As always be careful with linking to your flag ship site if the shallow sites are linked to by spammy sites.  It seems to already doing pretty well so taking chances for minimal benefit probably wouldn't be worth it.

The blog link you mentioned will provide diminishing returns as the initial link you get from a domain is the most helpful and each subsequent link from the same domain is worth less and less.

The forum does indeed sound sketchy if there are links to unrelated sites.  You are in a good position because your competitors link profile doesn't look great.

I also look at the proportion of DA and PA to number of RDs.  The lower the ratio (more RDs) the worse the link profile is.  For instance a site that has a DA of 30 with 15 unique domains has a great ratio.  A site with DA 30 and 500 RDs has a much worse link profile.

This particular site is not impressive.

Branding and visibility issues aside, from a pure link standpoint those links don't count (or shouldn't per Google).  Google wants affiliate links to be nofollow since they're advertorial (Matt Cutts on the matter - <a>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmlsfSqmOw</a>).  Cutts also says affiliate links should be disclosed adequately.  Now on the other hand, you're right that these links are benefiting a company that has these relationships set up.  I'm sure they're getting visibility, traffic, and ultimately sales.

Eric, I'm really confused.  AddThis automatically adds a tracking code each time the page is loaded.  If you click refresh you'll notice that the code changes.

What do you mean the URL isn't being indexed?  Google is ranking that page for the keyword.  And I might be mistaken but my understanding is that Google disregards everything after the "#" so there shouldn't be a duplicate content issue.

I disagree on both fronts, Jesse.  What you said about the www is not true - I literally asked the exact same question by email to SEOMoz and the response they gave is what I provided above, of course without the editorial bit and mention of Majestic.