Does Using Affiliate Links Affect SEO? Here’s The Answer
Many people are concerned with using affiliate links. Common worries about using affiliate links is that:
- It will negatively affect SEO efforts – lowering your rankings and traffic.
- It will lead to a penalty – which can be detrimental and prohibit you from ever ranking high on Google.
However, neither of these concerns should give cause for concern – if you know what you’re doing, you’re completely safe!
We definitely recommend using affiliate links since they are one of the best ways for bloggers and website owners to drive revenue. 15% of the digital media industry’s revenue comes from affiliate marketing. And the market is growing year-on-year.
Source: DigitalGYD
More than 80% of brands use affiliate marketing programs. If you aren’t already, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to make a lot of money (and provide more value to your readers as well).
In this post, you’ll discover everything about affiliate links and SEO – and how to use them safely to stay out of trouble and maximize your results.
How Google Views And Treats Affiliate Links
Affiliate links are sponsored links that are unique to each affiliate (a promoter of the link) for driving traffic to products. The main objective of affiliate links is to drive traffic to a store and increase sales.
Google recognizes these links and has no problem with them!
This is because if you can use them properly, they will not only help you drive more sales, but also improve user experience – which is Google’s #1 priority.
The Link Equity is Not The Same
When you link to another page (without a rel=nofollow or rel=sponsored tag), Google passes a level of authority or value from a linking page to the page it links to.
Source: Kodeak
However, affiliate links do not pass the same amount of link equity as regular links.
When a website links to another website using a ‘nofollow’ or ‘sponsored’ tag, it tells search engines not to pass link equity to the linked site.
This will make sure that the linked website will not receive any of the linking site’s page authority, which Google uses for determining the authority and trustworthiness of a website. This is critical since you don’t want to be passing your authority to anyone.
(That could be interpreted as manipulating Google’s algorithm.)
Google’s Affiliate Link Guidelines
Using affiliate links while staying safe is crucial to maintain your website’s reputation and search engine rankings.
If you fail to comply with Google’’s guidelines, the negative effects may be catastrophic, including:
- Negative SEO impact. Poor affiliate link practices can lead to a negative impact on your website’s overall SEO, affecting all your content, not just affiliate-related pages.
- Loss of trust and credibility. If users perceive your site as misleading due to bad affiliate link practices, they’ll lose trust in your content, which lowers your traffic.
- Algorithmic penalties. Google’s algorithms detect low-quality or spammy content and may demote your site’s rankings.
Looking to use affiliate links while avoiding any of these issues?
In this section, you’ll learn everything about Google’s affiliate link guidelines, along with actionable ways to use them through your website.
#1: Use the Right Link Attribute
There are two ways you can let Google know that it should not pass the link equity of a link (since it’s sponsored):
- ‘Rel=nofollow’. The nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore the link.
- ‘Rel=sponsored’. Mark links for Google as advertisements or paid placements (commonly called paid links).
The ‘rel=sponsored’ is preferred for affiliate links.
However, this is just a best practice, not a MUST-DO with your affiliate links.
Here’s what John Mueller, a senior search analyst at Google, has got to say about the use of ‘rel=sponsored’ with affiliate links.
“So, from our point of view, affiliate links fall into that category of something financially attached to the links, so we really strongly recommend using this setup. But, for the most part, if it doesn’t come across as you selling links, then it’s not going to be the case that we would manually penalize a website for having affiliate links and not marking them up.”
While it’s not necessary, we still recommend using a ‘sponsored’ tag, just to be safe.
Adding ‘Rel=Sponsored’ in WordPress
You can use ClickWhale, our FREE WordPress plugin, to add sponsored tags to your affiliate links. Head over to WordPress and install and activate the ClickWhale plugin.
Once installed, go to the WordPress menu, select ClickWhale → Links, and click the ‘Add New’ button.
You will now be able to do the following:
- Add a link tag. Add a ‘nofollow’ or ‘sponsored’ link attribute to a link.
- Shorten the link. Turning a long and complex link into a shorter, more appealing one.
- Customize your link. Making your links more professional and trustworthy by shortening them and making them branded.
It’s as simple as adding a title to your link, customizing the URL, and selecting the link attribute you want to add.
After you’re done, all you have to do is copy the link from ClickWhale and use it within your blog posts.
#2: Disclose Affiliate Relationships
An affiliate link disclosure informs your readers that you are being compensated in some way for your promotion of a company or product via a link.
This disclosure of affiliate relationships with companies is also a mandatory requirement of the affiliate scheme terms.
Disclosing affiliate relationships is important not only to affiliate networks, but also to Google. Failing to disclose affiliate relationships can be seen as deceptive or misleading, which goes against Google’s terms. This could result in the immediate closure of your affiliate account, with the loss of all pending earnings.
Read on: How to Disclose Affiliate Relationships
#3: Monitor and Remove Low-Quality Affiliates
We highly recommend using high-quality affiliate networks such as Amazon Associates.
It’s essential you stay away from low-quality affiliate networks that might lead your readers to fishy websites and cause harm. It’s also not a good look to be associated with these websites – Google doesn’t like it either!
That’s why it’s vital to regularly check and review affiliate links you promote, and remove any that are low-quality or spammy, and which may violate Google’s guidelines.
You can do this by going to the Google Search Console and checking for any errors with links.
If you fixed everything (or there weren’t any errors), you can also analyze your backlink profile with tools such as Ahrefs.
From there, you can find and remove any low-quality links.
#4: Provide Valuable Content
The most important thing to Google is the relevance and value you provide to readers.
Source: SparkToro
To be as relevant as possible, your content must be high-quality and trustworthy. Unfortunately, many affiliate marketers often forget about that. The only thing they care about is having tons of affiliate links on their website, driving high revenue.
However, this will almost certainly decrease the overall quality and trustworthiness of your content.
(And potentially hurt your SEO efforts.)
That’s why we recommend putting your readers first. Focus on them and make the quality of your content the #1 priority. Even if it means you’ll be using fewer affiliate links, it is definitely worth it in the long run.
Looking to Make Your Content More Appealing?
AAWP, our Amazon Affiliate WordPress plugin, lets you create stunning affiliate content that will set you apart from competitors, and make it easier for your readers to choose the right product – greatly enhancing your chances of conversions.
You can choose various content types, including:
- Comparison tables. Comparing two or more similar products.
- Bestsellers. Listing the top X best-selling products in a chosen category.
- New Releases. Showcasing the top products from a product category you choose.
- Single (or multiple) product boxes. Providing detailed information about one or multiple products.
Just take a look and compare the wealth of information we help you to include with the products you promote…
…as you can see, we’ve also solved the issue with Amazon’s small image sizes.
If you’re looking to stand out and become your reader’s go-to source of product reviews and recommendations, try AAWP on your website now.
Avoid Link Schemes – You Might Get a Penalty!
Make sure to stay away from link schemes!
Link schemes involve deceptive or manipulative strategies to boost the visibility and authority of your affiliate links. Google explicitly discourages participating in link schemes with the aim of manipulating search ranking algorithms. This includes:
- Excessive link exchanges. Participating in a large number of reciprocal link exchanges with other affiliate marketers solely for the purpose of boosting each other’s rankings.
- Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. Paying for, or selling links solely for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings is against guidelines.
- Using automated programs or services to create links. This can result in low-quality and irrelevant links, signaling a link scheme.
To stay out of trouble, it’s vital you DO NOT get involved in any of these practices!
The thing to keep in mind is that it’s never a good idea to manipulate Google or use any black hat SEO strategies. You might get a short-term boost in traffic; however, in the long term, you’ll always get penalized.
Take Advantage of Affiliate Links And Maximize Revenue
We definitely recommend giving affiliate marketing a try! However, before you jump in, it’s important to comply with Google’s guidelines. You also need to find a way to be different and stand out from competitors.
For that, you might find these resources helpful:
- From Hobby to Hustle: How to Turn a Blog Into a Thriving Business
- How To Write A Good Product Review That Sells
- The Complete Guide To Conversion Rate Optimization
Looking to boost your Amazon affiliate links?
AAWP is our Amazon Affiliate WordPress plugin that will help you stand out from competitors and turn your affiliate links into appealing banners. We enable you to use unique ways of showcasing affiliate products, such as Bestsellers, New Releases, and Comparison tables.
For instance, here’s how you can use the New Releases or Bestseller lists…
You choose the category of the products, select filters such as color, material, and price, and you’re all set. AAWP will automatically pull data from Amazon and populate your website with the most relevant products.
The best thing about it is that you can set it up in seconds – and forget about it. AAWP automatically updates content in dynamic listings such as Bestseller Lists and New Releases, so you can relax, knowing that your visitors will always be seeing the most relevant and up to date product listings – maximizing the probability of them clicking your links… and earning you more revenue!
Get AAWP today and find out how you can boost your Amazon Associates commissions.
Start now with AAWP!
AAWP is the #1 WordPress plugin for Amazon affiliates who are serious about earning more. Get started today!