The SEO Benefits Of An Affiliate Program
January 11, 2008
Don't look so shocked! It's true, affiliate programs can have great search engine optimization benefits.
Now, I know that affiliate programs are often seen as a way to get around needing to do any search engine optimization. I'll be honest with you: for a long time that's how I saw them. "If I have an affiliate program," I thought, "then I don't have to worry about getting ranked in the search engines. All of my traffic will come from the affiliate referrals!"
There is some truth to that. Having an affiliate program for a product that converts well does ensure a steady flow of traffic even if you're not well ranked in the search engines. But if you play your cards right, your affiliate program can do double duty: send a steady stream of referrals from the affiliates and get you ranked for some solid keywords in Google.
Let me explain how this is possible.
How Affiliate Links Help Rank Your Product Page
Most affiliate links use 301 redirects. A 301 redirect is the technical term for a permanent redirect. Basically, a 301 redirect tells the search engine crawlers to count the affiliate link as a link to the final destination rather than the initial link.
For example, your affiliate link might look like this:
http://theproductdomain.com/?id=12345
But it contains a 301 redirect to the home page:
http://theproductdomain.com/
So when Google sees the affiliate link, it's not going to try and rank theproductdomain.com/?id=12345, but will apply the link to the ranking of the final destination instead (in this case the home page).
This also applies when affiliates use 301 redirecting scripts to "cloak" their affiliate links. A large portion of affiliates do this. Instead of using the affiliate link above, they will use a redirect that might look like this:
http://affiliatedomain.com/recommends/yourproduct.php
That script will usually use a 301 redirect to their affiliate link, which then 301 redirects to your site's home page. Google follows both 301s and applies the initial link to the ranking of the final destination (your product sales page). This is also true if the affiliate uses links from cloaking sites like TinyUrl.com or OffTo.net.
To get the maximum benefit from this, you need to make sure that your affiliate program links always redirect to the main product page. For example, a ClickBank affiliate link will result in referrals landing at a page like this:
http://theproductdomain.com/?hop=cbusername
That's not what you want! You want them to land at theproductdomain.com without showing the "hop=cbusername" portion, because Google counts those as two different pages. So you should make sure that the product page will check the url to see if the "hop=cbusername" is there, and if it is, perform a 301 redirect to theproductdomain.com. This will ensure that you get the maximum benefit from the affiliate links aimed at your product site.
If your site uses PHP, you can use an index.php file that looks something like this:
if(isset($_GET["hop"])){
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://theproductdomain.com/");
header("Expires: 0");
exit;
}
else{
readfile("salesletter.html");
exit;
}
?>
Thanks to whitehatcrew.com for the 301 header addition. Can't believe I forgot that!
What this will do is check for the "hop" variable in the query string. If it finds it, it will redirect to the home page instead. If not, it will show salesletter.html (which should contain your product's sales letter). That's an easy way to make sure that ClickBank affiliate links all end up in a 301 redirect to the home page. Don't worry, the ClickBank cookies will all remain in place so that the affiliate gets credit.
A side benefit is that this will make your affiliates happy. In the past I've had many affiliates write in and ask me to remove the "hop=" for my ClickBank products. They don't like to see it there.
Encourage Proper Keyword Usage In The Affiliate Links
As you may already be aware, having the keywords that you want to rank for in the links aimed at your site is incredibly important to rank well for those keywords. So, for example, if you want your product page to rank for "green widgets", it's not going to help you much if all of the affiliate links say "Go to theproductdomain.com now!" or something like that which is completely unrelated to "green widgets."
To encourage the use of "green widgets" in the link anchor text, be sure and provide the HTML code for your affiliates on the affiliate page. A large portion of your affiliates, especially the ones newer to affiliate marketing, will just copy and paste whatever you give them to use right into their web pages and blogs.
To illustrate this, do a search in Google for "search engine myths exposed" "holy grail". As of right now that will return 584 results.
The majority of those results are from people who just copied and pasted the example sales copy that I gave my affiliates to promote my new report, Search Engine Myths Exposed. In this particular instance I did not take my own advice and include the HTML code with the keywords that I wanted to rank for in the example copy (it was really meant for emailing, not posting to a web page). However, it clearly demonstrates that a large number of affiliates will copy and paste whatever you give them to use!
Fortunately for me, many of my affiliates are linking to the report site with the keywords "Search Engine Myths Exposed." This has ensured my #1 position for the phrase in Google.
At first my report did not rank #1 for those keywords. Some of my affiliates were ahead of me, and I was down around #8 in the results. But after I announced the pre-launch and got a swarm of affiliates, my site quickly jumped into first place at Google.
Don't Limit Yourself To Your Product Name
You certainly don't want to limit yourself to rank for the name of your product. Research targeted keywords that will help generate sales. For example, my Instant Article Wizard software currently ranks in the top 10 for the keywords article marketing, which brings in steady traffic and sales direct from Google.
In Summary
Yes, your affiliate program will bring in a steady flow of referrals and sales even if you don't rank well in the search engines, but with a little forethought and extra effort, it can also get you ranked for keywords that will bring generate sales and increase your bottom line!
Please post your thoughts and comments below.
Comments
73 Responses to “The SEO Benefits Of An Affiliate Program”
Got something to say?
-
Jonathan Leger has been earning his living online full-time since the fall of 2004. He regularly posts advice about search engine optimization (his current passion), AdSense and Internet Marketing. 
-
Nice post Jon. This is something I thought about while making my own custom affiliate program after I had implemented it the wrong way. I will be sure to fix a few sites now. Thanks!
I was just thinking the same thing Jon.
100 affiliates displaying their aff links on sites and having them
point back to the main domain is free one-way links, basically.
Now, to show those affiliates how to put the proper anchor text..
Thanks,
Dan
A very interesting blog Jonathan, but as someone new to affiliate marketing without the knowledge of cloaking/redirecting affiliate links how can I learn how to recognise which links I CAN alter for my own benefit and which ones I CAN'T.
You probably explained it very well in the blog but I missed it!
Great work, keep it going.
Steve
Great post john, really gives me something to think about as i am attempting to put my own product together right now!
Very good article. Both my lovely Wife, and I, are writing blogs for fun and profit. This article and your eBook have given us a real kick start.
Regards
Great info! I always wondered what the process was to get rid of the "hop" in the address bar at clickbank sites. Easier than I thought it would be! Now all I need is something to sell on clickbank, hmmm……
Hi Jon,
I got on your list to download your free ebook about Google, but I think I deleted the email with the download link. Is it possible to send me that again?
Thanks,
Tami
This is really helpful. I'm about to laucnch my own affilaite programme and now I know the best way to get people to link to me.
You've given me the push I needed to set up my affiliate programme now rather than wait until everyhting is perfect.
I appreciate all the info you make so freely avaible.
Lynne Lee
Jon or any other readers….
What is the best way to promote that you have an outstanding affiliate program? Joining CJ.com, Linkshare, etc., are expensive endeavors for a small site trying to build a base of healthy customers…
Any feedback or points in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks again for another educational article Jon
Dave
[…] read a post by Jonathan Leger today about the SEO benefits of an affiliate program, in which he recommends that merchants do a permanent redirect from the page their affiliates link […]
Hi Jon,
Some great tips here. I'd also like to add that I have found when setting up an affiliate program it is also extremely beneficial to outline the terms of the program clearly, instruct partners if there are other links that they need to setup, provide conversion stats, and let them preview the sales letter ahead of time so they can make an informed decision about whether the product will even convert well with their list. The more you effectively communicate with your partners, the more likely they will be to promote for you in the future.
Thanks for the great info,
Stephanie Mulac
Jon,
The link to "pays forever" above looks like a classic pyramid scam. May I suggest you remove it. It is beneath you and your valuable, legitamate information.
As usual another great post. I found your report very interesting. The part that got me thinking was the dupe content portion. But this affiliate redirect and now ranking #1 because of solid 1 way links back to the site is cool.
Hopefully a really simple question, but is that code the only code that should be on that index.php page or where specifically should it be written?
Anyone have a full out HTML code for the full page?
Thanks a bunch,
fabman
Thanks, Jon. Very useful info there as usual. I think what I and many other affiliate marketers need is to figure out what kind of original product we can develop (or can have developed for us) that we is related to our own niche affiliate sites so we can offer it there as well as get affiliates to market it for us.
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the info, I have been looking into putting together an affiliate program, what service would you recommend? or should I get my own software? I have looked at both, but did want something that would help my seo as well, now it looks like I can have good seo with a service rather then the software? What are your thoughts? What do you use?
Thanks,
Kelly
John, an excellent post explaining an important point which most of us have not thought about.
As always great stuff, definitely using this methods and leveraging the power of affiliates will help your product page get that extra boost.
James Dean
Dear Sir
Have anice day,
every thing your offering & saying sounds good except me
the problem in me I havent credet card or visa jobless since 2 years looking to feed my family tell now I didnot get any peny
I visit alot of locations on the net .
wish you the best
hope that you acheive your target
Regards
Majed Al Habanin
Thanks Jon! I just changed my affiliate links to use a redirect after the cookie is set. I'm glad I read your blog today!
Awesome! This is an eye-opener to many and goes to show link building is still the biggest part of the algo today.
Hey Jon…real gold here…however…
We all appreciate affiliate marketing, especially the leverage aspect. Affiliate sales aren't a one size fits all type of marketing…limme explain.
I sell coffee and perfume…guess what…neither of 'my' spots
provide enough margin for me to offer an affiliate program.
Now I understand that nothing is keeping me from marketing some type of product and/or goods and services that do lend themselves to affiliate marketing and that your post here is like I said…gold…
just another point of view.
~~gourmet coffee snob~~
Always Drink Coffee Be Very Happy
@Callaway Clone Golf Clubs - Clickbank and Shareasale are the next 2 big affiliates.
Since my site is a sports/running site, I find products from Shareasale works great for me.
Clickbank only sells digital products, and some of their eBooks sell well on other targeted sites.
Oops - clicked too fast.
Shareasale offers datafeeds, so you can sell a specific product, and not just their home landing page.
A 3rd one to consider is building an Amazon or eBay storefront, but I haven't had any experience with that.
Other thoughts?
Enjoyed article re: SEO Benefits of Affiliates.
Got lost, though, when you talked about including html code for affiliates. I understand the reasoning etc. of what you're saying … but am confused by what you mean when you say:
"To encourage the use of "green widgets" in the link anchor text, be sure and provide the HTML code for your affiliates on the affiliate page."
Am just now setting up my first affiliate project. Could you show an example of two of what you're referring to in that paragraph?
Thanks.
John
[…] (Read the rest of the post..) […]
Go to the Warrior Forum. It's where "everybody" in the biz hangs out. http://www.warriorforum.com/forum
Also look into "Give-Away" sites. I have a nice free gift with UNIVERSAL appeal you could offer prospects if you want to.
John
thanx
Yet again another well written, thought provoking article. I will try to implement some of the things you mention and see how I get on.
Hi Jon,
Thanks for sharing the above great info!
But there's some thing I'm not very sure…
After all the cloaking and redirect, will our affiliate link or maybe cookies be affected? I mean like in the end we don't get any commission.
For example, I assumed the whole process goes like this…
Affiliates sent visitors to their cloak links at http://www.affiliatedomain.com/recommends/product.html
…and then it redirects to http://cbusername.product.hop.clickbank.net
…then again it redirects to http://www.productdomain.com/?hop=cbusername
…finally it redirects to http://www.productdomain.com
Hopefully I'm not wrong about the whole process, but will any of the steps above causes the lost of an affiliate sales?
And what if the cloaking method we use is not a 301 redirect, (e.g. htaccess, iframe…), will it matter?
Sorry for the long questions, but these problems had been bothering me for quite some time, hope I can get some answers from you.
Thanks and regards,
Eric
Eric:
As I stated in the post, it will not effect your cookies. The cookies get set when the browser is passed (using your example) through:
http://cbusername.product.hop.clickbank.net
They remain set no matter what redirection takes place after that.
Other forms of redirects (non 301) will not have the same SEO benefits for the product vendor. But then again, being the affiliate, you probably aren't real concerned about that.
Good info as usual. Having an affiliate program is certainly a great way to get links. The challenge now, is to set up an affiliate program with a great sales page that converts. If you don't test the heck out of your sales process and refine it, then you'll attract very few affiliates. The ones you do attract will give up after a while if they don't see success, and your links will dry up.
I hear people all the time saying "I haven't sold any copies of my ebook on my site, so I'm going to put it up on Clickbank." Good luck! If you haven't sold any, neither will anybody else. So, unlike so many people, you need to have a solid sales process in place first before these links will come (and stay). Thanks for the post and keep the info comin'. - Kurt
Very true Kurt. Tons of traffic means nothing if you can't convert people into buyers.
Great topic Jon.
I just wish I wasn't quite so technically challenged, otherwise I could use this on all my sites. I will give it a try but my hopes for success are somewhat limited. If there's a way to mess it up, I'll find it!
Great post Jon.
1 question though: The code which you posted, does that work for html websites too or does it have to be PHP?
AdWords Exam:
Most sites support PHP, so chances are it will work for you even if you're only using HTML right now. Check with your host first to make sure.
Jon, I fully agree with you except this:
"You want them to land at theproductdomain.com without showing the "hop=cbusername" portion, because Google counts those as two different pages."
If you have an account with Google Webmaster Tools - and probably you have it - then you see that Google does NOT count them as two different pages …
Thanks for another insightful article Jon. I am in the process of setting up an affiliate program on one of my sites and plan to use what I have learned here today! Thanks
Ads:
I'm afraid you are mistaken. Here are a couple of examples of Google seeing the "hop" page as a separate page:
site:site:therichjerk.com
site:site:therichjerk.com inurl:hop
Notice how the home page and the hop page are indexed separately.
An even better example:
site:truthaboutabs.com
site:truthaboutabs.com inurl:hop
Again, notice the separate indexing.
Jon, I assume they made some SEO "mistakes" and that's why. But you cannot make a rule based on this. Want a proof?
Search for one of my websites:
site:adshome.info inurl:hop
It is usually ranked 4-6 under ClickBank/Marketing & Ads/Ezines and it's not a very new website …
Search on Google for "classified ad co-op" and you'll find it as No.2 …
Well?
If Google can (and does) index "hop" pages (as demonstrated in my examples), then why take the chance that you "got it all right"? Especially when it's so simple to make sure that the "hop" url gets redirected back to the sales page.
That's another story, Jon. I never say it's not good
What I've said is that Google does NOT count them as two different pages … unless you don't take care.
… as you have seen from my previous post if you treat Google well, he treats you well even if you don't apply the principle we are writing about
Jon or someone, do you have an example of the FULL code for the PHP page?
I just want to make sure that I get the code right.
I too want to eliminate the affiliate ID showing, get full credit in google and stop affiliate hijacking if possible.
Thanks in advance.
fabman
Jon,
Thanks for the insight, I have been working on a product to affiliate, this should prove to be useful.
George
I need affiliates but I have no idea where or how to recruit them. I'm going to pay a whopping 40%, if only I could implement a system. Can anyone advise me?
Now that's a real eye opener. One more good reason to develop my own product and have an affiliate program.
Thanks.
Luc
Now I have an unique domain for a clickbank site that I "mask" so the domain remains the same instead of changing to the destination URL, am I still getting credit for these redirects? When I click on order button and see who the affiliate is, it does show my hoplink ID at the bottom so I assume it's working well.
Thanks,
Takuya
As I'm busy changing my website in more ways than one and also to include an affiliate program using JVM, this article is very valuable to me!
Many thanks for this Jon.
Kindest regards
Mada
I never knew that would help with ranking a page. That would really help if I know how to go about implementing this idea.
Thank you for the anwser!
Its not something I really thought about about using affiliate for better rankings. Thanks again for the great info
Really great article Jonathan - you've covered all the bases.
I noticed something similar a few years ago with incoming affiliate links to a product site of mine. We were using our own software at the time and I thought nothing much about the link benefits because I assumed that these kinds of specific ID related inbound links couldn't add much to our link score. In fact, they had a number of benefits, including very rapid deep indexing, and this one method you've outlined here is important for all affiliate product sites.
Really great article Jonathan - you've covered all the bases.
I noticed something similar a few years ago with incoming affiliate links to a product site of mine. We were using our own software at the time and I thought nothing much about the link benefits because I assumed that these kinds of specific ID related inbound links couldn't add much to our link score. In fact, they had a number of benefits, including very rapid deep indexing, and this one method you've outlined here is important for all affiliate product sites.
I think you can change your clickbank hop link or andy other
by using tinyurl.com. It will take you right to the product page. thanks for the info, I read everything you write.
matthew faulkner
Jon,
Sounds like affiliate programs are double edged traffic machines. Good advice to supply cut and paste links to your affiliates with your chosen keywords. I like it when my affiliate id is in place too.
I see a lot of marketers supplying the links to their affiliates with the marketers affiliate id still in the link. I always wonder how many affiliates forget to substitute their affiliate id, resulting in more sales for the marketer?
Thanks again for useful insight!
Ted
That's another round of great advice. Thanks for the great post. I learned something new again.
Jon -
If I have an affiliate program, do you know where I can announce it (other than here) so that people can look into it and sign up if they want?
We sell custom built golf clubs and pay out 15% on an average $150 order.
Thanks for any insight.
Dave
Hello John.
Would this be the same for referral links to forums, e.g my referral link to a forum is /register.php?referrerid=6
When I enter the link the referrer bit still shows in the url
Thanks
Mally
hi jon
I am also thinking so. affiliate provides us a great way of one way linking its the simplest and easiest way to get one way links to our site.
But what abour those site which does not contain more products or like corporate sites?
can you please suggest me how to get more one way backlinks to this kind of sites.
thanks jon
Hello Jon,
I've been trying to implement this method on one of my sites which uses PayDotCom instead of Clickbank.
I've done slight amendment to the code you posted by changing "hop" to "id" as that's how the structure of links PDC uses. (Example: http://www.websitename.com/?id=123)
This unfortunately did not work.
I went over to your Instant Article Wizard website because I know that you use PDC for that product as well. I looked at the source code of your website but apparently you do not use this method for that website? I can't seem to find it.
If possible, can you share your insights on how to implement this redirect for PayDotCom. I'm kind of stuck.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Jon:
I have also been trying to implement this on a site that uses PayDotCom, but I am having trouble too.
Does anyone have any answers yet?
I also have a home business Realty service package coming to one of my new sites. How could I implement it there?
Thanking you in advance.
Great tip ~ I'll definitely use that hop redirect when I have a moment. Thanks Jonathan.
Wow, thanks alot for the great insight & info Jon, didnt know that affililate links play such an important part in helping us get good Google rankings…looks like i really need to look at affiliate programs & affilate links diferently from now onwards !
Thanks so much for your sharing…
good info here man but i have to ask about other scripts running a site. for example your former baby the $7 script or the raps script now. with either one of them there is no affiliate id shown in the browser address bar (only on the paypal page)
do either of these scripts use a similar method and if not would it be possible to do what you and whitehatcrew suggest with these types of scripts. im curious because as you know neither of these will actually have an "index" page as the index.php file controls what is displayed to the users browser.
Hi Jon,
Thanks again!
Cool bit about the php script.
Q:
Where do I add it?
Do I make an additional index page (index.php) or turn an index.html into index.php? where would the code go?
Have a nice day!
Curly.
Sounds great! I was approached by someone who wants to promote my product to her list of 3000. I guess I have to get on the ball and get an affiliate program going.
Do you recommend clickbank or paydotcom or something else?
Thanks,
Joe
I prefer PayDotCom personally. It doesn't let affiliate's buy from themselves, which causes a lot of lost commissions for your top affiliates. ClickBank also has a horrible (in my opinion) "refund for any nonsense reason" policy.
Thanks for the quick response. I'll look into them.
Jon,
Thanks for this great tip.
I'm trying to set it up on a WP blog and cannot find how to add the php to the blog. Can you show how to achieve the same thing via the .htaccess file?
Thanks,
Scott.
Is there a place I can get a 301 redirect script that doesn't involve my pages being written in PHP?
Hi Jon
Although I've been collecting Internet Marketing information for years, I am actually just starting out in the field only 4 days ago.
The only web exposure I've ever had was some niche content sites collecting Adsense income.
Anyway, I received an email from a well known marketer promoting a new product that advertises clickbank products using video. In short, I call the product "Clickbank Commercials" where an affiliate promotes individual "commercials" (or rather video squeeze pages) for individual hand picked Clickbank products.
If the video squeeze page is enticing they opt in, are directed to a related article and also receive a "FREEE 5 PART TRAINING COURSE VALUED AT $67". So the affiliate gets 5 chances at selling the product through a series of 5 follow up emails.
These emails are sent through the owner of the system and are not controlled by the individual affiliate. Consequently, if you click the clickbank product link at the bottom of each email, you are directed to the clickbank product alright, but the "hop=cbusername" portion still shows in the address bar.
I sent the owner a support ticket to see if the information on ths page can be integrated into their program.
*****************
To digress a little, it is this process of using affiliate URL cloaking software to redirect "potential customers" to a more friendly URL, that causes me to wonder about the ethics and honesty of how affiliates handle URL redirects.
This, among others, is a reason I have never been involved in the Internet Marketing field. It was the way the product was offfered to me that opened my eyes to the possibilities.
In other words, the product in question is analogous to a TV comercial advertising their products, Problem is, I feel that the "Clickbank commercial video squeeze pages" over hype the Clickbank product itself.
It's like a TV comercial advertising a new movie release, where the comercial is BETTER than the actual movie itself.
**********************
Anyway, Jon, I sent you an email asking for advice on this product yesterday. I think this is a good product, but who am I to say that. You, on the otherhand, would know.
(Do you think it's worth doing a case study on???)
I want to provide good, reliable information to my customers as you obviously are and hope to emulate your methods someday and somehow.
I read, or rather listen to all your blog posts with some "text-to-speech" software I have as I learn faster that way. I may write long copy, but I sure hate reading it.
I think that with your knowledge and expertise, I may actually succeed in my own future Internet Marketing Empire.
Thanks for everything.
Joe
The SEO Benefits Of An Affiliate Program : Jonathan Leger…
Don't look so shocked! It's true, affiliate programs can have great search engine optimization benefits….
STUMBLED!
Fantastic post, thanks for the tutorial.
VOTED for this post at:
http://www.newsdots.com/blogging/the-seo-benefits-of-an-affiliate-program-jonathan-leger/