Google is saying don't put Affiliate Links on your website!

22 Sep 09 8:29 am

Hi Crystal that rings a bell with me to thanks for your reply
alan

22 Sep 09 3:03 pm

hi renato thanks for your reply but what is php redirect?

23 Sep 09 5:21 pm

Hi Grady Thank you for your reply I watched this video which explains how to create it in xsitepro here 7/video-6-creating-redirects/file:LessonNotes:week7v6.pdf but I am now sorted
Thanks Again Alan

24 Sep 09 3:51 am

Alan

If you're using XsitePro, you can either do a re-direct by going to the 'other' page and following the instructions or going to the CPanel of your hosted site. There you will find a section named 'redirects' which makes it very easy.

Gerry DR

28 Sep 09 1:23 pm

Hi Alan :)

Have you read anything directly written by Google saying that you shouldn't be putting affiliate links on your site? I mean have Google said it themselves in black and white? I was interested in this question too.

According to their own webmaster guidelines (http://www.google.com/support/webmaster ... swer=66361 as an example) the main problem they have is with affiliate sites that have little-no valuable content for visitors.

To quote them, "There is no problem in being an affiliate as long as you create some added value for your users and produce valuable content that gives a user a reason to visit your site. For example, you could create product reviews, ratings, and product comparisons."

That seems very self explanatory.

From this they are not saying at all we shouldn't be using affiliate links and you could go one step further to say that they pretty much expect us to have affiliate links on our affiliate sites. We just have to be smarter and work harder to provide worthwhile, unique content. Which is good for us all because there are lots of dodgy affiliate sites out there.

I'm only learning too but from my understanding I'd still use PHP redirects + nofollow on affiliate links to preserve your link juice. I'm not sure but I think using redirects in this way (for legitimate affiliate sites) is perfectly fine as long as the links are all legit and not to dodgy sites. Doesn't link cloaking really refer to shady black hat techniques? So that won't affect us, right? (ie the "good guys"). Can anyone elaborate on this?

Just my 2c worth
Wishing you luck and success
Paul

28 Sep 09 4:17 pm

Hey Alan,

Yes, I know what you mean, a little competition can be "nice" ;)
I'm only into organic too at the moment too, it's one step at a time for me I'm afraid. It's so darned hard to see the forest from the trees sometimes. There's a lot to learn and it's easy to get discouraged.

Mmmm, I've heard of a lot of products but never heard of Google Googles. Thanks for the headsup on it! Perhaps I don't think I'd use bare links, certainly not without appropriate anchor text anyway I guess (were they right, in that respect?), everyone else seems to recommend redirects so I'll go with the tide for now anyway.

Yes, we should keep in touch - that's always nice, maybe you can pm me

Good luck with everything and best regards Alan,
Paul.

01 Oct 09 2:02 am

Its not that you cant have affiliate links on your site when doing PPC, its just they are cautious about sites that are "full of" affiliate links, as that is a common indication of a spam site, the mortal enemy of Google.

As has been mentioned you need to make sure you have valuable content on your site. In week 2 of AB it talks about writing articles of 500 words or more so your site is seen as a helpful research for Googles users. As long as youre doing that you dont need to worry about including affiliate links (or redirects).

For more info on PPC check the last 3 weeks of AB - theres a lot there on creating landing pages that will have Googles smile of approval and lower your CPC.

Mark