Mask affiliate URLs

[thai_king]

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Hi Guys,

I want to mask affiliate urls. The urls are in text that I've written therefore no data feeds or dynamic masking needed. I just need an example of the code to mask basic hyperlinks. I guess it will be a simple piece of html which goes around the < a href="xxx.com" >anchor </a> ?? :tup

Cheers

Daz

[Keith]

I wrote this a while back its not the definitive guide but may give you some pointers Redirecting or Cloaking Affiliate Links

[thai_king]

Thanks for the info Keith - very helpful.

Why do most affiliates mask their affiliate links? Is it to improve CTR, is is good practise for SEO or another reason? I'm just wondering what everyones main reason is for masking of affiliate links.

[fizzbird]

Thanks for the info Keith - very helpful.

Why do most affiliates mask their affiliate links? Is it to improve CTR, is is good practise for SEO or another reason? I'm just wondering what everyones main reason is for masking of affiliate links.

I think the main reason is that you can have all your links in a database which makes them easier to manage. It also makes the destination URL look a lot cleaner?

I doubt whether there is any advantage in terms of SEO? In effect you are saying to Google "here is a link which I am hiding - so don't penalise me for being an affiliate".

That's my view anyway - I'm no expert?

[accelerator]

Thanks for the info Keith - very helpful.

Why do most affiliates mask their affiliate links? Is it to improve CTR, is is good practise for SEO or another reason? I'm just wondering what everyones main reason is for masking of affiliate links.

It's to hide the fact that it's an affiliate link from the search engine spider in case of penalties.

A beneficial side effect is that it makes link management a lot easier.

For further info see:

Link Masking

Rgds

[alfredwong]

I just did that for search engine. And it is more clean URL for the people who want to click on the link.

[thai_king]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I did the masking following the advice on AFFILIATE CITIZEN Redirect Script for Affiliate Sites in PHP. However when I know clicks the link its final destination is the affiliate future hompage. I also tried the .htaccess with this and the final destination was the AF h/p.

I checked the server heads and it does do a 301 redirect to the affiliate link however it then does 2 302 redirects and ends up at the AF homepage. :td

I have checked the link in the browser and it does direct to the merchant page but i can't work out why it isnt working properly in php redirect or .htacess. I'm stumped...

[gimme4free]

Thanks for the link keith, been wondering how people do this

[robhemphill]

Just come across this and thought you might like to look at an article I wrote on Squidoo entitled <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/samuraistealthcloak">Samurai Stealth Cloaker | STOP Your Affiliate Commissions Being Stolen</a>. :tup

I think it is what you are after!

Rgds