White Hat and Affiliate Links

[justin631]

Hey guys,

So I have a few ecom focused websites that I've set up, built specifically for drop shipping. I'm re-using the code from this site to launch another site, focused around affiliate links, which came out quite nicely. I've read a handful of articles that say Google penalizes sites that have an excessive amount of affiliate links. Since the site is going to look like an ecom site, except with affiliate links to purchase, from a white hat standpoint (if possible), how would you implement the affiliate links to avoid any penalties? I searched on the forum but after a couple pages of affiliate program threads I gave up, any help would be appreciated

Thanks!

 

[justin631]

Anybody have any insight into this?

 

[AuraObscene]

I would use 303 redirects to cloak them, you should be okay then.

 

[wMercw]

You have to cloak them or your conversion rate will go down.

 

[justin631]

I was looking more for some information regarding how Google responds to affiliate links. I'm going to look into the 303 redirect as I've never used them before (so you might have answered my question), but strictly from an SEO standpoint do you have any suggestions to prevent my site from getting surprised butt sexed by Google?

Also, how would not doing this affect my conversion rate?

Thanks!

 

[infoasian]

try to find programs with white label solutions. This way you link to a white label site with regular link. It looks more trustworthy.

 

[fxdarling]

The cloaked links look more professionally for the users and increase the click through rate

 

[milian]

I was looking more for some information regarding how Google responds to affiliate links. I'm going to look into the 303 redirect as I've never used them before (so you might have answered my question), but strictly from an SEO standpoint do you have any suggestions to prevent my site from getting surprised butt sexed by Google?

Also, how would not doing this affect my conversion rate?

Thanks!

the info in Google's Manual Review Guidelines might be of some use to you, they talk about Affiliate sites

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...es-confidential-manual-review-guidelines.html

 

[justin631]

the info in Google's Manual Review Guidelines might be of some use to you, they talk about Affiliate sites

This was extremely helpful, thanks!