Affiliate URLs Indexed in Google
-
We have an active in-house affiliate program which has a create-a-link function where affiliate, as in most affiliate programs, can build links back to our content to produce sales.
The problem that I am seeing is that some of the affiliate URL versions are being indexed in Google rather than the original page. For instance..
http://www.ourdomain.com/page_start.aspx?affnum=F025212&Start_Page=RaceCar&referrer=createlink
is outranking...
http://www.ourdomain.com/racecar
This presents 2 issues for us. First, this presents duplicate content issues obviously. Second, we pay our affiliates a portion of the sales so, in order to maximize profitability, we'd like the indexed pages to be the original version.
What's the best way to handle this? I want to make sure that affiliates continue to get credit for links from their sites but search engine links should go to the original versions.
-
Thanks so much for the responses, guys. You've reaffirmed my suspicions. Someone had suggested using a 301 but I believe that method could potentially interfere with the affiliate tracking.
-
I would suggest at least adding those variables in your Google Webmaster Tools account to help Google understand which query strings have an impact on changing content on a page versus the variables that are only associated with affiliates.
In GWT, go to "Configuration" in the left menu, then "URL Parameters"
Scott
-
I agree with Tom wholeheartedly
-
You should setup rel=canonical tags to be automatically added to each of the affiliate pages that are duplicates of your main page. This basically tells Google that your original URL without affiliate parameters is the authoritative version of the content and that all other pages should not be indexed above the canonical version.
You should also probably add a query string to tell Google Webmaster Tools to ignore URL's that contain your affiliate query parameter. This will make sure that Webmaster Tools is setup correctly so you aren't getting hit for duplicate content.
Hope this helps!
-
Hi there
Assuming that the affiliate URL points to the same page (http://www.ourdomain.com/racecar), so there is only one page that exists, then adding a rel=canonical tag should fix this problem.
On the http://www.ourdomain.com/racecarpage, add this code to the tag:
rel="canonical" href="http://www.ourdomain.com/racecar" />
This will tell Google that any other versions of this page should not exist and that the http://www.ourdomain.com/racecar page is the original that should be ranked. It is considered a strong signal (not a rule) by Google, but I've very rarely seen it not work.
Now, if the affiliate URL actually goes to a duplicate version of the page (so there are 2 pages), I would simply add some meta data to tell Google not to index the page. You can do that with this in your page's code:
Hope this helps to answer your question.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will GA Autotrack affect affiliate sites not using autotrack?
I want to add autotrack.js to affiliate quote forms hosted on my site. However, I do not know how it will affect affiliate websites (not associated with my quote forms, but with the same Google Analytics code, that do not use autotrack. I read that "Autotrack is not an official Google Analytics product and does not qualify for GA Premium". Will it harm my affiliates in any way to have autotrack on their quote form but not on their websites? It will have their GA website tracking number.
Affiliate Marketing | | RoxBrock0 -
Affiliate Program: Does anyone know how to set this up?
Hi Guys Does anyone know how I can make a affiliate programme on my website eg - I have a sales person in two of our local regions and I want to find a way I can track any sales made through them via my website so I can pay them their commission. Any advice around this, the website is wordpress! Cheers Justin
Affiliate Marketing | | edward-may0 -
Google Hotel Finder
Hi, I have a client that wants to get started with Google Hotel Finder, can anyone offer any resources to help me get them started? I've reviewed the documents Google has published regarding hotel finder, but it doesn't really breakdown any information on how to get indexed, only that they're "pulling from a number of different data sources". Any and all insight you guys can offer would be great, thank you in advance!
Affiliate Marketing | | maxcarnage0 -
What impact do affiliate links have on SEO
We commonly reference engineering standards on our site (because half our products are known and searched for by those standard names) and have just signed up as an affiliate to an organisation that sell the standards. Which seems a nice match We're going through and making sure all are no follow now because that seems the general advice - but should we be doing anything else? Yoast says you should mask affiliate links - https://yoast.com/affiliate-links-and-seo/ - but that was from 2010. Matt Cutts is fairly clear on nonfollow - http://www.webpronews.com/heres-what-googles-matt-cutts-says-about-affiliate-links-and-nofollow-2012-06 - but not on whether it affects SERPS Does it? And what is the best way to handle it? This is a typical example of a page where we would have an affiliate link or two. http://www.oakleysteel.co.uk/fake-mill-certificates-en10168
Affiliate Marketing | | Zippy-Bungle0 -
Find all affiliate links in a custom CMS
I have a custom CMS. I offer a few affiliate products through my site. Now I need to update all my aff. links and I'm not sure how I can find all the pages (posts) on my site that have affiliate links. What's the best way to do that?
Affiliate Marketing | | VinceWicks0 -
How do the engines look at pages populated using content from an affiliate site?
We are building out a section of our site using an affiliate partnership in the travel space. How would you suggest organizing the content so we do not get penalized for duplicate content? Do you suggest not suing the content at all?
Affiliate Marketing | | TSDigital0 -
How much SEO benefit am I getting from 'affiliate' links?
Hi all, We run lots of different campaigns with affiliates and as such they have links on their websites pointing back to ours. I was keen to know how much 'link-juice' these kinds of links are passing back to our websites or how much SEO benefit we are getting from them. The links have "?=affiliate" in them. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!! Many thanks! Rob
Affiliate Marketing | | RobertHill0 -
Promoting an Affiliate Scheme
I have to promote an affiliate scheme, and am drawing up a list of techniques that I can use to get people interested and sign up to it. Currently I have: Promoting the scheme in any article promotion. Identifying relevant websites to the scheme, and contacting them directly. Networking in affiliate forums and communities. Promoting on Facebook and Twitter. Possibly producing a video reviewing the scheme and posting it onto YouTube and other video sites. Can anyone think of any other techniques that I could try using? Cheers.
Affiliate Marketing | | speedyseo0