URL with affiliate ID won't stop outranking our homepage. Time for nuclear option?
-
We have affiliate links applied to our index URL - https://playon.co - which are not picked up as a duplicate URLs by Google.
We've applied a canonical URL, but our homepage is a 301 redirect to a page with a language parameter.
So what happens is:
- https://playon.co/ goes to https://playon.co/en
- Affiliate links such as https://playon.co/#/?affiliate_token=1390448caccb7d go to https://playon.co/en#/?affiliate_token=1390448caccb7d
This gets picked up as rel="canonical" href="https://playon.co/en" which I assumed marked it as a non-canonical page. Nonetheless, we keep seeing this affiliate "page" ranking - even above our own homepage for some terms.
Worse, the affiliate URL also contains old cached information of the page. I don't even see how these SERP results should exist, because the affiliate link just ends up at the homepage (https://playon.co/en)
My questions:
- What can we do to remove these affiliate URL versions of our homepage from being ranked?
- Google doesn't see anything after the hash in the indexed affiliate URLs. If we were to no-index our index URL (https://playon.co/) to completely remove the affiliates links, would our canonical version (https://playon.co/en) assume the top listing, or will we have effectively nuked our entire site?
Appreciate any help.
-
The problem with removing these URLs is Google/Webmaster Tools doesn't read anything beyond the hash.
Specifically - requesting that https://playon.co/#/?affiliate_token=04d234f75b1d74 be hidden removed from the index + cache is then processed simply as https://playon.co being removed.
Again - https://playon.co is just a redirect, it is not the actual homepage. But will no-indexing https://playon.co prevent https://playon.co/en from ranking, which is the URL we need to be recognized as the homepage?
-
Thanks for following up. Sorry for the confusion.
Yes, the "affiliate-tagged version of our homepage" is outranking the canonical at times. This is resulting in organic, branded traffic from Google being credited to an affiliate.
Just as maddening is that said "affiliate-tagged version of our homepage" doesn't even exist. Google seems to refuse to let go of an old, cached version of our homepage content.
-
Thanks. Both the affiliate token and # parameters have been set in Webmaster Tools, but had no effect.
To clarify - are you saying the "nuclear option" is on the table?
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
-
My affiliate links are being crawled by Google. Is this a bad thing? Also, should I add rel: nofollow to affiliate links?
Hi All, I have an issue on Google Search Console. It seems all my affiliate links are being crawled. Is this a bad thing? The reason I found out is that all but one link was flagged with a warming. It goes on to say that it was blocked by robots.txt. The strange thing is that I've not set any links to be blocked in robots.txt. Also, should affiliate links be nofollow? I'm asking because I was recently sent this article by Yoast on how to properly cloak my affiliate links without using a plugin. https://yoast.com/cloak-affiliate-links/ In the method, they apply the nofollow and noindex rules to the links. I'm just a little confused on how to go about affiliate links the SEO friendly way.
Affiliate Marketing | | nomad_blogger0 -
Affiliate links and parameters creating duplicate page titles
Hi, we have an affiliate system and use rel=**canonical **to canonicalise them to the right link. Still, we see those links creating duplicate page titles, in Moz crawl and in Google search console. How are we supposed to treat those links so they do not create duplicate content? Thanks for your help!
Affiliate Marketing | | guidetoiceland0 -
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 -
Affiliate marketing dead?
I have created a network of travel websites that I have decided to promote little by little.. Also so they getdomain age and google trust.... but now when you search for all my main keyphrases... you either have wikitravel,lonelyplanet,frommers and other big brand. I guess that Google gave them better value as to get trusted travel information... However, it seems it will be very difficult to rank my sites. I could do long tail keyphrases but again might not be worth it... I used to work as a SEO consultant for other travel sites selling products... they still rank pretty well as they are sites of value selling something.. of course threy compete with other sites but we are in the same level. How can you compete with loneyplanet with your affiliate site because I am not selling anything on my sites. I am pretty much desperate. I designed a network of 30 sites... all good content with good SEO on the page... of course, I will be honest. I might have to change the content to make it better... you can check one of my site here; www.simplyparis.org it is worth it or better stop this project and focus on 1 product oriented website ? Is anyone working as an affiliate marketer with experience after google panda and pinguin ? is affiliate marketing dead in 2013 now?
Affiliate Marketing | | sandyallain0 -
What is an 'Anchor Text' and does it have any SEO Benefit?
Hi - we have been building as SEO strategy but need clarification on what benefit 'anchor text' has for SEO rankings? For example - we have been creating links from external sites to ours, but the anchor text is not our main search term. I.E - the Anchor Text reads 'web design', but the ALT TAG reads 'web design birmingham'. Question is - if we wish to achieve maximum SEO rankings for the term 'web design birmingham', where should it appear....in the ALT TAG or the Annchor text'? Many thanks! Phil
Affiliate Marketing | | Globalgraphics0 -
Which affiliate programs pass the best SEO value through their links?
How good is Google at detecting the affiliate nature of those links? How does this rate as a linkbuilding strategy?
Affiliate Marketing | | menachemp0 -
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 -
Affiliate System for my Website
So, I like to implement one affiliate system on my website and to generate URL for every online marketing campaign. because i like to know when someone has ordered it from Organic, and when from any Google Adwords Campaigns etc.. What do you suggest me to implement?
Affiliate Marketing | | leadsprofi0