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.
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
-
Setting up small affiliate network - Do follow?
I have a client that I help with both SEO and marketing. I have thought about approaching 5-10 niche appropriate bloggers to join a custom affiliate network. I'd like to gain both sales and backlinks. I know it's gray, but do you have any advice?
Affiliate Marketing | | julie-getonthemap0 -
Affiliate website redirection concern
First of all i want to say hi to everyone here since im a new guy! The issue: My website is a price comparison website. I create products and inside these products i list several shops with their priced offers from the lowest to the highest. When a customer clicks the "shop now" button to go to the desired shop a new window pops up telling the user that he is being redirected to that shop. Check the website here and click "shop now" to understand what i mean: https://www.pccdkeys.com/product/buy-world-of-warcraft-legion-cd-key-for-battlenet/ This pop up page is a custom .php called redirect.php. In order to create a unique url for each shop, we add parameters in every URL like this: /redirect.php?id=5030917189616&merchant=CDKEYS&game=4117. The redirect.php right now is under this setting: custom header 301 without destination URL (which probably is wrong) it is noindex, follow in meta robots the parameters: **id, merchant, game **are set to NO URL's in URL parameters in webmaster tools. If i remove the 301 redirect from the header it will lead to 200 OK but then its a soft 404 error because the page is small and for sure i dont want 8000 of soft 404 errors because google phantom will destroy me. Another setting was: No custom header so it was 200 OK noindex, nofollow (which was for extra protection from the disallow) disallowed in robots.txt Thi setting kept giving soft 404 errors in audits. I also had it with this setting: custom header 301 without destination URL meta robots in index, follow without disallow in robots This setting gave me Not followed errors in google webmaster tools. The question: Which is the proper setting for this php page? Maybe a combination of the above? Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.
Affiliate Marketing | | dos06590 -
Affiliate Programs
Hi, I am wondering what if any affiliate management applications are being used out there. Anyone using Shareasale... I am looking into them.
Affiliate Marketing | | unikey0 -
How to prevent affiliates from bringing negative SEO?
Hi there, I'm just about to integrate iDevAffiliate network for one of my sites, however it occurred to me that affiliates may (unfortunately) resort to black hat methods without me becoming aware of it, which could pass negative link juice to my site. Is there any way to use affiliate networks such as iDev without causing this problem? I was thinking of simply using a different URL, but the problem is that 301 redirects won't mitigate the issue. Thanks!
Affiliate Marketing | | freeunlocks0 -
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 -
Is setting up affiliate marketing on website worth it for a small businesses?
Is setting up affiliate marketing on website worth it for a small businesses?
Affiliate Marketing | | seoukrsf0 -
Does an affiliate link bring the same SEO juice as a standard link?
I wonder if affiliate links, like the ones offered by Amazon Associates program bring the same SEO as would a link to the same page without this additional "ref=..."?
Affiliate Marketing | | maciek-0 -
Did Something Happen With Google's Algo On 06/09/2011?
Yesterday, June 9th, I wokeup and ran my rank checking software. My two domains that I have page one number one rankings for are solid as they have been for the last year. Before I went to sleep last night I ran the rank check again, and had lost all rankings. After researching into it more, I realized my entire domain name is deindexed. The site: search yields no results at all. The domain name has links from over 250 root domain names, is highly focused on one product and one keyword. The links come mostly from articles, comments, forum posts, press releases, and 3-4 articles that were posted talking about my website by other bloggers. The site has 60 pages, which I think (thought) was more than enough for such a tight focus. The domain is a good keyword match name that I paid a grand for. In webmaster tools it says my URLs are still indexed, however thats not the case. I tried searching in Bing, and Yahoo. Bing - DeIndexed. Yahoo - One page of the site indexed. I havent done anything black hat at all, which is ironic this domain was banned because its the only domain name links were built to using a respectable seo company. It runs on wordpress, and I had not added any new content in about 4 months. PR4, and the PR still exists in the toolbar and on the websites I used to check it. Also tried searching google.fr, google.ru, etc... to see if it was a complete deindex, and it is. Then used the multiple datacenter check - which told me my domain name was not listed in any of the DCs checked. It is an affiliate website, with one affiliate link on the homepage. I use a plugin to mask the link so it appears as /starthere/ rather than a long affiliate URL. There is ONE catch, this website is in the pharmacy niche. Now before you all go saying oh well thats why, consider my question. I dont sell anything illegal, nor does the affiliate program I promote. I collect traffic from people searching for a prescription drug and then recommend a herbal alternative. Something odd however, is that I have 5 websites like this. Each tailored to their respective prescription drug backlink wise, and then on site I have comparisons and explain the benefits of instead using one of the herbal products or OTC supplements from savon/walgreens whatever. The other 4 websites gained rank, pages 1, 2, and 3 for their keywords when they were previously on pages 15-20. No new link building to the other domains, I hadn't given them any focus due to other projects. The issue is the domain name which was banned was a real money maker with an aesthetically pleasing theme. Now its completely deindexed, and I dont know why. Despite the fact I am lost an income stream, I really would like to know why this occurred at all. I feel like I walked into my job, was fired and not told why. This isn't the first time this has happened to me, however previously it was my own fault because I used an affiliate template and it didn't occur to me 5k other people were doing the same thing. (earlier days before I learned more about link building and basic SEO). So, my question is what exactly happened yesterday? Did anyone else see an sudden change in traffic or rankings? Has anyone else experienced a complete deindex of their domain name, and if you have is this permanent or is google known for accidental / temporary removals during an update to their algo? I may share my link if it will help, however I prefer not to unless its in private. Also if someone has access to Matt Cutts directly so I can ask what I am doing wrong, or has any idea how to contact someone at google (other than a request for reinclusion) I am all ears. Its very frustrating to see a decision made to ban my domain name without so much as an email saying "we dont like you". All responses and opinions are welcome and appreciated!
Affiliate Marketing | | getbigyadig0