MoreNiche Affiliate Tutorials Presents:

Three Ways to Hide Affiliate Links from Visitors, AdWares & Search Engines

Hiding affiliate links

When you first become an affiliate you will be given a special link code that will enable merchants to track your links and reward you for your work.

But there is more to this clever tracking system, than giving you just a link; you need to know how to hide it. Why? Well there are several reasons:

- Believe it or not, but there are webmasters out there who are smart enough to recognise links and change them for their own profits. Once they recognise your link, some may choose to change your affiliate code to theirs and steal your credits. Incredible we know, but it does happen;

- Sometimes there is no one involved - as such - in changing your affiliate code. AdWares and browser plug-ins can do the same thing without your visitor even realising it has happened;

- Search engines, search engines, search engines… as rule they do not like redirects, so it is important that you hide your affiliate links from them to make sure your traffic is not affected;

For any one of the above reasons it is always a good idea to make sure your affiliate links are hidden to prevent any tracking or commission complications.

But don’t worry. We have got that side of the story covered too. Below are three popularly effective ways to hide your affiliate links and keep them safe. And you don’t even have to restrict yourself to the use of just one of them. Any one of these solutions combined can work to improve CTR, and up your commissions and websites search engine ranking.

Solution 1: Using PHP to hide links

This solution is accessible to even the most novice of computer users. All it involves is using server side scripting.

Now most web hosts support the use of PHP, so setting this one up shouldn’t create any complications. In fact it is incredibly easy to implement. It basically consists of copying and pasting.

Take this following code for Proactol for example. It has been saved under the filename of visitproactol.php:

<? header ("location: http://track.lativio.com/hit.php?w=10xxxx&p=2&s=24"); ?>

After that it will need to be uploaded to a web server, where it will then be put into a HTML code that will look like the following:

<a href=”visitproactol.php”>Visit Proactol</a>

Through this one simple to set up link, any visitors who click onto it will automatically be redirected to the Proactol website.

Now as with all scenarios there are both advantages and disadvantages to using this type of solution.

Advantages:

No one, not even webmasters or AdWares, can mess with your affiliate code as they will not be able to see the URL within the PHP file. It will essentially be hidden from their view.

Disadvantages:

As we said at the beginning most host services support PHP, but some don’t. So unless your host supports this software it will be hard to use this solution. There is also one small downside (depending on how you view it) in regards to the implementation of new products.

For every product you will need to create a separate file – something that can end up being very fiddly if you have got a lot of products (advanced users can program it all in one place). Plus there is the risk that you will forget to hide the code on one of them, allowing webmasters to slip through the protective netting.

Solution 2: Using an Apache server and .htaccess

To use this one, it is necessary to create/edit the existing .htaccess file, in order to then go on and hide your affiliate link. And it is probably one for the more advanced users of you out there.

The .htaccess file can usually be found in the public_html folder on your web server, but to implement any changes to these files having access to a strong FTP program is highly recommended as it will make working with these files easier.

To effectively hide your affiliate link, you will need to include the following lines before your can re-upload the .htaccess file back onto your server:

Redirect /visithomeweightloss http://track.lativio.com/hit.php?w=xxxxxx&s=5&p=2 Redirect /visitproactol http://track.lativio.com/hit.php?w=xxxxxx&s=24&p=2

So if for example your surfer chooses to look at the URL www.mysite.com/visithomeweightloss once they click onto it, they will instantly be redirected to this link http://track.lativio.com/hit.php?w=xxxxxx&s=5&p=2

Now before you start wondering how this solution is going to work to hide your affiliate link, there is something you need to know. Whilst you – as an affiliate - will be aware of all this code; to the outside world your HTML code will look like this:

<a href=”/visithomeweightloss”>Visit Home Weightloss</a>

Meaning anyone who comes to your product website will not be able to see your affect your affiliate link.

Advantages:

Unlike PHP where you have to create a separate file per product, using .htaccess file you can store all your link codes all in one place – for both affiliate and product links alike. You can essentially have as many as you want.

Disadvantages:

You need to hold a good technical knowledge of .htaccess files and must know how to use them. Why? Because some hosts might not provide them in a read only mode, or even display them at all.

Then there is the risk. Yes. Whereas PHP requires you to create separate files for each product, to use this solution you need to modify existing .htaccess files meaning there is a chance you could make a mistake and end up messing them up.

So if you do choose to opt for this solution, make sure that you back up everything to prevent irreversible mistakes. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Notes and recommendations

Now these are not all the solutions out there that are available to you, but use either one of these and you can effectively hide your affiliate links, keep search engines happy and make it so visitors and AdWare cannot change your affiliate code. They will not be able to spot any of the hidden code, keeping your traffic safe – perfect.

Other simple solutions you can consider are the use of classic frames or iframes as well as setting up your own domain with frames for each product. But overall, the first two suggestions will do everything you need, making these other ones un-necessary.

For example using frames can too come with it own drawbacks. Namely in their use of black hat techniques. These are not popular with search engines and are often forced into the category of being considered spam, making it a risky tool to use.

So offer your website the best in protection. Whether you choose to use PHP or .htaccess files, or even both, these simple solutions can offer your affiliate links the protection they need to keep your tracking links secure and yours.