The Centralized Affiliate Link Approach to the Rescue!

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If you have gone through much of the training at WA, you may have learned about centralizing your affiliate links. For background info, you can find this training module here:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/wa-affiliate-bootca...

In one section of the training (Task 2: Centralising your main Wealthy Affiliate offer), Kyle describes how to limit your affiliate links while still giving your visitors the ability to click on them and make a purchase. You create a page, such as your WA Review that contains your affiliate links. Then, you write several pages that link to that WA Review (or whatever other page with affiliate links, etc.) and you keep the affiliate links confined to that centralized page.

The main reason for doing this is because Google is not fond of websites that have an inordinate number of affiliate links. When you do this, you run the risk of Google flagging your website as a thin affiliate site. Essentially, Google feels this doesn't offer viewers much value. You can see a page from Google that describes this here:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/76465?hl=en

Another Reason to Use the Centralized Approach for Affiliate Links

There is a another (subtle) reason to use the centralized approach. Suppose you decided not to use the centralized approach and you scattered your affilate links across many posts and/or pages. Further, suppose you included several affiliate links across those various posts that linked to one offer. Then, you get an email from the vendor of that offer that states the offer changed or is being discontinued. The vendor requests that you make the appropriate changes. Without a centralized approach, you would need to fish for every instance of this link.

I am writing this post because the situation happened to me. I received an email today from one of my vendors who stated that the offer I am promoting is no longer being offered for free and that I need to make changes accordingly. Luckily, I do use the centralized approach with most of my websites. So, for me the changes are minimal. All I need to do is rework my centralized page. If I had affiliate links for this offer scattered all over my website, I probably wouldn't be here writing about this as I would have to get busy making the changes.

I was a bit annoyed at my vendor for not giving me any notice. He basically wrote me today and stated that this new change was effective immediately. Some vendors are more considerate and give you some time to make changes. But, there is nothing you can do if they don't.

You could choose to ignore the vendor and leave your links as is. But, then you risk having them cancel you as an affiliate because at that point you are misrepresenting their company. You are showing an offer that no longer is valid. You would be causing them a possible customer service headache to handle inquiries about the old offer that was clicked from your website.

If you set up Pretty Links, this may help you to some degree as you could redirect to another offer (if one exists). However, the wording within the text may need to be changed. Pretty links won't help with that.

This is something to consider when designing your website. If nothing else, think about how you would need to make changes when vendors call upon you to do so. You may have a better approach then the centralized affiliate links one. That's cool. But, I just thought you should be aware of the situation.

Best Regards,

Jim

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Recent Comments

16

Thank you for sharing!

Great information - very useful!

Thanks so much for sharing!

Wish you smashing success!

Bob

Sorry to hear you didn't get any notice. I work for Awin.com, the affiliate network. At Awin we require a minimum of 7 days notice before a merchant can make a change like that.

Thanks for this helpful post!

Cheers
Ingrid

Hi Ingrid, you're welcome!

Thanks for sharing great tips make me think when I should pick up my Bootcamp training
Have a great day
Tommy

Hey Tommy, no problem. Glad they helped.

Thank you so much for sharing:)

Hey Suzi, you're welcome!

A great explanation to why the centralized approach to affiliate links is really a good idea. Actually a “no-brainer” to make any modifying easy and precise. Thank you for sharing.
Ken

Hey Ken, I agree it is the best and safest approach. Best Regards, Jim

Jim,
Thanks for sharing,
Susan

Hey Susan, you are welcome.

Thanks Jim

Hey Sondra, you're welcome.

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4-Steps to Success Class
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