Shorten URLs and Improve Affiliate Sales
How To Mask Affiliate Links | Meta Code for Affiliate Redirect
Updated: Sep 2008
A short URL is not only easy to remember , but is SEO “friendly”. Likewise click-through-rates are considerably improved… with the perceived credibility when your domain name is contained in the hyperlink.
When direct linking to the Merchant’s page [Google Cash method] at times, a Google slap might send your ad cost soaring.
SOLUTION: Set up a redirect for your affiliate link from a page on your domain. This often upgrades the Ad quality score from OK to Good.
Problem with Google Slap solved.
A visitor is also likelier to click through to a referral for an Affiliate program on a short link like: www.yourdomain.com/bat rather than the obvious: www.bestadwordtips/affiliate/?576320
This involves creating a simple redirect page for your Affiliate program.
How To Create a Simple Redirect to a Merchant Page
Open a blank page in Notepad. Cut n paste the following HTML code making sure to insert your affiliate url into the following example. Save the page as a web page. Example: for an imaginary Affiliate program “Best Adword Tips”, you could save the page as bat.htm
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;URL=http://YourAffiliateURLhere”>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Then upload the “bat.htm” page as a file via FTP to your Domain’s “public_html” folder.
That’s it!
[ If you prefer to use .php instead of .html then refer to this post for instructions on how to how to mask affiliate links with one line of code ]
You would use the URL http://www.yourdomain.com/bat.htm in Google Adword campaigns. Visitors who click on the link are automatically redirected to the merchant’s website http://YOURaffiliateprogram.com/withthelongurl.
And you earn the commission on that referral when they buy.
Isn’t that a simple way to do a redirect? Do you use any other methods? Please share them via the comments underneath.
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