View Full Version : Bit miffed
I did a Google the other day for 'mad4ponies' and found that the 2nd result is a direct affiliate url. I wasn't happy about this so emailed AW support to ask if this is allowable. They have said that perhaps the url is showing due to some change in Google's algorithms and it has been picked up from a PPC campaign. Anyway it's still there and I wondered how other affiliates felt about such matters. Surely this particular affiliate is gaining unfair commissions even though it may not be their fault that the url is showing.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GFRC_enGB209GB209&q=mad4ponies&meta=
IntroSites
13-10-07, 21:16
It happens all the time, but i cant see why you think its "unfair commission"
I've not seen it before. It seems unfair to me as if you click on the link it goes straight to the merchants site. Don't most affiliates have to build a website, add affiliate links, do their SEO and then try and entice visitors to click the link? If it's allowable to have a direct link can someone please let me in on how to do it?
chartfieldconsultants
15-10-07, 03:50
I found that some of my redirects were getting indexed, as they were in the form www.mysite.com/outlink/merchantsname - the htaccess file did the magical jiggery-pokery to send them to the target via the affiliate link. I thought that was rather off, actually - alright for me but a bit unfair for the customer - so I used robots.txt to block the outlink directory.
IntroSites
15-10-07, 17:46
Yep blocking with robots.txt is the best way, but AW could also block awclick.php or even awin1.com as i cant see any reason for them to be allowed to be indexed
You wouldn't be complaining if it was your affiliate link in the index would ya?!
If an affiliate manages to get an affiliate link in the Google index, there's nothing you or anyone else can do about it.
It won't be there forever though. Google will eventually follow that URL and see that it resolves off site.
If it uses a 302 redirect, then it'll be in the index for a few months before that 1 url starts to drop down the rankings, possibly even taking the affiliates site/page with it.
If it's a 301 redirect. any rank that URL had will be passed onto the merchants landing page within about a month, when Google updates that URL with the landing pages URL.