Do Affiliate Links Count As Backlinks For SEO?

Quick Answer: Yes, affiliate links do count as backlinks for SEO & they can improve your website’s ranking. However, in some cases, affiliate links can be damaging for SEO & in this post, we explain why.

Have you found yourself wondering if affiliate links count as backlinks? And if a website’s search engine rankings will improve if lots of affiliates link back to it?

Well, you can rest assured you’ve landed in the right place to find the answers.

Not only are we SEO experts, but we also run multiple affiliate programs & so we can provide you with rock-solid data to prove whether or not affiliate links count as backlinks.

And as you’ve probably guessed, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

So without further ado, let’s dive right in, starting from the top.

What Makes a Link an Affiliate Link?

Affiliate links come in all sorts of shapes & sizes. However, the one thing that separates them from a “normal” link is the fact that they contain a unique tracking ID.

This tracking ID contains the ID of the affiliate so that when somebody clicks on the link the company can determine which affiliate it was that sent them there.

The most common affiliate link is the basic query string link, which looks like this:

website.com/?aid=123

But depending on how the affiliate program has been set up, that query string could be changed into a different format. For example, it could be turned into a directory & look like this:

website.com/aid/123

Or it could be a hashstring, like this:

website.com/#aid_123

Ultimately though, they’re all affiliate links & they both do the same thing.

But the important thing to note here is that affiliate links aren’t the only links that contain a tracking ID. In fact, these days, most links contain tracking IDs.

For example, if somebody posted a video on YouTube, they may link to their website & utilize something known as a UTM tracking ID.

This isn’t an affiliate ID, it just simply lets them know that the visitor to their website came from YouTube.

And why’s this important? Well, that brings us to our next point.

Can Google Detect Affiliate Links?

The short answer is that realistically, no, Google can’t detect affiliate links.

They may be able to “assume” a link is an affiliate link but there’s certainly no way they could guarantee it for sure because, as mentioned in the previous section, it could just be a general non-affiliate tracking link.

And by asking us to add the rel=sponsored attribute to our affiliate links, Google has essentially told us that they can’t detect affiliate links.

They want us to simply tell them about them instead.

Now, here comes the exciting part.

Do Affiliate Links Count As Backlinks?

Yes, affiliate links do indeed count as backlinks & they work exactly as a normal backlink would.

So, if you have affiliates promoting your website then this can certainly help its search engine rankings providing, of course, that the affiliates are linking from high-quality sources.

Because as I just mentioned, affiliate links work just like normal backlinks.

This means that if affiliates are linking to your website from websites that have good authority then your site will surely get an “SEO boost”.

But similarly, if they are linking from low-quality domains or if they are essentially just spamming your link then this could have a negative impact instead.

So, what do you do?

Well, you vet your affiliates, of course (as you always should). Question their traffic sources & only approve those who have ethical, high-quality promotional methods.

After all, these folk are going to be representing your brand so even with SEO pushed aside it’s always best to vet affiliates to preserve your reputation (and the reputation of your domains).

What About Affiliate Links With Redirects?

As you’re likely aware, not all affiliate links go directly to the end website. Many of them (especially those for companies with programs hosted on affiliate networks), go via redirects.

So rather than the link looking like this:

website.com/?aid=123

It could be a redirect chain like this:

aff-network.com/aid/123 -> website.com/?aid=123

The question is, do those still work for SEO?

In short, the answer is yes – even if the redirect isn’t a 301 redirect.

And, even if the link is a nofollow link.

Yes, that’s right – I said it. Nofollowed affiliate links are good for SEO.

I’m aware that statement will likely cause a few raised eyebrows because many folks stress that “nofollow” links do nothing for SEO… But based on data collected from over 100+ websites, I can tell you that’s simply not true.

The reality is that the process of link building looks like this:

• If website A links to website B & website A is trusted/reputable, website B receives a boost.
• If website A links to website B & website A is not trusted, website B receives no boost.
• If website A links to website B & website A is toxic, website B may fall down in the SERPs.

Many marketers try to make it look like rocket science to sell their fancy tools & methods, but Google (and the other search engines) simply don’t care.

They just want to know who’s linking to what, and how trusted they are as a source.

But that’s a story for a different day. Next & more importantly, we have this little caveat…

When Affiliate Links Don’t Count As Backlinks

In most instances, affiliate links will count as a backlink just like a normal direct link would.

The only times we’ve seen this not occur is when an affiliate link either has an intermediate page before taking the user to the destination or when it has an excessive redirect chain.

So, for example, if the affiliate link takes the visitor to an interstitial page that says something like “You Are Being Redirected To X” before taking them to the destination, that may not function like a normal backlink (depending on how the redirect is handled.

It will still count as a link, but its “passing power” will be much reduced than that of a direct link.

And secondly, if the link redirects through an excessive chain, meaning that it redirects through various domains before landing at the final URL, then that will generally not act like a normal backlink either.

Again, in most cases, it’ll still pass *some* value, though it’ll be greatly reduced.

Wrapping It Up

When it comes to SEO, it’s best to treat affiliate links just like you would any other backlink because unless they contain excessive redirects or go via interstitial pages, they will act just the same.

The bottom line is that affiliate links pass SEO juice. We’ve seen it in our data and our dataset spans 100+ websites in various different niches.

But if you’re leveraging affiliate links for SEO, the most important thing you need to do is make sure that you’re vetting your affiliates… Because you’re essentially “outsourcing your SEO” to them.

If they start spamming your links, that’s gonna hurt your SEO. But on the flip side, if they link to you from high-authority domains, you could see rapid growth.

Either way, we hope that you have found this article insightful & if you would like more content like this then do be sure to check out our free affiliate marketing course.

In it, we explain how to launch a highly-successful niche affiliate website & share some advanced (and little-known) tactics to skyrocket your success.

Also, if you happen to have any further questions or comments, don’t hesitate to leave them below.