Affiliate link styles

Available in:

• Post Affiliate Pro
• Post Affiliate Pro Ultimate
• Post Affiliate Network

Post Affiliate Pro is a flexible affiliate application that can be fully customized to fit your needs. Affiliate link styles can be easily selected with just one click, so you can select the most appropriate one for your needs.

Redirect links

The redirect links, also known as old style tracking, function just like any other link. The link always points to a script in your Post Affiliate Pro installation folder, including some affiliate variables:

scripts/click.php?a_aid=refid &a_bid=73d672s1

By using the a_bid variable, this script registers a click to the affiliate with the particular refid and computes a commission according to the campaign.

This banner’s target URL is used for redirection when the click is saved. Even if you click on a link like this:

www.yoursite.com/pap_directory/scripts/click.php?a_aid=refid &a_bid=73d672s1

Your destination URL will be the target URL defined in the banner application, and the ID would be represented by the value of a_bid.

Affiliate links of this type are best used on a website where you cannot place a click tracking code or S2S tracking. They are not very good for search engine optimization. Use Anchor links or Direct links for the best SEO results.

Banners link settup

New style links

Links like this are very common and can be found on a lot of websites. As the link shows, the parameters are called directly from the URL:

www.anydomain.com/shop/?a_aid=refid &a_bid=73d672s1

The page where the customer is taken loads the click tracking code when a link is called with some essential parameters (customer clicks an affiliate link/banner). It then analyzes these variables (a_aid, a_bid) and creates cookies (1st, 3rd, local storage). Cookies are used to recognize affiliates and track sales. In Post Affiliate Pro, no clicks or sales will be saved if the click tracking code is not inserted into the landing page.

Anchor links

As with New Style Links, anchor links work in the same way, but instead they use variables within the page called anchors. These types of links are well received by Google, so you’ll get better tracking results with this style. You can see how the link looks below:

www.examplesite.com/#a_aid=refid &a_bid=73d672s1

This kind of link is the best one for SEO. Their performance is even better than that of links rewritten with mod_rewrite (.htaccess). Since Google prefers these kinds of links, this style will work best for tracking purposes.

SEO links with mod_rewrite

Although this type of tracking is difficult to manage, it results in good, search engine-friendly links. We still believe that the anchor links are more effective than the SEO links; however, some merchants do not like the idea of having any parameters in the URL (including anchor), so these kinds of SEO links with mod_rewrite are the only option for them.

Example of a link:

www.postaffiliatepro.com/refid/73d672s1.html

Important: This type of link may not be used with every website and configuration of the .htaccess file of the required website. If you need help with the configuration of these links, please contact our support team.

Direct links

Affiliates can use direct links to connect directly to your site without having to add any additional parameters.

DirectLink advantages

This kind of linking has several advantages:

• Visitors won’t know they are clicking on an affiliate link. There are many people who are hesitant to click on affiliate links. Visitors will know affiliates earn commissions on products they promote if they see affiliate links on your affiliates’ blog or review site, at which point they will not trust the review and will not click these links. By using DirectLinks, nobody will know that your products are being promoted.
• The affiliate parameters will not be damaged or removed by the visitor. Despite the fact that affiliate links have no disadvantages for them, some people do not like to purchase through them. Some people prefer copying the URL and removing affiliate parameters from their browsers. You can protect your affiliates from this by using an affiliate link cloaker. By using DirectLinks, they won’t need to worry about anything.
• This method is the most search engine (SEO) friendly. The best way to rank high on Google is to have as many backlinks pointing to your website as possible. A DirectLink is the best SEO method since it lets affiliates link to your site without adding additional parameters.

How they work

A visitor referred via DirectLink is identified by their browser’s HTTP_REFERER information. A referrer page is one that directs a visitor to the destination page. Whenever a visitor clicks on a link on the affiliate’s site, HTTP_REFERER will be displayed as the address of the affiliate’s page.

This page will then be checked in our database, and if it belongs to an affiliate, the referral and the click will be assigned to them.

Because this method is affected by the browser, it is reliable 90-99% of the time. Thanks to all the benefits mentioned above and the fact that all modern browsers provide you with this information, this method would work very well as your main linking method.

Why is this feature awesome?

Different links can be very useful in different niches. By offering affiliates a variety of links, you can give them more options for marketing your products. Thus, you will be able to generate more income.