Google's John Mueller was asked about the pros and cons of cloaking affiliate links. John responded on Twitter saying, "I don't think you gain anything by cloaking the affiliate links, it just adds complexity. You can use a DB-driven setup without cloaking too."
The question was "as an affiliate, I've used cloaking to manage the thousands of ad link locations around my site (not hide them), I only have to update 1 link in my database if a partner's endpoint changes."
The response was interesting as well:
Hey @JohnMu a question I've always put off asking.
— Martin McGarry (@seomcgarry) August 24, 2022
As an affiliate, I've used cloaking to manage the thousands of ad link locations around my site (not hide them), I only have to update 1 link in my database if a partner's endpoint changes.
Is this still deemed poor practice?
The aff managers don't run databases they're salespeople, they also use WordPress
— Martin McGarry (@seomcgarry) August 24, 2022
Some examples:https://t.co/m7mXuNTELEhttps://t.co/wmJI7CHSKu
We change tohttps://t.co/7XfBWAqjI9https://t.co/2dvcvQd3Dz
That's so much easier for the aff team, we're not trying to hide links
Recently someone asked about swapping out affiliate links to try to see improvements after the product reviews update, to which John responded to as well.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
