How many affiliate links is too many?

[locutus]

I read that you shouldn't have too many affiliate links on a site or it will be bad for the site's ranking. How many is too many? Is it the number of links per page that you need to be careful about or the number of links in a site?

[NickMNS]

One can be too many just like ten may not be. There is no hard fast rule about the number affiliate links. But ranking an affiliate link website is an uphill battle. There are certainly dozens or possibly even hundreds of other sites competing for clicks on these links. So you must be certain that the content that your site shows provides real tangible value to your users.

Simply showing a link with a product description and review probably wont gain you much ranking. But if you provide some unique and insightful product descriptions, expert reviews or some other high value content then affiliate links can rank.

[LifeinAsia]

I think the main issue is the purpose of your site/affiliate links. Does your site exist just to promote affiliate programs, or do you have affiliate links to complement your site (offering related products/services to your content)?

In other words, is the content only there to give some "meat" to the affiliate links? Or would visitors have a reason to visit your site for the content even if you had 0 affiliate links?

"Too many" will most likely be a low number for the former, while should be a lot higher for the latter.

[locutus]

I think the main issue is the purpose of your site/affiliate links. Does your site exist just to promote affiliate programs, or do you have affiliate links to complement your site (offering related products/services to your content)?

In other words, is the content only there to give some "meat" to the affiliate links? Or would visitors have a reason to visit your site for the content even if you had 0 affiliate links?

"Too many" will most likely be a low number for the former, while should be a lot higher for the latter.

That's a good point. My site is about PC and console gaming. There are forums and free info: software and hardware tips to improve performance, troubleshooting issues gamers might experience, how to research parts when upgrading a PC or designing a new one, and recommended brands, technologies and specific parts. So the main reasons for coming to the site are the forums and all the free info. I was thinking of having 1 link for each internal computer part. That's 10, then the case, 3 peripherals and monitor makes 15. That makes for 15 possible links just for a computer. "Gaming computers" could be another one. These would all be Amazon affiliate links. I also want 1 affiliate link to a digital distributor similar to Steam where you buy games and download them. That's a lot of links. Right now I think I should pick only 7 for amazon plus the 1 for the digital distributor. People can buy whatever they want no matter what link they click on. The links are just there to suggest what they should buy. So 17 links would ruin my ranking, right? What about 8 links?

[Kumar_Rahul]

There are affiliate programs where you can run the offer and it will show affiliate link of particular add according to the content on your page.

I don't think putting many links will do anything with ranking.

[LifeinAsia]

So 17 links would ruin my ranking, right? What about 8 links?

Are you talking about that many links on 1 page or throughout the site?

If your site is big enough, hundreds of different affiliate links isn't an issue. But if individual pages don't have much content, even a few affiliate links on those pages may be seen as problematic.

I was thinking of having 1 link for each internal computer part. That's 10, then the case, 3 peripherals and monitor makes 15. That makes for 15 possible links just for a computer.

I'm guessing that each page doesn't discuss all the different parts on one page. So if you have 1 page discussing monitors and you have the link for monitors there, then another page discussing hard drives and you have the hard drive link there, etc. Even if you have 15 total links on the site, you'd only have 1/page. That should certainly be fine.

There's no hard number that applies to every site- every site is different.

[tangor]

Secondary question: Rank where? There's a bunch of search engines out there. :)

As with ANY ADVERTISING, keep the USER in mind. An ad heavy site can turn off some visitors, or promote ad blindness for others. Find the balance between content and advertising/affiliate and go from there.

Your RANK will be based on your CONTENT, so hopefully, there's some of that!

[RhinoFish]

6.73

[phranque]

42