Affiliate link structure that benefits the affiliate?

I dont want our affiliate program to siphon PR from the affiliates...

[Ethernal]

Hi all,

I'm new to posting here but not to lurking and searching.

We are creating a new system for our affiliates, and want to support their SEO efforts as much as possible.

In your opinions, what are the best link structures to use for affiliate product links?

We want a system that will allow affiliates to benefit from their product links and anchor text, possibly by having the links point to an internal (to them) page before forwarding the purchase to us.

Currently, our thinking is to have their product links point to their home page with a short url param for the prod_id. The product page would have client side javascript (need to support static pages)that would then forward the browser to our (remote) checkout with url params for affiliate id and product id.

So an affiliate with the website www.widget.com would have products that are fulfilled via our site, www.widgetworld.com .
Their home page would be www.widget.com/index.htm
Their product page would be www.widget.com/blue-widget/blue-widget.htm
The purchase link on their product page would be {A HREF="www.widget.com/index.htm?prod=01"}Buy Blue Widget Now!{/A}

Their homepage would have clientside javascript redirects for non dynamic servers or php/asp redirects for dynamic servers.

Will this benefit their internal linking, as opposed to leeching page rank from their product pages?

Any comments or suggestions for improvements?

Thanks.

[troels nybo nielsen]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

I am no expert, but it sounds to me as if your structure will work as you intend it to do. And you obviously have a positive and open attitude to your affiliates. That should ensure that you are able and willing to change the system if your affiliates report that it does not quite work.

[Ethernal]

Now I'm being told from another source that the spiders would see index.htm?prod=1 and index.htm?prod=2 as seperate pages, but then notice duplicate content and actually devalue the home page, acheiving the opposite of the desired effect.

Any suggestions?

[Fruit and Veg]

It's great that you're working for your affiliates, but I personally don't think this particular strategy is not worthwhile.

a) Google's gone a bit pear shaped at the moment.
b) Even if it wasn't, I have never experienced massive (if any at all) changes due to one link out of the site to another - it defeats the main feature of the internet.
c) You're asking your existing affiliates to change all their existing links AND to install some JS - I wouldn't recommend asking your affiliates to do more work than they have to.
d) Redirecting to their home page means extra bandwidth usage, therefore costs.
e) Spiders don't crawl JS links, so just put an affiliate link in JS code if you're overaly concerned.

I believe you and your affiliates efforts would be much better spent carrying out other activities, eg. get them to list themselves in a few directories - that'll conteract any possible 'leekage' by 10 fold.

[jomaxx]

Sounds a bit kludgy to me, but the main point is that your suggested link format is irrelevant.

If affiliates want to set up their links to work that way, they can already do so without your help. If they don't want to use scripting on their site, then they can just add the appropriate code to the lower-level page anyway.

There's no need for you to micromanage their link structure unless you're actually providing template sites and web hosting. Just pay attention to (a) providing accurate and timely statistics and (b) converting clicks into buyers, and your affiliates will be happy.

[jomaxx]

P.S. A Javascript redirect sounds s-l-o-w. If the redirect requires that the index.html be loaded and THEN the redirect happens, you're going to lose most of your prospects. A redirect has to be instantaneous.

[Ethernal]

Good points, and thank you.
We just wanted to go through the process of creating the best link structure we could for the affiliate system. Wasnt sure if there was a better solution to the standard direct links, but it seems they are tried and true.

Thanks again :)