Affiliate Links for SEO

What sort of links are needed?

[TimmyMagic]

Hi people,

I'm currently looking for a suitable affiliate program. I want this program to help with my overall SEO. I have found a program, and after looking on their website i was left a little confused.

Here is the sort of affiliate link they provide:

www.YourDomain.com/?affiliateid

And here is what they say lower down the page:

WARNING: A number of affiliate software solutions have begun to advertise that their links will count toward search engine link popularity. THIS IS FALSE. The affiliate link MUST be a direct link with no query string (no '?' in the URL) to your home page or it will not work properly for link popularity for your home page.

So....does a '?' in the URL mean that my affiliates (future affiliates) aren't going to contribute to my search engine ranking?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,

Tim

[caveman]

I think there are really two issues here.

One is whether the links are counted. The other is whether you should be relying upon affiliates for ranking.

As for whether they are counted, I've read a lot about it and it's not all consistent. What I can say personally is that URL's with "?'s" in them are getting spidered and counted as valid backlinks most places I look. Much more dicey is if the URI includes "ID" - I think the SE's are trying to avoid those links, since they are mainly associated with aff ID's (which they probably don't want to count) or session ID's (which can mess up their counting).

As for whether you should be counting on aff's to increase your rankings, I think it's a bad idea. All sorts of issues come up here, and I'd advise that you post a specific question about it in the Affiliate and Advertising Forum [webmasterworld.com] ... but my personal opinion is that I will never allow my future to be overly affected by, or reliant upon, the actions of others ... especially those crazy affiliates. ;-)

[TimmyMagic]

Thanks Caveman.

I did post a similar question in the affiliates section, but i had no replies. I think the affiliates section is aimed too much at affiliates rather than merchants.

Tim

[TimmyMagic]

Also - i currently have a recipricol linking campaign, and many of my inbound links will now be affiliate links.

That's why i want an affiliate program that helps my SEO rather than 'standard' linking.

Cheers,

Tim