Member Avatar for tadisaus2

Hello Friends,

I like to thank you for reading my post and wish you give me a good tips about it.

I have a long affiliate link like this:

http://www.vigrxplus.com/clicks/clickthrough.html?a=tadisaus

Should I place a link like that on my site or should I use redirect it?

For example, can I create an empty page to store this long affiliate link, and redirect it?

Which way is better for SEO to get indexed on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines?

Thanks very much.

Your tips is appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by johnvitc

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OP asked whether to publish a long affiliate URL directly or hide it behind a redirect. Replies from and point in different directions—both have valid concerns (UX vs. simplicity). Practical, low-risk approach that balances user experience, tracking and search-engine guidance follows.

Use a short, on-site redirect for users and analytics, and treat the outgoing link as paid. Create a simple path such as /go/product-name on your domain that does a server-side redirect to the affiliate destination. Keep the redirect server-side (not meta-refresh or cloaked JS). Example implementations:

# Apache (in .htaccess)
Redirect 302 /go/product-name https://affiliate.example.com/track?aff=YOURID
# Nginx
location = /go/product-name {
    return 302 https://affiliate.example.com/track?aff=YOURID;
}

Link to the short path from content and mark that link as paid/sponsored (Google recommends using rel="sponsored" for affiliate links). Example anchor to your short URL:

<a href="/go/product-name" rel="sponsored">Product name</a>

Key SEO and policy points:

  • Use server-side redirects (301 for permanent, 302/307 if you may change targets). Google documents redirect handling and best practices here: .
  • Declare paid/outbound links with rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow" if you prefer legacy behavior) so you stay within Google’s guidelines: .
  • Don’t create thin “doorway” pages whose only purpose is to funnel users out — those can harm rankings. If a page should rank, make it real content that links to the offer and disclose the affiliate relationship.
  • Track clicks server-side or with analytics on the short URL so you can swap targets without editing many posts.

This method gives good UX, preserves control and tracking, and signals paid links correctly to search engines.

Member Avatar for manomanjudotcom

Redirect them because the visitors don't like such a long URLs.

Member Avatar for johnvitc

i really don't think redirecting is necesssary. long URLs is fine with SEs.

Member Avatar for johnvitc

well , giving it a second thought
long urls are more spammy -like that is truth
so maybe we could restrict the length of the URL to something normal
and 301 Redirect any duplicate URLs to the real URL

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