TOTD: Avoid Stuffing your Blog Post with Affiliate Links

Stuffing a blog post full of keywords or links is never a good idea and can actually hurt your SEO ranking. Overpopulating a post with affiliate links is usually done in hopes of generating more clicks and as a result, more income. This, however, is a common mistake bloggers make when they prioritize monetization over quality content.

If you are only concerned with increasing your affiliate revenue, your content will come across as unnatural and your tone will come off as unauthentic. Stuffing your posts is also horrible for your SEO. Search engines can detect links that are purely used for promotional purposes and overused within a single blog post. They flag posts with too many affiliate links and your post will end up being penalized, ranking it lower on search results.

So how can you promote your affiliate links effectively? Here are few rules to follow when it comes to promoting your affiliate links:

1. Content first, affiliate links later

Whatever your blog is about, the purpose of the content should first be to educate and inform the reader. If you create a blog post without a purpose and simply place affiliate links everywhere, it will not generate any true leads and the results will be minimal. The goal is for affiliate links to be naturally woven within the content, only where it makes sense. Focusing first on quality content is also important for building a strong reader following who trust your product recommendations.

2. Always hyperlink your affiliate links

You should always place your affiliate links behind a normal word or phrase. It is no secret that text links within the body of your content convert better than if you placed the whole link in a post. A whole link such as www.merchantexample.com/affiliateID=1234 cuts into the flow of the post and ultimately, turns off the reader. However, if you write ‘This is the best sunscreen I have found so far.’ By hyperlinking ‘sunscreen’, your content will flow smooth and look clean.

3. Write an effective CTA (Call to Action)

A call to action is a prompt that tells the reader to take a specific action and is usually written as a command. A few familiar examples are ‘Sign Up’, ‘Click Here’ or ‘Buy Now’ which usually includes a hyperlink. Instead of placing affiliate links in every sentence, you can also consider writing an effective call to action at the end of your post to encourage your readers to click through, moving them further down the conversion funnel.