Direct links tracking

What is Direct Link tracking?

Affiliates use Direct Linking (DL) to link directly to advertisers without additional parameters in the URL. Upon web traffic visiting the tracking link, affiliates receive credit for the click, and the visitor’s browser loads the advertiser’s page.  Affiliate partners are credited for sales through the use of tracking URLs. Direct Link tracking is the most advanced, SEO-friendly tracking tool available on the affiliate software market. Post Affiliate Pro allows you to implement this unique tracking feature in all available plans.

How does Direct Link tracking work?

For affiliates that are just getting started and are unsure about their ability to design a compelling landing page, direct linking is a great option. The visitor referred through a DirectLink is recognized by the HTTP_REFERER information sent by the browser. It is the address of the page (if any) which is referred the browser to the destination page. In short, when a visitor clicks a link on the affiliate’s page, the HTTP_REFERER will be the address of affiliate’s page.

Post Affiliate Pro will then check this page in your database to learn if the page belongs to an affiliate, and it will then assign that person the referral (and click).

This method is browser dependent, so it is reliable 90-99% of the time. All modern browsers send this information, and with the advantages mentioned below you can use it as your main linking strategy.

Why is it important to track direct links?

Direct link tracking allows merchants to track sales back to the affiliate and pay rewards. DL Tracking also helps identify top affiliates and reward them accordingly. This method is the best way to raise your position on Google and it is an awesome SEO technique.

What are the advantages of using direct links?

• Visitors won’t know they are clicking on an affiliate link.
• Many people are not so keen on clicking a link that they recognize as an affiliate link. If your affiliates use affiliate links in their blog or review site, visitors will know that they earn commissions for the promoted products, and they will be more skeptical of clicking on a link or believing the review. If you’ll use DirectLinks no one will know that the links are promoting your products.
• Visitors will not damage or remove the affiliate parameters from the URL.
• There are people who don’t like to purchase through affiliate links, even if there are no disadvantages to them. Those people would rather copy the URL to their browser and remove the affiliate parameters.
• It is the best Search Engine friendly method available. To reach a high position on Google, you (as a merchant) will need as many backlinks pointing to your website as possible. If your affiliates use DirectLinks, they can link to your website without any additional parameters, it is a great SEO method.