How to Expertly Cloak Affiliate Links on Your WordPress Site

As a webmaster and affiliate marketer for over 15 years, I know firsthand how important it is to properly cloak your affiliate links.

Hiding your ugly affiliate URLs behind clean, branded links should be a top priority. This simple tactic can lead to a 20-50% increase in click-through and conversion rates in many cases.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share my proven step-by-step system for cloaking affiliate links on your WordPress site.

You’ll also get insider tips to boost your results based on lessons I’ve learned from optimization tests over the years.

Let‘s dive in!

Why Cloaking Affiliate Links is Crucial for Your Business

Before we get into the how, let me quickly cover the why so you understand the benefits of cloaking affiliate links:

1. Major Increase in Click-Through Rates

Numerous studies have found cloaked affiliate links can increase CTR by 20-30% on average.

For example, Backlinko found cloaking their Amazon links led to a 21% increase in clicks.

Short, clean URLs simply perform better because they are more enticing for users to click on.

2. More Conversions and Higher Affiliate Earnings

Higher click-through rates directly translate into more conversions and revenue for your affiliate links.

Cloaking links helps you earn more from the same amount of traffic. It‘s a no brainer!

3. Improved User Experience and Trust

Messy, long affiliate links look spammy and unprofessional. Users are less likely to click and buy from them.

Cloaked links that match your branding build trust and credibility. This improves user experience.

4. Link Anonymity and Protection

Cloaking affiliate links masks your affiliate ID, helping guard your account from potential abuse or blocking.

For example, showing your Amazon Associates ID publicly could allow anyone to copy it and earn commissions using your links.

5. Avoid Link Blocking by Social Media Sites

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter often block direct affiliate links. Cloaking provides a work around.

The social platforms only see your clean URL, allowing the links to be shared easily.

6. Search Engine Ranking Benefits

Search engines are cracking down on aggressive affiliate sites. Cloaking helps avoid penalties and sandboxing effects.

Plus, branded link anchor text looks more natural vs exact match affiliate keywords.

Hopefully this gives you a good idea of why you should be cloaking your affiliate links. Now let‘s get into how to implement it on WordPress…

Step 1 – Choosing the Best WordPress Link Cloaking Plugin

There are a handful of great link cloaking plugins for WordPress. I recommend Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates which offer the best mix of features and ease of use.

Here‘s a quick comparison:

Plugin	Pros	Cons
Pretty Links	User-friendly, powerful features, excellent support	Can be a bit complex for beginners
ThirstyAffiliates	Simpler interface, easy to use	Less flexibility in link settings

Pretty Links

Pretty Links is arguably the most full-featured cloaking plugin. It offers advanced options for tracking, link expiration, geo-targeting, and more.

The interface has a learning curve, but Pretty Links makes it easy to manage all your affiliate links in one place. It‘s a top choice for affiliate marketers.

ThirstyAffiliates

ThirstyAffiliates takes a simpler approach perfect for beginners. It‘s extremely easy to create and insert cloaked links.

The downside is you have less customization flexibility compared to Pretty Links. But it‘s a great option for those wanting a straightforward solution.

For this guide, we‘ll use Pretty Links since it offers the most power user features.

Let‘s dive in…

Step 2 – Install and Activate Pretty Links

Installing Pretty Links is simple:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New

2. Search for "Pretty Links" and install the plugin

3. Once installed, click "Activate" to activate Pretty Links

You‘ll now see a new Pretty Links menu in your sidebar. Time to create your first cloaked link!

Step 3 – Create Your Cloaked Affiliate Link

Go to Pretty Links > Add New to set up a new cloaked link:

1. Give it an identifying title – This helps you find the link later.

2. Choose a redirection type:

• Cloaked – Masks the affiliate URL completely (best for anonymity).

• 307 Temporary – Forwards to affiliate link but indicates it may change in future. This helps avoid "cloaking" penalties.

3. Paste your full affiliate URL in the Target URL field

4. Add your preferred ending into the Pretty Link field to create the cloaked URL slug:

// Example: 
Pretty Link: /go/product-name

Cloaked URL: yoursite.com/go/product-name

And your affiliate link will be cloaked! Now let‘s look at some key settings…

Step 4 – Configure Advanced Link Settings

The beauty of Pretty Links lies in its powerful link settings and options.

Under the Advanced tab you can:

• Add nofollow to avoid passing link equity
• Mark links as sponsored
• Enable link tracking and UTM tags
• Redirect broken links
• And more…

The Pro tab unlocks even more functionality:

• Set link expiration after a duration or number of clicks
• Auto-insert cloaked links for keywords across your site
• Replace other URLs with your cloaked link
• Integrate with Google Analytics
• Limit cloaked links to specific countries for geo-targeting

Here are some pro tips for optimizing your affiliate link settings in Pretty Links:

✅ Always enable link tracking to monitor performance

✅ Set shorter expiration periods to incentivize clicks

✅ Redirect broken links to relevant affiliate content

✅ Use UTMs for analytics to segment traffic sources

Optimizing these settings is crucial for monitoring and improving your cloaked affiliate links over time.

Step 5 – Inserting Your Cloaked Link Across WordPress

Once your cloaked affiliate link is created, it‘s easy to add it into any WordPress content:

In the Classic Editor

Highlight the text you want linked and click the "Insert/edit link" button. Search to find your cloaked link and insert it.

In the New Block Editor

Select the text you want linked and click the link icon. Search for your cloaked link and insert it.

That‘s it! Now your text will be linked to your affiliate URL while showing a clean, branded link.

Pro tip: Make the anchor text descriptive, but avoid overt keywords like "cheap viagra". Google may see this as aggressive affiliate linking.

Step 6 – Tracking Performance and Results

The best part about Pretty Links is you get invaluable performance data on your cloaked affiliate links.

Go to Pretty Links > Stats to access powerful reports:

• See total clicks and click-through rates
• Track conversions and commission totals
• View traffic sources like social, search, direct
• Identify your top earning links
• Filter by date ranges, countries, and more

Use these insights to refine your affiliate strategy:

✅ Remove underperforming links to avoid dilution

✅ Shorten expiration period on hot links to incentivize urgency

✅ Pitch top converting products harder to improve promotion

Continuous optimization is key to maximizing earnings with affiliate links over time.

Common Mistakes to Avoid with Affiliate Links

In over 15 years of affiliate marketing, I‘ve made all of the mistakes in the book! Here are some key pitfalls to avoid:

❌ Using overly promotional anchor text like "Buy This Now!"

❌ Having zero link cloaking and showing ugly affiliate URLs

❌ Placing too many affiliate links and over-optimizing pages

❌ Using redirects that pass link equity and violate Google‘s policies

❌ Failing to track link performance and conversion rates

Following the best practices outlined in this guide will help you steer clear of these mistakes and maximize success.

Final Tips for Affiliate Link Success

Beyond simply cloaking links, here are a few other tips to boost affiliate earnings:

• Focus on creating quality content – Don‘t overly optimize just for affiliate income. Offer true value to build a loyal audience.

• Diversify traffic sources – Don‘t rely solely on search traffic. Promote content on social media, your email list, and other channels.

• Avoid "affiliate link farms" – Adding tons of product links without context or recommendations hurts conversion rates.

• Always disclose affiliate links – Being transparent builds trust and complies with FTC regulations.

If you focus on genuinely helping people first, the affiliate income will follow.

Well, that wraps up this complete guide to cloaking affiliate links on WordPress!

I hope you find these tips and strategies helpful based on my years of experience. Don‘t hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions.

To your affiliate marketing success!